Fabrizio, So our interests are converging. Haven't done Android yet, but have the opportunity to start doing more Mobile development as one of our clients is requesting it. I am looking into the iPhone SDK for now, but Android is next (I figured Android would be easier since it is close to Java. I may be completely wrong).
The files that you have *are *the shapefile. The dbf has the attributes associated with the geometries, other files are for spatial indexes, etc. One way to achieve reading GIS information without having to deal with shapefiles (although they are a de facto standard) is to use Well Known Text (WKT) or Well Known Binary (WKB) representations of geospatial information. These are Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards and are completely open formats, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an Android library built for reading these. But maybe you are the first!! 2010/7/23 Fabrizio Giudici <[email protected]> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On 7/23/10 17:48 , Juan Marín Otero wrote: > > Fabrizio, > > > > I have zero experience in the Android platform, so not very > > helpful there. I do have over a decade of experience with GIS > > though, and when you say "ESRI format" it could mean a number of > > things, I assume you are talking about the Shapefile format [1] > > ... so you got that I have a little experience in the Android > platform, but zero experience with ESRI ;-) What I've seen is an > archive of files with .shp, .shx and .dbf extensions: > > % file * > anou_minu_pl.dbf: DBase 3 data file (2 records) > anou_minu_pl.shp: ESRI Shapefile version 1000 length 18406 type Polygon > anou_minu_pl.shx: ESRI Shapefile version 1000 length 58 type Polygon > anou_minu_pt.dbf: DBase 3 data file (13 records) > anou_minu_pt.shp: ESRI Shapefile version 1000 length 232 type Point > anou_minu_pt.shx: ESRI Shapefile version 1000 length 102 type Point > > so, yes, it sounds as ESRI shapefiles. I suppose the DBase 3 files are > there for other reasons. > > > > > > Android is often referred to as a "subset" of Java, whatever that > > means (again, excuse my ignorance on this). In Java environments > > there are many options to render a shapefile into an image, a good > > open source library is geotools [2]. I have the gut feeling that > > it will have a lot of Java 2D required packages that might not be > > part of Android from what I have heard. > > Thanks for the pointer. Yes, it won't work directly on Android because > there's no Java2D, but at least is a starting point (I've downloaded > the files yesterday, and I haven't yet found an application for Mac OS > X to open them). > > PS I know I know, I always repeat the same things such as Rainman ;-) > but I can't prevent myself from this point: I've zero knowledge of GIS > and ESRI, but I know they are pretty useful things and technologies. I > find it shameful that in order to have them on Android (I see lots of > possible use cases for having a GIS on a smartphone) you have to do > lots of work, and can't use Java stuff that is already there, working, > tested and with its own communities. > > - -- > Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager > Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere." > java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici - www.tidalwave.it/people > [email protected] > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.14 (Darwin) > Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ > > iEYEARECAAYFAkxJxlYACgkQeDweFqgUGxcRJwCfWSkGGtKbJI6/HUZJm5p62nRd > ee4Amwar89Et1U5w/UcsNbNEcj7hF5U8 > =+Vis > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > -- Juan Marín Otero GIS Consultant -------Visita mi blog en--------------------- http://guachintoneando.blogspot.com --------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
