Reader Directives

The directives that are processed by the GeoConcept reader are listed below. The suffixes shown are prefixed by the current <ReaderKeyword>_ in a mapping file. By default, the <ReaderKeyword> for the GeoConcept reader is GEOCONCEPT.

DATASET

Required/Optional: Required

The value for this directive is the path to the file to be read. A typical mapping file fragment specifying an input GeoConcept dataset looks like:

GEOCONCEPT_DATASET C:\Maps\Europe\France.gcm

Workbench Parameter: Source GeoConcept Map File(s)

DEF

Required/Optional: Optional

The definition specifies only the base name of the file, the type of geometry it contains, and names and types of all attributes. The syntax of a GeoConcept DEF line is:

GEOCONCEPT_DEF <baseName> \
	[<attrName> <attrType>]+ 

The following attrType values are currently possible.

Field Type	Description
date	Date fields store dates as character strings with the format YYYYMMDD.
datetime	Date fields store dates as character strings with the format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.
time	A time field stores time as a character string with the format HHMM, however, in order to conform to FME conventions, the HHMMSS format is produced by the reader, with the seconds being dropped by the writer. As a convenience, HHMM is supported by the writer. The 24 hour clock is used.
bool	Bool fields are logical fields storing TRUE/FALSE data. Data read to or written from such fields must always have a value of either true or false.
int	Integer field.
real	Holds double precision floating point numbers.
text	Holds string values which should not contain embedded newline characters (\r\n).
memo	A memo field holds string values which may contain embedded newlines.
list	There is limited support for list field types. They are essentially treated as if they are memos. Note: When written, they will be of type "memo" not "list".
movie	Holds a path to a movie file that may be incorporated into a map.
pict	Holds a path to a picture file that may be incorporated into a map.
sound	Holds a path to a sound file that may be incorporated into a map.
binary	A binary field stores arbitrary values in an internal buffer.
url	this stores a URL as text.
area	This stores an area value along with the associated units.
length	This stores a length value along with the associated units.
unicode_text	A UTF-8 encoded string attribute. See note below.

Note: The attribute type unicode_text should only be used as a destination attribute type if you are certain that the intended recipient of the map has access to either FME or GeoConcept Expert Version 6.1 or newer. Older versions of GeoConcept Expert do not support the unicode field type and they will not be able to read or modify this field.

Workbench Parameter: Feature Types

IDs

This optional specification is used to limit the GeoConcept feature types that are read. If no IDs are specified, then all defined and available GeoConcept feature types are read. The syntax of the IDs keyword is:

<ReaderKeyword>_IDs <baseName1>  \
	<baseName2> \
	<baseNameN> 

The basenames must match those used in DEF lines.

The example below selects only the roads GeoConcept feature type for input during a translation:

GEOCONCEPT_IDs roads

APPEARANCE_AT_ZOOM_LEVEL

Required/Optional: Required

GeoConcept maps allow objects to have different appearances at different levels of zoom. This required parameter is used to determine which zoom level the GEOCONCEPT reader should use to extract appearance information. In other words, if an object has a different appearance at zoom level 4 than at zoom level 5, then setting this parameter to 4 will result in different appearance values than if it were set to 5. It is currently not possible to capture all zoom level appearance values.

Note: Some zoom levels will have the appearance for certain objects set to ‘invisible’.

Only the integer values 1 to 12 are allowed. The example below sets the appearance attributes to use zoom level 4.

GEOCONCEPT_APPEARANCE_AT_ZOOM_LEVEL 4

Workbench Parameter: Select logical zoom scale to use for appearances

USE_SUBCLASS_APPEARANCE

Required/Optional: Optional

This attribute provides a small performance increase on large datasets. The default way to handle appearances is to extract the appearance values from each object. However in GeoConcept it is quite common for all members of a class or class/subclass to have the same appearance settings. Setting this directive to TRUE tells the GEOCONCEPT reader to only extract the appearance settings once, at the class/subclass level rather than once for every object of that type.

Possible values for this directive are YES or NO. The example below sets the directive value to YES.

GEOCONCEPT_USE_SUBCLASS_APPEARANCE YES

Workbench Parameter: Use each map subclass to determine appearance?

SEARCH_ENVELOPE

Using the minimum and maximum x and y parameters, define a bounding box that will be used to filter the input features. Only features that interact with the bounding box are returned.

If all four coordinates of the search envelope are specified as 0, the search envelope will be disabled.

Mapping File Syntax

<ReaderKeyword>_SEARCH_ENVELOPE <minX> <minY> <maxX> <maxY>

Note: If all four coordinates of the search envelope are specified as zero, the search envelope will be disabled.

Required/Optional

Optional

Workbench Parameter

Minimum X, Minimum Y, Maximum X, Maximum Y

SEARCH_ENVELOPE_COORDINATE_SYSTEM

This directive specifies the coordinate system of the search envelope if it is different than the coordinate system of the data.

The COORDINATE_SYSTEM directive, which specifies the coordinate system associated with the data to be read, must always be set if the SEARCH_ENVELOPE_COORDINATE_SYSTEM directive is set.

If this directive is set, the minimum and maximum points of the search envelope are reprojected from the SEARCH_ENVELOPE_COORDINATE_SYSTEM to the reader COORDINATE_SYSTEM prior to applying the envelope.

Required/Optional

Optional

Mapping File Syntax

<ReaderKeyword>_SEARCH_ENVELOPE_COORDINATE_SYSTEM <coordinate system>

Workbench Parameter

Search Envelope Coordinate System

CLIP_TO_ENVELOPE

This directive specifies whether or not FME should clip features to the envelope specified in the SEARCH_ENVELOPE directive.

Values

YES | NO (default)

Mapping File Syntax

<ReaderKeyword>_CLIP_TO_ENVELOPE [yes | no]

Workbench Parameter

Clip To Envelope

EXPOSED_ATTRS

This directive allows the selection of format attributes to be explicitly added to the reader feature type.

This is similar to exposing format attributes on a reader feature type once it has been generated; however, it is even more powerful because it enables schema-driven applications other than Workbench to access and leverage these attributes as if they were explicitly on the schema as user attributes.

The result of picking a list of attributes is a comma-separated list of attribute names and types that will be added to the schema features. Currently all reader feature types will receive the same set of additional schema attributes for a given instance of the reader.

Required/Optional

Optional

Mapping File Syntax

Not applicable.

While it is possible for FME Objects applications to invoke this directive, the required format is not documented.

This directive is intended for use in our GUI applications (for example, Workbench) only.

Workbench Parameter

Additional Attributes to Expose