SpatiaLite is a library for geographic information systems (GIS) which implements the core OpenGIS specification. It provides SQLite with basic support for spatial data is intended for lightweight GIS projects.
SQLite is a popular DBMS, simple, robust, easy to use and really lightweight. Each SQLite database is simply a file; you can freely copy it, compress it, send it on a LAN or WEB with no complication at all. They are also portables; the same database file will work on Windows, Linux, MacOs etc.
The SpatiaLite extension enables SQLite to support spatial data too [aka GEOMETRY], in a way conformant to OpenGis specifications:
- supports standard WKT and WKB formats
- implements SQL spatial functions such as AsText(), GeomFromText(), Area(), PointN() and alike
Not all OpenGis functions are supported, but the main core is available
- supports importing and exporting from / to shapefiles
- supports coordinate reprojection via PROJ.4 and EPSG geodetic parameters dataset
The VirtualShape extension enables SQLite to access shapefiles as VIRTUAL TABLEs:
- you can then perform standard SQL queries on external shapefiles, with no need for importing or converting them
* both SpatiaLite and VirtualShape are distributed in the form of shared libraries [DLLs on Windows]
- integration with standard sqlite3 front end is allowed via .load 'extension' or SELECT load_extension('extension') mechanism
- old versions of sqlite3 didn't support extensions; some up to date distribution disables them for security reasons
- so, if you wish, you can alternatively use SQLiteGeo, a derivative sqlite3 3.5.7 [same sources] slightly modified in order to automatically load both SpatiaLite and VirtualShape
Product's homepage
What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]
· an enhanced GUI tool v1.2.1
· PROJ.4 latest version (4.6.1)
· GEOS latest version (3.1.1)
· SQLite's latest version (3.6.16)
· extensive debugging
· new introducing a companion RasterLite library to handle huge Raster Data Sources within the DBMS new
· new introducing spatialite-gis, a minimalistic GIS tool based on SpatiaLite new
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