Supported Data Sources

The Spatial Module supports spatial and non-spatial tables from a variety of data sources:

Table 1. Supported Data Sources

Data Source

Spatial Table

Non-Spatial Table

XY Table

JDBC n/a Read/Insert/Update/Delete Read/Insert/Update/Delete
Oracle Read/Insert/Update/Delete Read/Insert/Update/Delete Read/Insert/Update/Delete
MS SQL Server Read/Insert/Update/Delete Read/Insert/Update/Delete Read/Insert/Update/Delete
PostGreSQL/PostGIS Read/Insert/Update/Delete Read/Insert/Update/Delete Read/Insert/Update/Delete
GeoPackage Read/Insert/Update/Delete Read/Insert/Update/Delete n/a
View Read Read Read
Table Formats (file-based data sources)
Shapefile Read n/a n/a
MapInfo TAB Read/Insert/Update/Delete1 n/a n/a

Specialty tables include raster, grid, and seamless versions of .TAB. View tables are also supported. A view table is a subset of information from one or more data sources, including other view tables. Views are created with an MI SQL Select statement.

Spatial tables contain a geometry column that allows the table to be rendered on a map or used in spatial queries. The spatial information can be stored in a MAPINFO_MapCatalog that Spatial Module reads to understand the data types. If a MAPINFO_MapCatalog does not exist for the database, the Spatial Module will derive the data types directly from the data source.
Non-spatial tables containing columns for X and Y coordinates that represent a location (that is, a point) can be expressed as a spatial table composed entirely of point geometries. The metadata to represent the non-spatial table can either come from the MapCatalog or be part of the named table definition. Named tables are explained in the Resources and Data section in the Spectrumâ„¢ Technology Platform Spectrum Spatial Guide on support.pb.com.

The Spatial Module also supports an extensible data provider API for accessing custom data sources. This can be downloaded from the Spectrum Spatial section of the Welcome page, under Sample Applications.

1 Insert, Update, Delete apply to native TAB and extended native TAB (NativeX) files on Windows operating systems only.