Main FAQ

Q: What is gt-main responsible for?

The gt-main completes the GeoTools API with additional interfaces extending the concepts provided by gt-opengis.

The gt-main module is responsible for the default implementation of the interfaces in gt-main and gt-opengis. This includes the default implementations for the feature model, filter support, and style definition.

The gt-main module makes this functionality available through the plug-in system allowing you to make use of CommonFactoryFinder rather than directly depend on the default implementations provided here.

Q: How do I make a FeatureType?

You can make a feature type quickly using using the DataUtilities class:

SimpleFeatureType lineType = DataUtilities.createType("LINE", "centerline:LineString,name:\"\",id:0");

For greater control consider direct use of a FeatureTypeBuilde:

SimpleFeatureTypeBuilder b = new SimpleFeatureTypeBuilder();

//set the name
b.setName( "Flag" );

//add some properties
b.add( "name", String.class );
b.add( "classification", Integer.class );
b.add( "height", Double.class );

//add a geometry property
b.setCRS( DefaultGeographicCRS.WSG84 ); // set crs first
b.add( "location", Point.class ); // then add geometry

//build the type
final SimpleFeatureType FLAG = b.buildFeatureType();

Q: How do I modify a FeatureType?

You cannot modify a feature type directly as it is considered immutable and not subject to change.

You can however use a FeatureTypeBuilder to create a modified copy:

SimpleFeatureType lineType = DataUtilities.createType("LINE", "geom:LineString,name:\"\",id:0");
SimpleFeatureTypeBuilder b = new SimpleFeatureTypeBuilder();
b.init( lineType );
b.setName("POINT");
b.add(0, "geom", Point.class );
SimpleFeatureType pointType = b.buildFeatureType();

Q: How to get FeatureCollection to work with a ‘for each’ loop?

Feature collection is a wrapper around a live data stream; as such we need to be sure to close the iterator after we are finished with it:

        try (SimpleFeatureIterator iterator = featureCollection.features()) {
            while (iterator.hasNext()) {
                SimpleFeature feature = iterator.next();
                // process feature
            }
        }

This requirement prevents us implementing Collection (and being compatible with ‘for each’ syntax. I am afraid this is a fundamental limitation of Java and not something that can or should be addressed in a future release.

Q: Why does gt-main define its own Style interfaces?

The GeoTools interfaces for Style are a straight extension of the gt-opengis interfaces allowing mutability. This does come with a drawback; we need to ask you to be careful of thread safety.