[mapserver-dev] RFC 62: Support Additional WFS GetFeature Output Formats

[Frank Warmerdam]

Stephen Woodbridge wrote:
> Regarding MULTI* support, I assume that you would have to support export 
> features from all data sources, like postgis. It is common for the 
> shp2pgsql loader to create MULTI objects by default. And while 
> shapefiles are seem to be mostly NOT MULTI* by default I almost always 
> find a random MULTI* in various files. I'm also wondering if the output 
> of geometry processing function using GEOS that are built into mapserver 
> will be able to be exported via this WFS writer? If so, then it would 
> need to support all geometry types possible from that, which would 
> include collections in addition to MULTI*.

Steve,

I agree - I'll need to support multipoint, multiline and multipolygon
geometries.  Multipolygon will be a bit involved since in the
shapeObj there is no real way to distinguish between inner rings
of a polygon and outer rings of additional polygons implying I
need to produce a multipolygon.

> I guess this raises these questions in my mind:
> Do users need to be able to filter the output based on geometry type? 

I don't see a compelling need for this, though there are already
mechanisms to do this for OGR inputs with a FILTER statement.

 > Do  we need to provide MULTI* dumpers to base type?

Do you mean a mechanism to split one multi feature into
several simple features?  I don't see this as critical.

I'll incorporate support for multigeometries in the RFC.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent