MapInfo® SpatialWare®

The Information Management Tool for Storing, Managing and Maintaining Location-based Data

MapInfo SpatialWare software enhances the value of your corporate data by enabling it to be stored, managed and quickly retrieved from leading commercial database management systems, Informix® and Microsoft® SQL Server.

MapInfo SpatialWare is the first spatial information management system to implement SQL-based advanced spatial access, analysis and modelling in a database environment for the occasional user, or the sophisticated database programmer. It sets a new standard in ease of use and seamless integration. Simply stated, SpatialWare allows you to enhance key business processes by connecting data and location.

Overview

MapInfo SpatialWare enhances the value of your corporate data by extending the storage and analysis capabilities of your database environment. SpatialWare enables location-based, or spatial data, to be easily integrated with non-spatial data both on the desktop and across the enterprise ensuring data accessibility, scalability, integrity, reliability and security.

Storing key business information and customer location information in your database allows users to query both spatial and non-spatial data types within a single SQL Server query. SpatialWare provides a consistent and standard-based environment allowing an enterprise to integrate spatial data within the corporate database environment. This empowers corporations to collect, manage, analyse and visualise data in a spatial context, as well as the traditional non-spatial context. Decision makers can now visualise and analyse large amounts of complex data - better, faster and easier than ever before.

Benefits

Features

Overview
  • Complete server-based spatial information management system.
  • Efficient, flexible spatial data for MapInfo and other spatial data in leading commercial database management systems.
  • Powerful, fully-integrated Standard Query Language (SQL) extensions for spatial operations.
  • High speed spatial data loaders.
  • Highly scalable to thousands of users and hundreds of gigabytes of spatial data.
  • Integration and management of spatial and business data in a single database environment.
  • Central storage and management of large volumes of spatial data.
  • Align with ISO/IEC 13249-3-1999; Spatial Standard and the Open GIS Consortium's Simple Feature Specification.
  • Standards-based spatial operators such as buffer, contains, adjacent to, overlap, length, union, slope, area and perimeter.
  • Sophisticated SpatialWare Operator extensions like Difference, Convex Hull, Clean, Relate, Cross and many others.
  • 1000 predefined co-ordinate systems are supported as well as custom user-defined projection systems.
  • SpatialWare supports data extract and import in both OGIS WKB and WKT formats.
Powerful Standard SQL for Data Access

Uses standard commands to create, update, insert, delete and select spatial objects in a table. It makes adapting to spatial information applications easier for users and developers - lowering training costs and overall investment.

SpatialWare facilitates the addition of powerful location analysis extensions to a relational database, simplifying both query and analysis of complex location data. It also extends popular relational database tools so you can manipulate and analyse location data simply and efficiently.

  • SpatialWare has over 150 functions allowing you to analyse and manipulate location data. Grouped into six categories, they include:
  • Spatial Predicates, such as Overlaps and Contains, analyse location data types to see if they meet specific conditions - a true or false is returned.
  • Spatial Measurement Functions, including length, perimeter and height, return number values describing a spatial data type’s shape, size, angle, rotation or position.
  • Spatial Functions perform operations on spatial data types and return a new spatial data type. For example, Union joins two spatial objects and returns the combined result as a new spatial object, or Buffer which "expands" the shape of an object by a user specified distance.
  • Constructor Functions create new spatial objects. For example, Circle is a spatial data type using a point and radius to create the circle.
  • Observer Functions return numbers, objects, or conditions from within a spatial object. Number of co-ordinates, begin point, end point and assemble status are examples of Observer Functions.
  • General Functions include mathematical functions, identifiers, and indexing functions. For example, Pi, Degrees and functions that may be specific to a particular database environment.

As SpatialWare fully utilises SQL, to add ASCII data, you simply format the data with standard SQL commands - no special converters or formatting is required. By employing emerging industry standards, SpatialWare assures your future needs can be met while avoiding obsolescence. SpatialWare also makes it easy for you to load MapInfo tables, AutoCAD DXF and SDTS files by providing utilities, such as “Easy Loader” to import these data formats directly into your database.

The Software

MapInfo SpatialWare is made up of three main components:

  1. Spatial Data Type - provides the storage mechanism and necessary functionality to store, retrieve and maintain the content of spatial data. It also allows the data type to be cast to useful derivative types for use by client software.
  2. The geometries stored in this data type, can either be two- or three-dimensional. The data type and the SQL functions are based on ISO SQL/Multimedia standards and OpenGIS Consortium standards.
  3. Spatial Indexing - Implements a special indexing scheme based on Range-Tree (R-Tree) technology, designed to index spatial data. R-Tree indexing is well suited for distribution patterns typical for spatial data, and designed so no knowledge of the data is required to achieve optimum performance.

Spatial Operators - Contains over 150 extensions to retrieve data from tables with the ability to compute new geometric values or qualify data based upon geometric relationships. These include extensions defined in the ISO standard, as well as additional operators, known by MapInfo to be required by its customers, such as co-ordinate system support, distance, centroid and convex hull calculations and others.

System Requirements for Optional Database and Operating Systems

Informix

Microsoft

Extensible, Adaptable Spatial Object Storage and Access

Multiple Client Support - Supports MapInfo clients including MapInfo Professional®, desk-top mapping software; MapInfo MapX®, an OCX component, allows you to integrate a mapping object into new and pre-existing business applications; and MapInfo® MapXtreme® NT or Java edition, a mapping application server to add interactive maps to your web site.

ODBC Client Connectivity - Provides an open connection to SpatialWare through the use of almost any commercial off the shelf software such as Delphi or Visual Basic. For example, Microsoft SQL Server Query Analyser can be used to submit traditional SQL statements or prepare pass through queries allowing the use of spatial operators and predicates.

C API - For custom development, SpatialWare provides a C API (placed in the public domain) that exposes the full functionality of the database to application developers.


Required Elements