Other spatial database development (PostGIS)

[Frank Warmerdam]

On 7/27/05, Ken Lord <kenlord at gmail.com> wrote:
> I found more information that seems to confirm ESRI's intent to block direct
> writing (for example saving edits) of data from ArcGIS to PostGIS and many
> other formats. 
>   
> FME Suite by Safe Software can read and write directly to PostGIS and many
> other formats. It uses libpq to interact with PostGIS.
> 
> However, ESRI's Data Interoperability Extention ... which is Safe's FME
> Suite beaten into submission (into ArcToolBox) ... gives you direct read and
> import capabilities for PostGIS, but no ability to save edits back to
> PostGIS or the other formats. Instead you must place your data into a
> geodatabase which you can then export back to PostGIS using their Export
> Tools.  I assume you must then go back and delete your original PostGIS
> tables manually.  

Ken,

Generally speaking FME's format drivers are oriented to bulk reading, or
bulk writing rather than update-in-place, which may explain why the
Data Interoperability Extension using FMEObjects is setup this way.  

I don't know if it is ESRI policy to only do editing on ESRI databases or
not, but there are certainly technical reasons why editing on external
databases is hard for a big system with alot of expectations of data
providers. 

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
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and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent