MapGuide Maestro User Guides

This page contains instructions for MapGuide Maestro usage.

Using file based data

Many applications produce files with data, such as a spreadsheet, ESRI Shape files or MapInfo TAB files. MapGuide has its own spatial file format, named SDF. SDF is based on SQLite, but not compatible with a SQLite tools. MapGuide also supports SQLite databases with spatial data, using an FDO provider.

Updating FDO providers

When you install MapGuide, it only has a subset of the avalible FDO providers. This will hopefully be fixed in the future, but for now you can manually upgrade you FDO provider collection.

Creating a feature source

To create a feature source, simply click on the "Add" button, and select "Dataconnection". You should new see the following dialog:

Choosing a provider

If you are missing a provider for your special data type, make sure you have upgraded your FDO providers. If you have data in the SDF format, use the SDF provider. Note that SDF is actually SDF+ or SDF v3, and is not compatible with previous SDF formats, used in MapGuide 6.5 and older.

If you are using ESRI Shape files, you can use the SHP provider, or the OGR provider.

If you are using MapInfo TAB, s57 or a number of other file based data, you can use the OGR provider. I will use the OGR provider below, but the comments apply to the SHP and SDF provider as well.

When you have create a new Feature Source, your screen looks like this:

Where to store the files

Usually your file bases data is placed in a folder. In MapGuide you can choose to use the data from its location, or copy the data into the MapGuide server. If you use data in a folder outside of MapGuide, that is called "Unmanged data", and if you store it inside the MapGuide server, it is called "Managed data".

The reason there are two ways of placing data, is that they both have advantages and disadvantages.
Managed file advantages:

• Cannot be modified by another program
• Is seperated from the original data
• Is contained in a backu