Feature Representation

In addition to the generic FME feature attributes that FME Workbench adds to all features (see About Feature Attributes), this format adds the format-specific attributes described in this section.

Features read from a database consist of geometry and a series of attribute values. The feature type of each CartoDB feature is as defined on its DEF line.

Features written to the database have the destination table as their feature type, and attributes as defined on the DEF line.

CartoDB attributes cannot have names that contain non-ASCII characters; however, the attribute values support full UTF-8.

The CartoDB attribute types are listed below.

Field Type

Contents

string

String fields store UTF-8 strings of unlimited length.

boolean

Boolean fields store true/false data. Data read or written from and to such fields must always have a value of either true or false.

FME represents Booleans as Yes and No for true and false respectively, so any logging within FME will reflect this. Round-tripped values will be written as true or false as expected.

date

Datetime fields convert datetimes in CartoDB to FME datetime string format.

YYYYMMDDHHmmSS

(Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Second)

If a timezone is specified, then the offset from GMT is included at the end of the string in the format:

[+/-]HH:mm

(Plus or Minus, Hour, Minute)

number

Number fields store double precision floating point values.

All numeric types are stored as number fields in CartoDB.

The CartoDB attribute type mapping is shown below.

CartoDB Attribute Type FME Attribute Type
string fme_varchar(width)
string fme_char(width)
string fme_buffer
string fme_char
number fme_real64
number fme_decimal(width, decimal)
number fme_int32
number fme_int64
number fme_uint64
number fme_int16
number fme_uint16
number fme_uint8
number fme_real32
number fme_uint32
date fme_datetime
date fme_date
date fme_time
boolean fme_boolean

Geometry

cartodb_type Description
wkb_none FME Feature with no geometry
wkb_point 2D Point feature
wkb_line 2D Linear feature
wkb_polygon 2D Simple polygon or donut feature
wkb_geometry_collection 2D Feature with multiple geometries
wkb_multi_point 2D Feature with multiple heterogeneous point geometries
wkb_multi_line 2D Feature with multiple line geometries
wkb_multi_polygon 2D Feature with multiple polygon geometries
wkb_geometry All geometries allowed
wkb_unknown All geometries allowed