Foreword

The GeoTools2 project strives to support as many geographical data formats as possible because getting data into the GeoTools2 API allows access to a vast suite of tools. In order to transform a data format into the GeoTools2 feature representation one must write an implementation of the DataStore interface.

Once a DataStore implementation is written, any data written in that format becomes available not only for GeoTools2 users, but also for projects built on top of GeoTools2.

Writing a new DataStore for GeoTools2 is one of the best ways to get involved in the project, as writing it will make clear many of the core concepts of the API. Finally, the modular nature of GeoTools2 allows new DataStores to quickly become part of the next release, so that new formats are quickly available to all GeoTools2 users.

The DataStore interface borrows most of its concepts and some of its syntax from the OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) Web Feature Server Specification:

• Feature - atomic unit of geographic information
• FeatureType - keeps track of what attributes each Feature can hold
• FeatureID - a unique id associated with each Feature (must start with a non-numeric character)

Contents

• 0 Introducing PropertyDataStore
• 1 Creating PropertyDataStore
• 2 Using PropertyDataStore to Read Files
• 3 Making PropertyDataStore Writable
• 4 Using PropertyDataStore to Write Files
• 5 Optimization of PropertyDataStore
• Old Creating a DataStore Tutorial

Help Review This article is being updated from GeoTools 2.0 - where it was in docbook. As is usual for open source documentation is held hostage pending a volunteer to QA, or money Open source stops with the code, documentation sounds like work so please help out with your feedback! The most recent code can always be found in svn: http://svn.geotools.org/trunk/modules/plugin/property/src/main/java/org/geotools/data/property/ Please refer to the above link for up-to-date code examples.