Data stores

A data store contains vector format spatial data. It can be a file (such as a shapefile), a database (such as PostGIS), or a server (such as a remote Web Feature Service).

/workspaces/<ws>/datastores[.<format>]

Controls all data stores in a given workspace.

Method Action Status code Formats Default Format
GET List all data stores in workspace ws 200 HTML, XML, JSON HTML
POST Create a new data store 201 with Location header XML, JSON  
PUT   405    
DELETE   405    

/workspaces/<ws>/datastores/<ds>[.<format>]

Controls a particular data store in a given workspace.

Method Action Status code Formats Default Format Parameters
GET Return data store ds 200 HTML, XML, JSON HTML  
POST   405      
PUT Modify data store ds        
DELETE Delete data store ds       recurse

Exceptions

Exception Status code
GET for a data store that does not exist 404
PUT that changes name of data store 403
PUT that changes workspace of data store 403
DELETE against a data store that contains configured feature types 403

Parameters

recurse

The recurse parameter recursively deletes all layers referenced by the specified data store. Allowed values for this parameter are “true” or “false”. The default value is “false”.

/workspaces/<ws>/datastores/<ds>/[file|url|external][.<extension>]

These endpoints (file, url, and external) allow a file containing spatial data to be added (via a POST or PUT) into an existing data store, or will create a new data store if it doesn’t already exist. The three endpoints are used to specify the method that is used to upload the file:

  • file—Uploads a file from a local source. The body of the request is the file itself.
  • url—Uploads a file from an remote source. The body of the request is a URL pointing to the file to upload. This URL must be visible from the server.
  • external—Uses an existing file on the server. The body of the request is the absolute path to the existing file.
Method Action Status code Formats Default Format Parameters
GET Deprecated. Retrieve the underlying files for the data store as a zip file with MIME type application/zip 200      
POST   405      
PUT Uploads files to the data store ds, creating it if necessary 200 See note below   configure, target, update, charset
DELETE   405      

Exceptions

Exception Status code
GET for a data store that does not exist 404
GET for a data store that is not file based 404

Parameters

extension

The extension parameter specifies the type of data being uploaded. The following extensions are supported:

Extension Datastore
shp Shapefile
properties Property file
h2 H2 Database
spatialite SpatiaLite Database

Note

A file can be PUT to a data store as a standalone or zipped archive file. Standalone files are only suitable for data stores that work with a single file such as a GML store. Data stores that work with multiple files, such as the shapefile store, must be sent as a zip archive.

When uploading a standalone file, set the Content-type appropriately based on the file type. If you are loading a zip archive, set the Content-type to application/zip.

configure

The configure parameter controls how the data store is configured upon file upload. It can take one of the three values:

  • first—(Default) Only setup the first feature type available in the data store.
  • none—Do not configure any feature types.
  • all—Configure all feature types.

target

The target parameter determines what format or storage engine will be used when a new data store is created on the server for uploaded data. When importing data into an existing data store, it is ignored. The allowed values for this parameter are the same as for the extension parameter.

update

The update parameter controls how existing data is handled when the file is PUT into a data store that already exists and already contains a schema that matches the content of the file. The parameter accepts one of the following values:

  • append—Data being uploaded is appended to the existing data. This is the default.
  • overwrite—Data being uploaded replaces any existing data.

charset

The charset parameter specifies the character encoding of the file being uploaded (such as “ISO-8559-1”).