[mapguide-users] New Oracle FDO provider

Sat Sep 9 15:53:08 EDT 2006

In my organization we are an Oracle shop and we are looking at deploying
applications to our satellite offices (for Intranet use and some offices do
not have high speed connectivity).  We are looking at all options related to
spatial technologies and Oracle fits very well into our organization as we
have developers and DBAs who have extensive experience with Oracle (and
finding good Oracle people is a breeze compared to other spatial DBMSes) -
also using Oracle allows us to tap into a tremendous amount of resources
(online forums, 1000s of books, 100s of training courses, rich talent pool,
etc.).  Also as mentioned in my second post it opens the most doors for us -
we can swap out commercial vendor A with B and have no impact to our DBMS
(well as long as they are not ESRI) and I assume we are not alone and other
organizations would like to use Oracle XE in some capacity.

We are able to use Oracle XE DBMS (based on an export (sub set of features)
from our enterprise database) deploy them in the satellite offices for
Intranet mapping applications or it even opens the doors for other things
such as mobile computing on tablets or laptops (using Oracle XE and
MapGuide?).  

I was not implying that we want to run Oracle XE to support an huge
organization but in the instances I mentioned above, the limitations of
Oracle XE do not impose anything of concern for us.  

My point here still is that if MapGuide Enterprise or Open Source would
support Oracle XE we would be eternally grateful. (this would also apply to
Autodesk Map since the FDOs can be shared - we are a Map Show as well).

As well, how long has Oracle Locator and Spatial been around versus other
DBMS engines with spatial support?  Oracle is an extremely proven platform
(been around for years - and runs in massive organizations) and the other
DBMS with spatial capabilities are in comparison just starting to mature and
evolve.

  _____  

From: Paul Ramsey [mailto:pramsey at refractions.net] 
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 11:03 PM
To: users at mapguide.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [mapguide-users] New Oracle FDO provider

I think hardware limitations that approximate a mid-range desktop, as
opposed to even a medium range server, along with the "locator only"
restriction constitute "hobbled" pretty fairly. And to get out of the
paddock, that next step up the licensing ladder is a doozy...

P

(PS - And check out the on-disk size of Oracle geometries before you
pronounce that 4GB (four! gigabytes! yah!) of database storage more that
enough too. Add the format fluff to the fact that extra space is needed to
manage transactions and indexes and you'll find that 4GB tablespace segment
is used up pretty quick and you're reaching for the cheque-book before you
know it...)

On 8-Sep-06, at 8:57 PM, Andy Morsell wrote:

I'm with you. Whether you like Oracle (the commercial software company) or
not, their database software is great. I'm not quite sure how one defines
"hobbled" but Oracle XE seems robust enough for most web applications. The
only limitations are 4 GB of total DB information, 1 GB maximum of allocated
RAM, and the usage of 1 CPU per install. Of course, the spatial capabilities
(as discussed in this mailing list a couple of days ago) are the same as
Oracle Locator. So, in this way, it would be very suitable for most web and
lightweight apps, but might be a stretch for enterprise GIS purposes.

Andy Morsell, P.E. 
Spatial Integrators, Inc. 
http://www.SpatialGIS.com 

  _____  

From: Ross Smith [mailto:r0ss at shaw.ca] 
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 8:44 PM
To: users at mapguide.osgeo.org
Subject: RE: [mapguide-users] New Oracle FDO provider

"Hobbled" - it is a full functioning version of the Oracle DBMS with tons of
spatial capabilities (the entire locator engine in fact with a few Oracle
spatial gems hidden as well - we have discovered a few that are available).
Also, Oracle is the world's largest database vendor and I read recently (in
an IDC report - I think it was) that something like 80-90% of the world's
spatial data that are stored in a DBMS are stored in Oracle.

Oracle XE includes the ability to do spatial queries, tons of spatial data
manipulation procedures such as simplifying features, manipulating data in
just about every possible way, the ability to do coordinate transformations,
store and manipulate linear referencing data (does postGIS come with LRS
capabilities?) and best of all it is completely scalable into the entire
Oracle suite (since it is a version of the Oracle Standard platform - with
views, triggers, stored procedures, etc.). Check it out for yourself
(http://www.oracle.com/technology/xe/index.html) - the GUI does not offer
the true power - the command line tools are where the power lies. I am not
an Oracle salesman, just someone who wants to build a scalable system that
can open the most doors cost effectively.

Do not get me wrong I am a huge open source advocate (particularly MapGuide)
but the spatial vendors still do not play well with databases (and each
other) and Oracle seems to be the best common denominator - I can use my
GeoMedia Pro license to connect to Oracle XE, I would be able to use
Autodesk Map ad MapGuide if some one will provide the FDO (free or
otherwise), ESRI of course is a lost cause (and out of my equation) because
it does not have SDE bolted on top (and the direct connect is a joke) but I
am looking for an open system with flexibility in the tools I use. 

And to me MapGuide is a phenomenal tool and Oracle XE can allow me the
flexibility to store my CAD data or GIS data (using Autodesk Map and
MapGuide if a FDO existed) and use my GIS tools such as GeoMedia and
possibly even MapInfo.

Just my two cents in four paragraphs... 

  _____  

From: Paul Ramsey [mailto:pramsey at refractions.net] 
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 7:47 PM
To: users at mapguide.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [mapguide-users] New Oracle FDO provider

When the PostGIS FDO provider is out, I think you should look at that. Why
use a hobbled DB like XE when you can have a real one? 

P 

On 8-Sep-06, at 6:00 PM, Ross Smith wrote:

Any thoughts on providing support for Oracle XE? And you mention on your web
site that you may open source the FDO connector. What would you required
from the community to do so?

Does anyone else know of any Oracle XE FDOs that exist? I have a tremendous
amount of interest in Oracle XE and MapGuide to build enterprise GISes.

  _____  

From: Traian Stanev [mailto:traian.stanev at autodesk.com] 
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 9:17 AM
To: users at mapguide.osgeo.org
Subject: RE: [mapguide-users] New Oracle FDO provider

After a quick try... I got a succesful connection in MG Studio, but when
trying to create a layer, I get no feature classes listed, so either the
tables I have in the Oracle server are all weird or something else is going
on... I'll try to call the provider directly from a test program to see if I
get any data back.

Traian

  _____  

From: Haris Kurtagic [mailto:haris at sl-king.com] 
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 7:59 PM
To: users at mapguide.osgeo.org
Subject: [mapguide-users] New Oracle FDO provider

Hi ,

I am working on new FDO provider for Oracle.

You can read more about it and download it here:
<http://www.sl-king.com/fdooracle> www.sl-king.com/fdooracle

It is not open source project yet, but it is free to use.

I would appreciate if you try it and if you give me some feedback.

Regards,

Haris Kurtagic

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