A datasource is a collection used to store various types of datasets (such as point, line, polygon data, TIN, GRID, Network, etc.). A datasource can contain one or more datasets of different types, which can be vector datasets or raster datasets. All data is stored in the datasource, not in the workspace. The physical storage of a datasource can be either file-based or database-based. The difference lies in the type of data engine used.
SuperMap SDX+ is the spatial database engine of the SuperMap GIS platform, providing the ability to access spatial data for all products in SuperMap GIS. It realizes the storage, indexing, reading, and updating of spatial data through SuperMap SDX+. Supported data engines include: database engines, file engines, and Web engines.
supports opening and creating multiple datasource types, which are divided into file database, database datasource, and Web datasource, corresponding to file engines, database engines, and Web engines respectively. In addition, the EMS datasource provided in the application also uses a file engine and is a temporary data source. Different data engines support different dataset types. For detailed supported dataset types, please refer to the Dataset Types Supported by SDX+ introduction.
File Database
Stores spatial data and attribute data directly in files, supporting UDB and UDBX file databases.
For small data volumes, using a file database provides faster map display and easier data migration.
The file database supports four types of file engines: the SuperMap custom UDB engine (readable and writable), the UDBX engine (readable and writable), the image plugin engine (directly accesses some image data), and the vector file engine (directly accesses external vector files).
- UDB Engine is a file-type spatial data engine in SuperMap Objects custom format. This engine uses a traditional file + database hybrid storage method. A UDB data project includes two files: the UDB file uses OLE compound document technology to store spatial data; the UDD file uses the Access MDB database format to store attribute data. The compound document technology used by UDB files provides the ability to store multiple datasets in a single UDB project, which differs from ArcInfo Coverage, MapInfo Table files, and other technologies. UDB is mainly oriented toward medium and small systems and desktop applications, aiming to improve efficiency and compensate for the shortcomings of pure database engines in this regard.
- UDBX Engine can read, write, and manage Spatialite spatial data. Spatialite is an open-source library that extends the SQLite kernel, providing a complete and powerful spatial database management system with cross-platform and lightweight features, and supports fully mature spatial SQL functions. In addition, Spatialite uses R-Tree as a Spatial Index to achieve efficient retrieval of spatial data. The newly added UDBX file engine in SuperMap fully leverages Spatialite's efficient spatial data management capabilities and lightweight database characteristics.
- Using the UDBX file engine requires no installation or deployment of a database system. Since the Spatialite database simply corresponds to a single file with no file size limit, creating a datasource using the UDBX file engine will create a UDBX file database (*.udbx), which is essentially a database file. It is more open, secure, and stable than existing UDB file databases.
- In the UDBX file database, you can create datasets or import data from other sources. Supported dataset types include: point, line, region, text, CAD, attribute table, 3D point/line/region, EPS composite point/line/region/text, grid, image, and mosaic dataset.
- Additionally, the UDBX file engine is more open, supporting direct manipulation of spatial data imported into the Spatialite spatial database by third parties, such as display and data editing. To use it, simply load the Spatialite spatial database file (*.sqlite) as a file database into the desktop software.
- Image Plugin Engine supports read-only display of grid-type data in SuperMap. Currently supported formats include bmp, jpeg, raw, tiff, sci, sit, and ERDAS IMAGINE raster data types (BMP and JPEG are common raster data types; raw and tiff are remote sensing image data types; sci is a map pre-cache picture file defined by SuperMap; sit is a raster data type defined by SuperMap). Therefore, the plugin engine includes the following seven types: bmp read-only engine, jpg read-only engine, raw read-only engine, tiff read-only engine, sci read-only engine, sit read-only engine, and erdas imagine read-only engine.
- Vector File Engine supports editing and saving of vector files for common vector formats such as shp, tab, dwg, etc.
| File Database Engine Types | |
| Type | Description |
| UDB | UDB type, for UDB datasource. |
| UDBX | UDBX file engine, can read, write and manage Spatialite spatial data. For UDBX datasource, supported dataset types include: point, line, region, text, CAD, attribute table, 3D point/line/region, EPS composite point/line/region/text, grid, image, mosaic dataset. Note: The enumeration value for the UDBX file engine is 2054. Currently, concurrent write operations to the same UDBX by multiple processes or threads are not supported, nor is simultaneous read/write access during writing. |
| ImagePlugins | Image plugin engine type, for common image formats such as bmp, jpg, tiff, and SuperMap custom image formats such as sit. |
| vector file | Vector file engine type, for common vector formats such as shp, tab, dwg, etc., supporting editing and saving of vector files. |
Database Datasource
Stores both the spatial geometry information and attributes of spatial data in the database. Provides more than ten types of database datasource functions, including SQLPlus, Oracle Plus, Oracle Spatial, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, Yukon, MySQL, POLARDBGanos, GaussDB 200, DMPlus, KingBase, HighGoDB, SHENTONG, and Vastbase. It is generally used for saving large amounts of data, facilitating data management and access. It supports concurrent operations for easy modification and data synchronization. Users need to configure the relevant database environment and client locally when accessing the database.
The SuperMap spatial database uses large relational databases as storage containers, managed and operated through SuperMap SDX+, storing spatial data and attribute data together in large relational databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, and DM3. The spatial database types are shown in the table below.
| Database Datasource Engine Types | |
| Type | Description |
| SQLPlus | SQL Server engine type, for SQL Server datasource. A client must be installed and environment variables correctly configured. |
| OraclePlus | OraclePlus engine type, for Oracle datasource. A client must be installed. |
| OracleSpatial | Oracle Spatial engine type, for Oracle Spatial datasource. A client must be installed. Network datasets are not supported. |
| MySQL | MySQL engine type. Client installation is not required, but the remote server must grant access permissions to the local machine. |
| PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL engine type. Client installation is not required, but the remote server must grant access permissions to the local machine. |
| PostGIS | PostGIS engine type, the spatial data extension of PostgreSQL. For PostGIS datasource, client installation is not required, but the remote server must grant access permissions to the local machine. |
| POLARDBGanos | The Ganos spatio-temporal engine developed by Alibaba Cloud, provides a series of data types, functions, and stored procedures for efficient storage, indexing, query, and analysis of spatial/spatio-temporal data in the cloud-native relational distributed database PolarDB. |
| GaussDB 200 | GaussDB 200 engine type. For GaussDB 200 datasource, client installation is not required, but the remote server must grant access permissions to the local machine. |
| Yukon | Yukon engine type. Yukon fully supports the Huawei ecosystem, achieving perfect adaptation from Huawei's independent operating system and CPU to the database. It supports the extension and application of data models such as models and geographic entities. |
| DMPlus | DM engine type. For Dameng (DM) datasource, a client must be installed and environment variables correctly configured. |
| DMSpatial | DMSpatial engine type. For Dameng (DM) datasource, a client must be installed and environment variables correctly configured. |
| ES | Elasticsearch is a popular enterprise search engine. An Elasticsearch server accessible from the local machine is sufficient. |
| HighGoDB | HighGoDB engine type. Client installation is not required, but the remote server must grant access permissions to the local machine. |
| KingBase | Kingbase engine type, for Kingbase datasource. Multi-band data is not supported. A client must be installed. |
| SHENGTONG | SHENGTONG engine type, the spatial data extension of PostgreSQL. For SHENGTONG datasource, client installation is not required, but the remote server must grant access permissions to the local machine. |
| VastBase | Vastbase is an enterprise-level relational database developed by Vast Data based on the open-source openGauss kernel. In addition to the extreme performance of openGauss, Vastbase adds many Oracle compatibility features, significantly enhances security following the EAL4+ standard, and integrates enterprise-level functions in professional application areas such as GIS and stream computing. |
| ArcSDE for Oracle | ArcSDE_Oracle engine type, for ArcSDE for Oracle datasource. Currently, this datasource can only be opened in read-only mode. |
| XUGU DB | Xugu Database is positioned as a general-purpose, transparent, high-performance single-machine distributed integrated database. For XUGU DB datasource, client installation is not required. |
Warning:SuperMap supports the SDX+ data engine. The theoretical maximum number of records for stored dataset objects is 231-1, i.e., 2,147,483,647 records. Records exceeding this value cannot be displayed.
SuperMap iObjects supports multiple database engines (as shown in the table below). The desktop client displays the default database datasource entries. You can also customize the function entry of the database datasource by modifying the configuration file parameters to add or hide supported database entries.
The configuration file is located at Configuration/ directory of the product package, named Desktop.Parameter.xml, with relevant configuration as follows:
<engine extraEngineType="" hiddenEngineTypes=""/>
- Add Entry: extraEngineType="" is empty by default, which means the database entry is the desktop default database datasource entry. To add a new database already supported by SuperMap iObjects, simply fill in the corresponding enumeration value of the database. For example, to add a PostGIS engine entry, the PostGIS enumeration value is 2012, then the configuration file code is written as extraEngineType="2012".
When adding an entry, you can specify its display alias. For example: To add a PostGIS engine entry and specify its display name in the list as "GBase", the configuration file code is written as: extraEngineType="2012_GBase".
- Delete Entry: hiddenEngineTypes="" is empty by default. To delete a database entry, simply fill in the corresponding enumeration value of the database. For example, to delete the OracleSpatial engine type, whose enumeration value is 10, the configuration file code is written as hiddenEngineTypes="10".
Note: If you need to add or delete multiple entries at once, use a comma, as a separator. For example, to add ArcSDE for Oracle and DMPlus engine entries, the configuration file code is written as extraEngineType="2081,17".
| Datasource Engine Types Supported by SuperMap iObjects | |
| Type | Enumeration Value |
| ArcSDE for Oracle | 2081 |
| DB2 | 18 |
| DMPlus | 17 |
| DMSpatial | 2062 |
| ES | 2011 |
| POLARDBGanos | 2057 |
| GaussDB 100 | 2060 |
| HighGoDB | 2023 |
| HWPostgreSQL | 2056 |
| KingBase | 19 |
| MongoDB | 401 |
| MySQL | 32 |
| OraclePlus | 12 |
| OracleSpatial | 10 |
| PostGIS | 2012 |
| PostgreSQL | 221 |
| SHENTONG | 2055 |
| SQLPlus | 16 |
| SQLSpatial | 2013 |
| Yashan | 2073 |
| Yukon | 2072 |
| XUGU | 2058 |
Web Datasource
Stored on a server on the network. When using this type of datasource, the datasource is obtained through a URL address. For example, OGC, iServerREST, MapWorld, XYZTile, geovis, siwei earth, careland, jilin no.1, and other datasources belong to Web datasources.
The Web engine can directly access Web services such as WFS, WMS, and WCS. This type of engine treats Web servers that comply with OGC standards on the network as SuperMap datasources. It fully integrates maps and data published on the web with SuperMap maps and data, incorporating WFS and WMS applications into SuperMap's technical system, expanding the application domain of the SuperMap data engine. Web engines are read-only engines.
| Web Datasource Engine Types | |
| Type | Description |
| OGC | OGC engine type, for Web datasource. Currently supported types include WMS, WFS, WCS, and WMTS. |
| iServerRest | iServer Rest service engine type, for map services published based on the REST protocol. |
| MapWorld-Online | Map service connected to SuperMap Online. |
| MapWorld | MapWorld engine type, for map services published by Tianditu. |
| GoogleMaps | GoogleMaps engine type, for Google electronic map services. |
| World Terrain | Divided into topographic map and dark topographic map, it is a global hillshade map service published by SuperMap. |
| OpenStreetMaps | Also known as OSM engine type, it is a free and open-source map service created by the online community. |
| iServer DataStore | iServer DataStore is a data service published by SuperMap, where the data service is a GIS service. |
| XYZTile | It is an online map XYZ tile format, accessible via URL to access online maps. |
| geovis earth | geovis earth provides three types of map services: vector, image, and terrain hillshade. |
| siwei earth | siwei earth provides global tile image services with unified fusion and mosaic processing. |
| careland | careland can provide nationwide map finished product data by region and object. |
| century space images | century space images provides an internet-based full-resolution image online application service, with capture times mainly in 2019 and 2020. |
| jilin no.1 | jilin no.1 launches an image service suite, providing the latest high-quality image tile data covering the whole country. |
Note:Currently, OpenStreetMaps may not be accessible normally within mainland China, but users outside mainland China can use this function normally. For users within mainland China, if you need details, please contact the technical support center at 400-8900-866.
EMS Datasource
Data in an EMS datasource is stored in memory. It is a temporary data source and does not support saving. The corresponding data engine is a memory engine. Intermediate results of some analyses can be stored in this datasource, which helps improve analysis efficiency. When final data is obtained, it can be exported from the EMS datasource to local data.
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