The Feature Data Objects (FDO) API provides access to data in a data store. A provider is a specific implementation of the FDO API that provides access to data in a particular data store. The FDO Provider for SHP provides FDO with access to a SHP-based data store.
The FDO Provider for SHP uses a standalone file format that supports GIS data. The FDO Provider for SHP (Shape) has the following characteristics:
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Read-only access is provided to pre-existing spatial and attribute data from an Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Shape file (SHP).
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The FDO Provider for SHP can run in a multi-platform environment, including Windows and Linux.
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A Shape file consists of three separate files: SHP (shape geometry), SHX (shape index), and DBF (shape attributes in dBASE format).
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The FDO Provider for SHP accesses the information in each of the three separate files, and treats each SHP, and its associated DBF file, as a feature class with a single geometry property, and optionally, with data attribute properties.
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Schema configuration of the data store is provided to the FDO Provider for SHP through an XML file containing the Geographic Markup Language (GML) definition of the schema that maps SHP and DBF data in the data store to feature classes and property mappings in the FDO data model.
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Although it does not support concurrency control (locking), the SHP file format is a valid alternative to RDBMS.