Example: Create a New Data Source from a MAP File

Example: Create a New Data Source from a MAP File

In this example we create a new data source from an existing .map Manifold project file.   The existing project is an import into Manifold of the "Northwind Traders" example database used with Microsoft Access and JET databases.

 

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We launch Manifold and choose File - Create - New Data Source.

 

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In the New Data Source dialog we change the name from the default Data Source to a more descriptive name, Nwind example.    We choose File: manifold as the Type and then we click on the [...] browse button to browse for the .map file we wish to use.

 

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We navigate to where the .map file is located, click on it to highlight it and then press the Open button.

 

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This adds into the Source box the path to the .map file we would like to use.   We press Create Data Source to create the new data source.

 

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A new data source is created in the project.     

 

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If we hover the mouse cursor over the new data source a tooltip will report the connection string used to connect to that data source, in this case the simple path to the .map file used.  If we wanted to provide a more verbose commentary in the tooltip we could right click onto the data source, chosen Properties, added a Description property and then added whatever text we wanted as the value of that Description property.

 

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If the Description property of the data source has text in it, hovering the mouse cursor over the data source will display that text in the tooltip.

 

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If we expand the data source by clicking on the + box icon next to Nwind example we see that it does, indeed, consist of Microsoft's Northwind Traders example database imported into Manifold.    This data source is fully read/write.   We can work with it just as if all the tables and other components had been imported into the top level of our project.

 

See Also

File - Create - New Data Source

 

Web Servers

 

Example: Spectacular Images and Data from Web Servers - A must see topic providing a gallery of views illustrating how Manifold can use web servers such as imageservers and other free resources to provide a seemingly endless selection of spectacular background maps, satellite images and GIS data with nearly zero effort.

 

Example: An Imageserver Tutorial - An extensive tutorial showing step by step how to add new data sources that are imageservers, how to show them as layers in a map, how to create a new drawing that matches the projection of the map and how to trace over what is seen in an imageserver layer to create an area object in the drawing.

 

Example: Create a New Data Source from a Manifold Image Server - Manifold image server modules are snippets of code which use the Manifold Image Server Interface (ISI) to automatically fetch image tiles from popular image servers like Virtual Earth, Wikimapia, Yahoo!, Google Maps, Yandex and many others. Image servers can provide street maps, overhead satellite imagery, combinations of streets and satellite imagery and other data as well.  Using Manifold Image Servers is one of the most popular Manifold features.

 

Example: Create a Data Source within an Existing Data Source - When a data source is writable, for example, if the data source is a Manifold .map file, we can work within that data source as if it were at the top level of our project.   For example, we can create a new data source that is nested within the existing data source.   This example shows how.

 

Example: Create and Use New Data Source using an MDB Database - This example Illustrates the step-by-step creation of a new data source using an .mdb file database, followed by use of SQL.  Although now deprecated in favor of the more current Access Database Engine formats, .mdb files are ubiquitous in the Microsoft world, one of the more popular file formats in which file databases are encountered.  

 

Example: Modify GPKG Geometry with SQL then Add Drawing - This topic provides a "Hello, World" example that shows a simple, but typical, task involving spatial data.  We will take a country-sized data set in GeoPackage (GPKG) format and change all areas in the data to the boundary lines for those areas and then save those boundary lines as a new table.  We add a spatial index to the table and create a new drawing to visualize the new table.

 

Example: Trace an Area in a Map over an Image Background - In a map with a drawing layer above an image layer (served dynamically by an imageserver), create an area object in the drawing by tracing over the outlines of something seen in the image layer below

 

Example: Style Applied to an Image Server Image - Because the Edit - Style dialog simply changes the way an image is displayed and not the data, it can operate on read-only data served by various web servers such as WMS REST servers.    In this example we look at every detail of creating a data source using a WMS REST  server and then manipulating the appearance of the display with Style.  We will connect to a WMS server that provides LiDAR data in various forms, including as terrain elevation.