Precisely MapInfo TAB (EFAL) Reader/Writer (Technology Preview)

FME reads and writes MapInfo TAB (EFAL) files.

This is a proprietary format used by the MapInfo Pro mapping product. It was introduced in MapInfo Pro 15.2. MapInfo Native format files are often called TAB files.

Tip MapInfo Formats: FME can read and write several of the proprietary formats created by MapInfo Pro. For help with choosing the format that is right for your workflow, see the MapInfo Format Comparison below, or visit Choosing the Right MapInfo Format.

Technology Preview

Note This format is still under active development, so please expect changes to the current behavior. Safe Software does not recommend using this format in production environments.

Precisely MapInfo TAB (EFAL) Product and System Requirements

Format	FME Platform			Operating System
Reader/Writer	FME Form	FME Flow	FME Flow Hosted	Windows 64-bit	Linux	Mac
Reader	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Writer	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No

MapInfo Formats

The MapInfo TAB (EFAL) format can read and write "native" TAB files (that is, files that can also be read by the MAPINFO and MITAB readers). This reader may have better performance than MAPINFO or MITAB when reading native TAB files.

The table below compares FME-supported MapInfo formats.

MapInfo Format Comparison

MapInfo Format	Supports Tables over 2GB	Unicode Support	Stores Attributes and Geometry in One File	Field Character Limit	Available on Mac or Linux
Precisely MapInfo TAB (EFAL) Reader/Writer (Technology Preview)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Precisely MapInfo Extended TAB Reader/Writer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Precisely MapInfo TAB (MAPINFO/MITAB) Reader/Writer	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Precisely MapInfo MIF/MID Reader/Writer	No	No	No	No	Yes

Overview

MapInfo files store both feature geometry and attributes. A logical MapInfo file consists of several physical files, having the following filename extensions:

Filename Extension	Contents
.tab	The main file for a MapInfo table, associated with the appropriate DAT, MAP, ID, and IND files.
.dat, .gpkg	Tabular data for a table. Geopackage (.gpkg) (read-only) is an alternative way for a MapInfo Extended dataset to store attribute data.
.id	An index to a MapInfo graphical objects (MAP) file.
.map	Contains geographic information describing map objects.
.ind	An index to a MapInfo tabular (DAT) file.

These extensions are added to the basename of the specified MapInfo file.

Note In this chapter, references to file are references to the logical MapInfo file, not the multiple physical files that comprise it.

Geometric entities present in MapInfo may have display properties, such as pen and brush width, pattern, and color. In addition, each entity has a row of attributes associated with it. A single MapInfo map file can contain many different types of geometry; however, the associated attributes must have the same number and type of fields for each entity in the file.

Reader Overview

The reader considers a dataset to be a TAB file and its related files in a single folder.

Writer Overview

The writer can produce both Native and NativeX table types. Table handling options can be used to determine if the existing files will be overwritten or not.

Each table maps to a single file with the equivalent name in the specified folder.