[Qgis-user] using spatialite files for data sharing?

[Etienne Tourigny]

Hi all

first I'm sorry if this is a generic question,  but I feel that the
qgis community can give me some valuable pointers.

I have a number of files containing simple plygon data (burned area
maps), that I wish to share with collaborators and eventually make
public. These files will be used for data analysis in open-source
software (qgis/R) and should be accessed in other software with
relative ease. I would appreciate feedback on which file format would
be the best.

The first obvious answer is to store it in shapefile format, but this
has many drawbacks:

- many limitations due to file format (fields, CRS complications, etc.)
- many files: one set per map, many files per set
- lack of internal sql support (this can be overcome easily)

Second (and my preferred) is to store them in a single spatialite file
(or several, depending on file size).

But I perceive that spatialite has the disadvantage of relatively poor
support in many GIS apps (mostly the $$$ ones) - what is the status on
this?

Also, what is support for spatialite inside QGis and the various
sextante back-ends, esp. R - both standalone and inside sextante? I am
asking this because as far as I know, many qgis tools export to
shapefile only, so storing everything in spatialite could represent
complications down the road.

Many thanks,
Etienne