Slashgeo

The Hobu blog has an interesting entry about MySQL spatial support for GDAL/OGR. From the blog: "Under the direction of Frank Warmerdam, I have been bringing the OGR driver up to par with the rest of the vector data drivers in OGR. [...] MySQL is known for being fast, widely deployed, and frequently used. Unlike PostGIS, however, it does not support spatial predicates and operators (for testing whether one geometry exists in another, for example) [...]"

The OSGeo-Discuss mailing list links to a short survey of geospatial databases such as MySQL, Oracle, IBM DB2 UDB and PostGIS. From the accompanying article: "For example, subjects like ‘spatial indexing’, ‘optimising approaches’, ‘spatial joining algorithms’ and ‘topology management’ may relate to very sophisticated approaches not easily condensed and described in a survey matrix box. In my first Product Survey on RDBMS in 2002 I observed that spatial-data management was traditionally supported within GIS environments. Integration with other datasets has to be organised within such environments with the aid of complementary architectures. As more and more support for spatial-data management becomes available in RDBMS, direct integration with other datasets may be organised in an increasingly flexible way. This allows for fast data access, easy product development, avoidance of duplication of spatial data etc." See numerous related articles below.

The Lin.ear th.inking blog ran an entry last month on spherical indexing schemes for PostGIS. Thought not exhaustive, the entry is still interesting and reminds us how spatial indexes are important to efficiently analyze huge spatial databases. From the entry: "Handling geodetic data in a correct and efficient way presents quite a few challenges. A major one is: how can geodetic geometry be spatially indexed? Conventional spatial indexes (such as 2D R-trees) all rely on geometry being embedded in a planar space. They don't handle data which can "wrap around", as can occur in a spherical space." See below for other (rare) stories related to spatial indexes.

Christian Spanring offers news on improved MySQL GIS functions. From the blog: "According to the GIS Functions wiki entry following MySQL GIS functions have been added to the MySQL 5.1.23 beta GIS release: BUFFER, DIFFERENCE, DISTANCE, INTERSECTION, SYM_DIFFERENCE, UNION. I haven’t had the chance to test it yet, but I remember being very excited when I first read about the MySQL spatial extension a couple of years ago, followed by disappointment because of the MBR limits. Finally I decided to go with PostgreSQL/PostGIS back then. " See previous stories below, including a survey of geospatial features of Oracle, MySQL and PostGIS.

All Points Blog did what I was going to do, to point out the several announcements for support of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, which includes new spatial capabilities. Here are the full press releases: Safe, Manifold, SpatialPoint, AWhere). In addition, there's MapDotNet Server 6.5 which will also support the new SQL Server. See also related stories below.

The PostGIS/Refractions web site announces: "The 1.3.2 release of PostGIS is now available". This release includes bug fixes and some minor feature enhancements, such as improvements in the TIGER geocoder, fix for better OS/X support, fix to WKB parser to do simple validity checks, etc.

Flat Out GIS has an article about this speculation. Here is there summary : "I’m comparing Google Maps versus Virtual Earth right now, and one of the deciding factors is spatial data support. With the upcoming release of SQL Server 2008 spatial support, will VE be able to read these new WKB and WKT types natively? I saw a news release from Microsoft indicating several partners have developed this capability for their products, but was looking for information on whether or not it will become part of the VE api. It would be a plus if VE could read SQL Server geometry and render them automatically without additional coding."

To get the link to the actual microsoft release, head on over to Flat Out GIS.

From the blog of Jame's Fee, he brings us knews about this announcement from Oracle. Here is part of his wrap up, visit his site for the full details : "While I see nothing specifically about Oracle Spatial, I assume is can be licensed as well on the cloud. The benefit to everyone is outside of licensing costs, the ability to launch the Oracle AMIs on EC2 and be up and running in no time. That plus the scaleability of EC2 (and thus Oracle) means that you don’t have to worry about hardware limitations with your applications. RSP Architects uses SQL Server as our database of choice, and while I would have been able to run Oracle in a virtual server, I no longer have to worry about hardware constraints to our development"

Boston GIS offers a nice guide named Getting Started With SQL Server 2008 Spatial: An almost Idiot's Guide. Late last year, the same team published another guide named Getting Started With PostGIS: An almost Idiot's Guide. Regarding MS SQL Server 2008, the blog entry: "We have started to take a really hard look at what SQL Server 2008 offers. Aside from the usual stuff that makes a database lover's heart go thumpety thump - * More SQL constructs * Enhancements to Reporting Services * New expansion of SQL Server database storage to use filesystem for large document storage AKA (FILESTREAM storage) * Powershell integration * Introduction of sparse columns more suitable for datewarehouse type stuff * And of course introduction of spatial which makes a spatial database analysts heart go thumpety thump thump." See also related stories below, including a recent cross comparison of SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL.