Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-08-05 Thread James Wood
As a QGIS and ArcGIS user, I am glad the file geodatabase support is there, so 
please don’t take the following negatively. I am the Spatial Infrastructure 
Manager for a statewide Next Generation 9-1-1 implementation here in the U.S., 
and we have successfully shared data with local public safety agencies using 
GeoPackage generated from the Esri suite. Alex had mentioned this earlier, but 
I wanted to elaborate so you could pass it on to your constituents if need be.  

Users can create SpatiaLite or GeoPackage (v1.0, 1.1, 1.2) using either the 
Python Console or a Python script stored in the Workspace toolset under the 
Data Management Tools toolbox. This works at all license levels (Basic, 
Standard, or Advanced) and in Desktop (ArcMap\ArcCatalog) and ArcGIS Pro. 

Here is a link to the Desktop help which, in this case, is the same for Pro:
http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/tools/data-management-toolbox/create-sqlite-database.htm

Once created, it’s easy to drag-and-drop simple feature classes (points, lines, 
and polygons) from ESRI geodatabases into the OGC DB, and from OGC to Esri. We 
have no reported errors from QGIS users in the field with this type of data 
exchange, and vice versa. From my perspective, there is little use for file 
geodatabase exchange unless the other user is at a lesser ArcGIS Desktop 
version (as referenced by Alex). This also promotes the OGC portable database 
model over the use of shapefiles, in which we have seen degradation of 
attributes because of the DBF restrictions. 

v/r
James

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 2, 2018, at 08:17, Even Rouault  wrote:
> 
>> On jeudi 2 août 2018 19:34:54 CEST Nyall Dawson wrote:
>>> On Thu, 2 Aug 2018 at 18:21, Andreas Neumann  wrote:
>>> However - I wonder if there would be a way to support both drivers? The
>>> Open Source driver as default for reading. And the FGDB driver for
>>> writing?
>> That's a great idea!
>> 
>> In the QGIS world we'd have to compromise a bit here and not allow
>> editing of existing layers (as you'd normally get with the closed
>> driver). I.e. we'd only use it when writing an existing layer out to a
>> copy on disk (e.g. via right click menu on a vector layer). But still,
>> allowing layers to be saved as a geodatabase would be a step forward.
>> 
>> I'm not sure how this change would need to be made though. At the
>> moment if you install the closed driver in osgeo4w it's always used,
>> for both reading and writing layers. Even/Jürgen is this an osgeo4w
>> thing or a GDAL thing? Is it possible to have two drivers installed
>> for the one format and always read using the closed driver?
> 
> As the FileGDB driver is loaded as a plugin by GDAL, it is registered first, 
> and then probed first when opening a dataset.
> Banning one of the driver can be done by defining GDAL_SKIP=FileGDB or 
> GDAL_SKIP=OpenFileGDB and calling GDALAllRegister() again.
> It is also possible to control which drivers are allowed at dataset opening 
> with GDALOpenEx() and the papszDriversAllowed argument (but that means you 
> need to know this is a FileGeodatabase)
> 
> Even
> 
> -- 
> Spatialys - Geospatial professional services
> http://www.spatialys.com
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Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-08-02 Thread Even Rouault
On jeudi 2 août 2018 19:34:54 CEST Nyall Dawson wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Aug 2018 at 18:21, Andreas Neumann  wrote:
> > However - I wonder if there would be a way to support both drivers? The
> > Open Source driver as default for reading. And the FGDB driver for
> > writing?
> That's a great idea!
> 
> In the QGIS world we'd have to compromise a bit here and not allow
> editing of existing layers (as you'd normally get with the closed
> driver). I.e. we'd only use it when writing an existing layer out to a
> copy on disk (e.g. via right click menu on a vector layer). But still,
> allowing layers to be saved as a geodatabase would be a step forward.
> 
> I'm not sure how this change would need to be made though. At the
> moment if you install the closed driver in osgeo4w it's always used,
> for both reading and writing layers. Even/Jürgen is this an osgeo4w
> thing or a GDAL thing? Is it possible to have two drivers installed
> for the one format and always read using the closed driver?

As the FileGDB driver is loaded as a plugin by GDAL, it is registered first, 
and then probed first when opening a dataset.
Banning one of the driver can be done by defining GDAL_SKIP=FileGDB or 
GDAL_SKIP=OpenFileGDB and calling GDALAllRegister() again.
It is also possible to control which drivers are allowed at dataset opening 
with GDALOpenEx() and the papszDriversAllowed argument (but that means you 
need to know this is a FileGeodatabase)

Even

-- 
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http://www.spatialys.com
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Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-08-02 Thread Alexander Bruy
чт, 2 серп. 2018 о 12:35 Nyall Dawson  пише:
> I'm not sure how this change would need to be made though. At the
> moment if you install the closed driver in osgeo4w it's always used,
> for both reading and writing layers. Even/Jürgen is this an osgeo4w
> thing or a GDAL thing? Is it possible to have two drivers installed
> for the one format and always read using the closed driver?

AFAIK, you can select which driver to use with envronment variable.

> Another complication is that we'd still need a way for users to opt in
> to using the closed driver for reading - as that may sometimes be
> required too... So not a straightforward change, but still one that
> I'd support!

As I understand, we need something like existing rasters drivers list
in the QGIS setttings where one can choose which drivers should be
used. There is already ticket about this https://issues.qgis.org/issues/10313

-- 
Alexander Bruy
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Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-08-02 Thread Nyall Dawson
On Thu, 2 Aug 2018 at 18:21, Andreas Neumann  wrote:
> However - I wonder if there would be a way to support both drivers? The Open 
> Source driver as default for reading. And the FGDB driver for writing?

That's a great idea!

In the QGIS world we'd have to compromise a bit here and not allow
editing of existing layers (as you'd normally get with the closed
driver). I.e. we'd only use it when writing an existing layer out to a
copy on disk (e.g. via right click menu on a vector layer). But still,
allowing layers to be saved as a geodatabase would be a step forward.

I'm not sure how this change would need to be made though. At the
moment if you install the closed driver in osgeo4w it's always used,
for both reading and writing layers. Even/Jürgen is this an osgeo4w
thing or a GDAL thing? Is it possible to have two drivers installed
for the one format and always read using the closed driver?

Another complication is that we'd still need a way for users to opt in
to using the closed driver for reading - as that may sometimes be
required too... So not a straightforward change, but still one that
I'd support!

Nyall
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Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-08-02 Thread Jürgen E . Fischer
Hi Andreas,

On Tue, 31. Jul 2018 at 12:05:52 +0200, Andreas Neumann wrote:
> 2. Currently, it can only be enabled in the OSGeo4W version by selecting
> the "gdal-filegdb" package. The standalone installer does not include
> this package. 

> About issue 2: 
 
> @Jürgen: can you include the necessary gdal-filegdb package also in the
> standalone installer - or are there license problems? 

The standalone is just a partly snapshot of OSGeo4W (ie. the (virtual)
qgis-full package and all it's dependencies).  Any issues would already apply
to OSGeo4W.

The standalone includes the OSGeo4W Installer so you can add not included
packages afterwards.  Not very convienient of course for people that always
need filegdb.

Inclusion wouldn't be a problem - and just require adding gdal-filegdb as
dependency to the qgis-full.

Lack of (obvious) control which driver to use might be a problem for use (i.e.
setting the environment variable OGR_SKIP) - if you want to switch between the
two drivers.  I don't have much experience with FileGDB.  I only very rarely
got data in FileGDB.


Jürgen

-- 
Jürgen E. Fischer   norBIT GmbH Tel. +49-4931-918175-31
Dipl.-Inf. (FH) Rheinstraße 13  Fax. +49-4931-918175-50
Software Engineer   D-26506 Norden http://www.norbit.de
QGIS release manager (PSC)  GermanyIRC: jef on FreeNode


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Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-08-02 Thread Andreas Neumann
Hi Nyall, 

I agree - these are valid reasons not to replace the open source FGDB
driver with the closed source one. 

However - I wonder if there would be a way to support both drivers? The
Open Source driver as default for reading. And the FGDB driver for
writing? 

Note that I don't want to encourage usage of FGDB  - I am no fan either.
But it would be nice if we could write them in case a client demands
delivery in FGDB format - which can be the case in some contracts. 

Thanks for keeping the discussion going. 

Andreas 

On 2018-07-31 23:28, Nyall Dawson wrote:

> On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 20:06, Andreas Neumann  wrote:
> 
>> About issue 2:
>> 
>> @Jürgen: can you include the necessary gdal-filegdb package also in the 
>> standalone installer - or are there license problems?
> 
> -1 to packaging the gdal-filegdb package by default. My rationale:
> 
> - I've experienced lots of issues with this driver. For one, it's much
> slower to open gdbs, especially over networks. I've also hit bugs in
> the past where the driver doesn't handle certain subset queries in the
> same way as other ogr drivers (I can't recall the exact details, but I
> think the particular issue I hit was fixed.)
> 
> - The driver has known issues. From
> https://www.gdal.org/drv_filegdb.html, there's e.g. this important
> one: "The SDK is known to be unable to open layers with particular
> spatial reference systems.". And then on
> https://www.gdal.org/drv_openfilegdb.html there's a list of features
> that we'd lose by changing to the filegdb driver:
> 
> "Advantages of the OpenFileGDB driver:
> 
> Can read ArcGIS 9.X Geodatabases, and not only 10 or above.
> Can open layers with any spatial reference system.
> Thread-safe (i.e. datasources can be processed in parallel).
> Uses the VSI Virtual File API, enabling the user to read a Geodatabase
> in a ZIP file or stored on a HTTP server.
> Faster on databases with a big number of fields.
> Does not depend on a third-party library.
> Robust against corrupted Geodatabase files.
> 
> Drawbacks of the OpenFileGDB driver:
> 
> Read-only.
> Cannot use spatial indexes.
> Cannot read data from compressed data in CDF format (Compressed Data Format)."
> 
> That's a pretty significant loss in my opinion - especially the point
> about the closed source driver being non thread-safe.
> 
> - The OpenFileGDB driver is very heavily tested for robustness and
> security issues with the ongoing fuzz testing of GDAL drivers.
> 
> - Last, but not least, we'd lose the ability to actually fix issues.
> We'd be dependent on bug fixes in the ESRI SDK, and be powerless to
> get fixes we need implemented.
> 
> These are all significant issues, and the moment we make the switch to
> the closed source driver and give users write support, there's no way
> we can revert this decision and remove the ability to edit GDB files.
> It's not a decision we can make lightly.
> 
> I'd rather leave this decision up to individual users (and those who
> make in-house software packages for deployment in their organisation)
> to make. I.e. leave it as is, where it's effectively an "opt-in"
> change. And push people to helping make the open driver better, as
> it's a more sustainable solution in the long term.
> 
> (Lastly, a rant: I hate file geodatabases. They are the WORST format
> for spatial data that I've seen. It's like ESRI took everything which
> people disliked about shapefiles and magnified those. Instead of a
> handful of files, we get hundreds. Instead of minor user confusion
> about how they need to package all the dependent files, we get this
> super-confusing folder/file mix, which causes all sorts of issues for
> non-ArcGIS software because it just breaks fundamental file management
> assumptions. And they are SLOW. So SLOOW. Even in ArcGIS they are
> slow to open and manage. GIve me shapefiles over this monstrosity any
> day.)
> 
> Nyall___
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Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-08-01 Thread Alex M
On 07/31/2018 02:28 PM, Nyall Dawson wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 20:06, Andreas Neumann  wrote:
> 
>>
>> About issue 2:
>>
>> @Jürgen: can you include the necessary gdal-filegdb package also in the 
>> standalone installer - or are there license problems?
>>
> 
> -1 to packaging the gdal-filegdb package by default. My rationale:
> 
> - I've experienced lots of issues with this driver. For one, it's much
> slower to open gdbs, especially over networks. I've also hit bugs in
> the past where the driver doesn't handle certain subset queries in the
> same way as other ogr drivers (I can't recall the exact details, but I
> think the particular issue I hit was fixed.)
> 
> - The driver has known issues. From
> https://www.gdal.org/drv_filegdb.html, there's e.g. this important
> one: "The SDK is known to be unable to open layers with particular
> spatial reference systems.". And then on
> https://www.gdal.org/drv_openfilegdb.html there's a list of features
> that we'd lose by changing to the filegdb driver:
> 
> "Advantages of the OpenFileGDB driver:
> 
> Can read ArcGIS 9.X Geodatabases, and not only 10 or above.
> Can open layers with any spatial reference system.
> Thread-safe (i.e. datasources can be processed in parallel).
> Uses the VSI Virtual File API, enabling the user to read a Geodatabase
> in a ZIP file or stored on a HTTP server.
> Faster on databases with a big number of fields.
> Does not depend on a third-party library.
> Robust against corrupted Geodatabase files.
> 
> Drawbacks of the OpenFileGDB driver:
> 
> Read-only.
> Cannot use spatial indexes.
> Cannot read data from compressed data in CDF format (Compressed Data Format)."
> 
> That's a pretty significant loss in my opinion - especially the point
> about the closed source driver being non thread-safe.
> 
> - The OpenFileGDB driver is very heavily tested for robustness and
> security issues with the ongoing fuzz testing of GDAL drivers.
> 
> - Last, but not least, we'd lose the ability to actually fix issues.
> We'd be dependent on bug fixes in the ESRI SDK, and be powerless to
> get fixes we need implemented.
> 
> 
> These are all significant issues, and the moment we make the switch to
> the closed source driver and give users write support, there's no way
> we can revert this decision and remove the ability to edit GDB files.
> It's not a decision we can make lightly.
> 
> I'd rather leave this decision up to individual users (and those who
> make in-house software packages for deployment in their organisation)
> to make. I.e. leave it as is, where it's effectively an "opt-in"
> change. And push people to helping make the open driver better, as
> it's a more sustainable solution in the long term.
> 
> (Lastly, a rant: I hate file geodatabases. They are the WORST format
> for spatial data that I've seen. It's like ESRI took everything which
> people disliked about shapefiles and magnified those. Instead of a
> handful of files, we get hundreds. Instead of minor user confusion
> about how they need to package all the dependent files, we get this
> super-confusing folder/file mix, which causes all sorts of issues for
> non-ArcGIS software because it just breaks fundamental file management
> assumptions. And they are SLOW. So SLOOW. Even in ArcGIS they are
> slow to open and manage. GIve me shapefiles over this monstrosity any
> day.)
> 
> Nyall

I agree if there's no way to easily include both drivers and allow the
user to select which to use, the OpenFileGDB should be the default
installed. Perhaps we can make it selectable?

Also, a note on the original question/reason. Are users aware that Arc
products can read gpkg and spatialite formats (since at least ArcMap
10.3). Geopackage is an OGC specification, this to me should provide
leverage for people to argue that it's an acceptable deliverable fully
compatible with ESRI.

Thanks,
Alex

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Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-07-31 Thread Nyall Dawson
On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 20:06, Andreas Neumann  wrote:

>
> About issue 2:
>
> @Jürgen: can you include the necessary gdal-filegdb package also in the 
> standalone installer - or are there license problems?
>

-1 to packaging the gdal-filegdb package by default. My rationale:

- I've experienced lots of issues with this driver. For one, it's much
slower to open gdbs, especially over networks. I've also hit bugs in
the past where the driver doesn't handle certain subset queries in the
same way as other ogr drivers (I can't recall the exact details, but I
think the particular issue I hit was fixed.)

- The driver has known issues. From
https://www.gdal.org/drv_filegdb.html, there's e.g. this important
one: "The SDK is known to be unable to open layers with particular
spatial reference systems.". And then on
https://www.gdal.org/drv_openfilegdb.html there's a list of features
that we'd lose by changing to the filegdb driver:

"Advantages of the OpenFileGDB driver:

Can read ArcGIS 9.X Geodatabases, and not only 10 or above.
Can open layers with any spatial reference system.
Thread-safe (i.e. datasources can be processed in parallel).
Uses the VSI Virtual File API, enabling the user to read a Geodatabase
in a ZIP file or stored on a HTTP server.
Faster on databases with a big number of fields.
Does not depend on a third-party library.
Robust against corrupted Geodatabase files.

Drawbacks of the OpenFileGDB driver:

Read-only.
Cannot use spatial indexes.
Cannot read data from compressed data in CDF format (Compressed Data Format)."

That's a pretty significant loss in my opinion - especially the point
about the closed source driver being non thread-safe.

- The OpenFileGDB driver is very heavily tested for robustness and
security issues with the ongoing fuzz testing of GDAL drivers.

- Last, but not least, we'd lose the ability to actually fix issues.
We'd be dependent on bug fixes in the ESRI SDK, and be powerless to
get fixes we need implemented.


These are all significant issues, and the moment we make the switch to
the closed source driver and give users write support, there's no way
we can revert this decision and remove the ability to edit GDB files.
It's not a decision we can make lightly.

I'd rather leave this decision up to individual users (and those who
make in-house software packages for deployment in their organisation)
to make. I.e. leave it as is, where it's effectively an "opt-in"
change. And push people to helping make the open driver better, as
it's a more sustainable solution in the long term.

(Lastly, a rant: I hate file geodatabases. They are the WORST format
for spatial data that I've seen. It's like ESRI took everything which
people disliked about shapefiles and magnified those. Instead of a
handful of files, we get hundreds. Instead of minor user confusion
about how they need to package all the dependent files, we get this
super-confusing folder/file mix, which causes all sorts of issues for
non-ArcGIS software because it just breaks fundamental file management
assumptions. And they are SLOW. So SLOOW. Even in ArcGIS they are
slow to open and manage. GIve me shapefiles over this monstrosity any
day.)

Nyall
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Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-07-31 Thread Andreas Neumann
Hi Matthias, 

We need to be able to select an existing fgdb-folder (as seen by the OS
it is just a regular folder). 

Currently, QGIS just opens the folder and then expects the user to pick
a file, but currently we can't select a folder without traversing deeper
into it. 

Andreas 

On 2018-07-31 13:58, Matthias Kuhn wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Just a quick question about the file vs. directory problem. Do we need
> to be able to select an existing directory or a new one?
> If it's the latter (new .gdb-folder), we can just use the existing file
> dialog, which will return a path to a file name (but not yet create a
> new file) and we can then have the fgdb driver create a new folder
> instead of a file at this position.
> I might be missing something though.
> 
> Matthias
> 
> On 07/31/2018 12:05 PM, Andreas Neumann wrote: 
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> A Swiss QGIS user asked me if/how FGDB for export/Save as can be
>> supported in QGIS - question specifically about the Windows distribution
>> of QGIS 3.x. Sometimes, QGIS users have to deliver results in fgdb
>> format, because their clients require it.
>> 
>> A quick e-mail exchange with Even Roualt revealed the following:
>> 
>> 1. it is already supported if the proper "gdal-filegdb" packages are
>> installed.
>> 
>> 2. Currently, it can only be enabled in the OSGeo4W version by selecting
>> the "gdal-filegdb" package. The standalone installer does not include
>> this package.
>> 
>> 3. There are issues when wanting to "Save As" an additional layer into
>> an already existing FGDB. The problem is that fgdb files are actually
>> directories. And the current "Save As" dialog does not support selecting
>> "directories" to save into, only files. As a workaround, it works if one
>> copy/pastes the full path from the Windows file explorer into the "Save
>> As" dialog, but not when selecting a directory interactively.
>> 
>> Here is some info on the third issue from Even:
>> 
>> "I don't have the solution on top of my mind. According to
>> http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qfiledialog.html#FileMode-enum it seems that you can
>> setup the selector to select file or directories, but not both.
>> We actually use the QFileDialog::getSaveFileName() API that probably
>> internally resolves to QFileDialog::AnyFile
>> Perhaps a more experience QT dev than me would have an idea.
>> Or an hack (but not sure we can really do better) would be to allow the user
>> to select any file in the .gdb directory, and then automatically strips out
>> the filename to just keep the directory name when we see this a file in in a
>> .gdb directory"
>> 
>> ---
>> 
>> So here are my two questions:
>> 
>> About issue 2:
>> 
>> @Jürgen: can you include the necessary gdal-filegdb package also in the
>> standalone installer - or are there license problems?
>> 
>> About issue 3:
>> 
>> Does some dev have an idea or solution on how to more easily select a
>> folder instead of a file, for the case of writing an additional layer
>> into an already existing .fgdb folder?
>> 
>> Thank you all for your ideas and the discussion,
>> 
>> Andreas
>> 
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Re: [QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-07-31 Thread Matthias Kuhn
Hi,

Just a quick question about the file vs. directory problem. Do we need
to be able to select an existing directory or a new one?
If it's the latter (new .gdb-folder), we can just use the existing file
dialog, which will return a path to a file name (but not yet create a
new file) and we can then have the fgdb driver create a new folder
instead of a file at this position.
I might be missing something though.

Matthias

On 07/31/2018 12:05 PM, Andreas Neumann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> A Swiss QGIS user asked me if/how FGDB for export/Save as can be
> supported in QGIS - question specifically about the Windows distribution
> of QGIS 3.x. Sometimes, QGIS users have to deliver results in fgdb
> format, because their clients require it.
> 
> A quick e-mail exchange with Even Roualt revealed the following:
> 
> 1. it is already supported if the proper "gdal-filegdb" packages are
> installed.
> 
> 2. Currently, it can only be enabled in the OSGeo4W version by selecting
> the "gdal-filegdb" package. The standalone installer does not include
> this package.
> 
> 3. There are issues when wanting to "Save As" an additional layer into
> an already existing FGDB. The problem is that fgdb files are actually
> directories. And the current "Save As" dialog does not support selecting
> "directories" to save into, only files. As a workaround, it works if one
> copy/pastes the full path from the Windows file explorer into the "Save
> As" dialog, but not when selecting a directory interactively.
> 
> Here is some info on the third issue from Even:
> 
> "I don't have the solution on top of my mind. According to
> http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qfiledialog.html#FileMode-enum it seems that you can
> setup the selector to select file or directories, but not both.
> We actually use the QFileDialog::getSaveFileName() API that probably
> internally resolves to QFileDialog::AnyFile
> Perhaps a more experience QT dev than me would have an idea.
> Or an hack (but not sure we can really do better) would be to allow the user
> to select any file in the .gdb directory, and then automatically strips out
> the filename to just keep the directory name when we see this a file in in a
> .gdb directory"
> 
> ---
> 
> So here are my two questions:
> 
> About issue 2:
> 
> @Jürgen: can you include the necessary gdal-filegdb package also in the
> standalone installer - or are there license problems?
> 
> About issue 3:
> 
> Does some dev have an idea or solution on how to more easily select a
> folder instead of a file, for the case of writing an additional layer
> into an already existing .fgdb folder?
> 
> Thank you all for your ideas and the discussion,
> 
> Andreas
> 
> 
> 
> ___
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> List info: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
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[QGIS-Developer] Question on FGDB support for "Save As" / "Export"

2018-07-31 Thread Andreas Neumann
Hi, 

A Swiss QGIS user asked me if/how FGDB for export/Save as can be
supported in QGIS - question specifically about the Windows distribution
of QGIS 3.x. Sometimes, QGIS users have to deliver results in fgdb
format, because their clients require it. 

A quick e-mail exchange with Even Roualt revealed the following: 

1. it is already supported if the proper "gdal-filegdb" packages are
installed. 

2. Currently, it can only be enabled in the OSGeo4W version by selecting
the "gdal-filegdb" package. The standalone installer does not include
this package. 

3. There are issues when wanting to "Save As" an additional layer into
an already existing FGDB. The problem is that fgdb files are actually
directories. And the current "Save As" dialog does not support selecting
"directories" to save into, only files. As a workaround, it works if one
copy/pastes the full path from the Windows file explorer into the "Save
As" dialog, but not when selecting a directory interactively. 

Here is some info on the third issue from Even: 

"I don't have the solution on top of my mind. According to
http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qfiledialog.html#FileMode-enum it seems that you
can
setup the selector to select file or directories, but not both.
We actually use the QFileDialog::getSaveFileName() API that probably
internally resolves to QFileDialog::AnyFile
Perhaps a more experience QT dev than me would have an idea.
Or an hack (but not sure we can really do better) would be to allow the
user
to select any file in the .gdb directory, and then automatically strips
out
the filename to just keep the directory name when we see this a file in
in a
.gdb directory" 

--- 

So here are my two questions: 

About issue 2: 

@Jürgen: can you include the necessary gdal-filegdb package also in the
standalone installer - or are there license problems? 

About issue 3: 

Does some dev have an idea or solution on how to more easily select a
folder instead of a file, for the case of writing an additional layer
into an already existing .fgdb folder? 

Thank you all for your ideas and the discussion, 

Andreas___
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