MapInfo Professional 12.0 and SQL Server 2008

Every connection is a new opportunity™
MapInfo User Group UK & Ireland
Working with MapInfo Professional
and Spatial Databases
Peter Horsbøll Møller
GIS/LI Pre-Sales Specialist
June, 2014

Agenda
How to setup a spatial database to be used by MapInfo
Professional 12.0
How to work with a spatial database from MapInfo
Professional 12.0
How to take advantage of a spatial database in general

A few words about myself
Live in Denmark with my family
Worked with the largest Danish partner from 1996 until 2008
where I were developing MapBasic applications, doing
training and support.
Worked on a number of project using Oracle and SQL Server
with SpatialWare (R.I.P.)
Have been working with Pitney Bowes Software for the last 6
years as a pre-sales specialist
Moderator and an active member on the MapInfo-L
Feel free to connect: dk.linkedin.com/in/peterhorsbollmoller/

The tools
MapInfo Professional 12.0, no introduction required
EasyLoader, our tool for uploading tables to spatial
databases
SQL Server 2008, the spatial database
SQL Server Management Studio, the management
interface to the database

DAY 1

Creating database, login and users

A few words on login and users
In most cases you will use Windwos Authentication and
use the Windows usernames (and Active Directory)
This let’s you assign permissions to a AD group or a single
Windows user
The SQL Server users can be used for giving a certain
application access

Schemas

What is a schema in SQL Server?
A schema in SQL Server is a way to organise for instance
your tables
Schemaes also lets you assign permission to a number of
tables, by assigning permissions to the schema in stead
of directly to the tables
You can use Schemaes as a way of organising your tables
instead of using several databases
When you access the database from MapInfo Professional
you can in the Open dialog choose what Schema you
want to browse. In this way you can limit the number of
tables shown in the dialog.

Creating a new schema

Creating a ODBC Data source
Data
Data

Creating a SQL Server 2008 data source
Data sources can be created manually or in a centralised
way
They can be stored in files or in the registry
For MapInfo Professional 32bit, the ODBC data source
must be created as 32bit data sources
For SQL Server 2008 you should use:
”SQL Server Native Client 10.0” driver
For SQL Server 2012 and Windows7 you should use:
”SQL Server Native Client 11.0” driver

MARS connection
Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS)
Supported
 MapInfo Professional 10.5.2
 SQLServer 2005, 2008 & 2012
MapInfo Professional will by default add this string to the connection
string:
 “MARS Connection=true”
Improved performance when access a table, especially using Live with
Cache. Access can be 5-10 times faster.

Creating a SQL Server 2008 data source

The MapInfo Map Catalog

Map Catalog
The Map Catalog (MapInfo.MapInfo_MapCatalog) describes spatial
tables in the database with values like:
 Kind of spatial table, for example. XY, SpatialWare, Oracle, SQL
Server, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, etc.
 Coordinate system
 Data bounds
 Symbol, default and per row
 Default view
• The Map Catalog must exist once in the
databases holding spatial data, that is to be
accessed by MapInfo Professional

Map Catalog – Spatial type
Data storage
 1 : MapInfo Code, XY with MapInfo key (3 columns)
 4 : XY stored in two columns
 13: Oracle Spatial
 14: MapInfo SpatialWare for MS SQL Server
 17: SQL Server 2008 Geometry
 18: SQL Server 2008 Geography
 19: PostgreSQL/PostGIS
Object types
 .0: Only Points
 .1: Only Lines/Polylines
 .2: Only Regions/Polygons
 .3: Mixture of object types is possible

Creating the Map Catalog
You can create the Map Catalog using EasyLoader, directly
in the database using SQL or you can use the DBMS
Catalog tool
The user creating the Map Catalog using EasyLoader
needs a sysadmin server role.
If you create the Map Catalog using EasyLoader, make
sure that you close all connections to the database
before creating the Map Catalog. If not you might have
issues using the Per Row Style option when making
DBMS tables mappable.

Creating the Map Catalog – EasyLoader

Tables

Creating tables
You can create tables manually thru the Management
Studio
Or thru MapInfo Professional
If you use MapInfo Professional it will do a number of
things automatically for you, like adding the table to the
MapCatalog, creating spatial index and primary index.

Creating tables – data types
Exact numerics
 Bigint (MapInfo type: Float)
– -9.223.372.036.854.775.808 – 9.223.372.036.854.775.807
 Int (MapInfo type: Integer)
– -2.147.483.648 – 2.147.483.647
 SmallInt (MapInfo type: SmallInt)
– -32.768 – 32.767
 TinyInt (MapInfo type: SmallInt)
– 0 – 255
 Bit (MapInfo type: Logical)
– 1 or 0
 Decimal / numerical (MapInfo type: Decimal)
– -10^38 +1 – 10^38 –1

Approximate Numerics
 Float (MapInfo type: Float)
 Real (MapInfo type: Float)
Date and time
 Datetime (MapInfo type: DateTime)
– From January 1, 1753, through December 31, 9999, with an
accuracy of three-hundredths of a second, or 3,33
milliseconds
 Date (MapInfo type: Date)
– From January 1, 1 A.D. through December 31, 9999 A.D.

Character strings
 Char (MapInfo type: Char)
– Fixed-length non-Unicode data, max. 8.000 characters
 VarChar (MapInfo type: Char)
– Variable-length non-Unicode data, max. 8.000 characters
 Text (MapInfo type: Char)
– Variable-length non-Unicode data, max. 2,147,483,647
characters
Note: Character columns longer than 254 will be made read-only when
opened in MapInfo Professional and they will only show the first 254
characters

Spatial types
 Geometry (MapInfo type: Object)
– Does require the table to be registered in the MapCatalog,
more on this later
 Geography (MapInfo type: Object)
– Does require the table to be registered in the MapCatalog,
more on this later

Creating a table - naming
Consider only using the characters A – Z and the numbers 0 – 9 and
underscores (_) when naming your tables
Use the same naming convention for columns
SQL Server does however support national characters, spaces and
some other special characters.
SQL Server has a list of reserved words that can’t be used as table or
column names, see the complete list here:
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189822.aspx
If the tables must be used from MapInfo Professional it’s recommended
to limit the names to 31 characters
Also note that the columns for table and column names in the
MapCatalog is limited to 32 characters. If you want to use longer
names, you need to extend these

Creating tables – considerations
Avoid the unicode column types (nchar, nvarchar, ntext) as MapInfo
Professional can’t edit these
Avoid creating character string column wider than 254 as MapInfo
Professional can’t edit these
Consider naming your Primary key column MI_PRINX. MapInfo
Professional will use this as the primary key in views
Consider adding Identity columns to all your table for the Primary Index
column. This will automatically update this column with unique
values when inserting new records (similar to AutoNumber in MS
Access)

Creating tables thru Management Studio

Create a new table thru MapInfo Pro
You can create a new table in SQL Server directly
from MapInfo Professional.
MapInfo Professional will automatically add this
new table to the MapInfo MapCatalog in the
database.
MapInfo Professional will also guide you thru the
choises when making the table mappable and
adding a primary index column to the table

Creating tables thru MapInfo Pro

Uploading tables to SQL Server

EasyLoader
EasyLoader …
… is provided with MapInfo Professional. It can also be
downloaded from our website
… is a standalone application that can run outside of
MapInfo Professional
… is a Windows application but it can connect to databases
running on other operating systems
… can be run in batch mode
 command prompt
 bat file
 program

Uploading thru EasyLoader

Using EasyLoader as a batch uploader
Samples on how to pass parameters to EasyLoader for doing batch uploads
Upload a single table
 “C:ProgramMapInfoProfessionalToolseasyloader.exe”
/B dbo /E /F c:ezload.log /G /K /P R
/S DSN=GIS;UID=AdminUK;PWD=Admin
/Q /Y MI_STYLE
/T C:MapsAddresses.tab;Addresses
Upload multiple tables using a text file
 “C:ProgramMapInfoProfessionalToolseasyloader.exe”
/B MAPS /E /F c:ezload.log /G /K /P R
/S DSN=GIS;UID=AdminUK;PWD=Admin
/Q /Y MI_STYLE
/L C:tabfiles.txt
Makes it easy to rerun the uploads!

Uploading thru EasyLoader - batchmode

Upload using Save as
Within MapInfo Professional you can save your table
directly to the data using File > Save Copy as…
Make sure you select the database connection in the file
type drop down list
Enter the name of the server table
Enter the name of the tab file (using Live connection)
• Will automatically add:
– MI_PRINX
– MI_STYLE

MapBasic syntax for Save as
The MapBasic syntax for saving table to a database looks
like this:
Commit Table AV97_W
As "C:DBMSBuildings.tab"
Type ODBC Connection 1
Table """dbo""."“Buildings"""
Type SQLServerSpatial Geometry
ConvertDateTime ON Interactive
Some of the parameters are optional

Uploading thru Save as

Spatial errors
Certain objects from MapInfo tabellens can result in errors. It can be a
good idea to run queries like these to find obvious issues:
Regions with an area of less than 1 sq meter
Select * From MY_TABLE
Where Str$(ObjectInfo(OBJ, 1)) In (”7”, ”8”, ”9”)
And CartesianArea(OBJ, ”sq m”) < 1
Into __POSSIBLE_ISSUES_REGIONS
Lines with a length of less than 1 meter
Select * From MY_TABLE
Where Str$(ObjectInfo(OBJ, 1)) In (”3”, ”4”)
And CartesianObjectLen(OBJ, ”m”) < 1
Into __POSSIBLE_ISSUES_LINES

Opening tables into MapInfo Professional

Opening a remote table
Select File > Open
Click on Open DBMS Connection or select the open
connection in the Files of Type dropdown list
Select the schema
Check the table(s) to open
Select Linked or Live (with Cache)

Opening DBMS tables into MapInfo Pro

Reopening a remote table
It’s only the first time you open a DBMS table, that you need to specify
which data to open
Afterwards you can reopen this table by opening the tab file
The tab file contains all the necessary information
 Table structure
 Connection information
 Can also hold the Username and Password
If the table was opened as ”Linked”, you may want to refresh the data.
If the table was opened as ”Live”, MapInfo will read the latest data from
the database

Meta data section - Linked
!table
!version 400
!charset WindowsLatin1
Definition Table
Type LINKED Charset "WindowsLatin1"
Fields 4
MI_PRINX Integer ReadOnly ;
PLACENAME Char (50) ;
DESCRIPTION Char (250) ;
TYPE Char (20) ;
begin_metadata
"DATALINK" = ""
"DATALINKConnectionString" = "DSN=GIS2;Description=SQL Server
2008 GIS database;UID=AdminUser;APP=MapInfo
Professional®;WSID=DKMP12948"
"DATALINKQuery" = "select ""MI_PRINX"", ""PLACENAME"",
""DESCRIPTION"", ""TYPE"", ""OBJECT"" from
""GIS"".""dbo"".""PointsOfInterest"""
"IsReadOnly" = "FALSE"
end_metadata

Meta data section - Live
!table
!version 500
Definition Table
Type ODBC
begin_metadata
"IsReadOnly" = "FALSE"
"DATALINK" = ""
"DATALINKQuery" = "Select * From
""GIS"".""dbo"".""PointsOfInterest"""
"DATALINKConnectionString" = "DSN=GIS2;Description=SQL Server
2008 GIS database;UID=AdminUser;APP=MapInfo
Professional®;WSID=DKMP12948"
"DATALINKToolKit" = "ODBC"
"CACHE" = "ON"
"MBRSEARCH" = "ON"
end_metadata

MapInfo Pro: Linked vs Live tables

Linked
• Data is copied to the MapInfo table the when you create the linked
table and when you refresh it
• Access to the database is only needed when saving or refreshing ->
working offline and long transactions are built in so your data is
locally available
• Speed is as fast as local data after download
• Data can be accessed read-only without a primary key
• Using a query to get just the data you need, will speed up download
time. Queries are set when you create the linked table via the Row,
Column or Expert dialogs
• Data is downloaded to the same location as the .TAB file
• Duplicate data

Live with/without cache
• First time opening a table may be faster – depending on the zoom of
your map window
• One “view entire layer” or zoom out to the entire view will download
the whole table
• Data must have a primary key
• You always need access to the database

Live without cache
• MapInfo Professional “always” reads directly from the database
• Every draw, browse, select click which can negatively affect
performance.
• Data is reread from the server on every access

Live with Cache
• Uses a temporary cache
 Since 9.5.1
– MapInfo table stored in a temporary MapInfo table.
– The cache is progressive, as you pan, zoom out or have
more than one map window of the same data, the cache
grows
• Data is cached as used in the map, so subsequent access to the
same data will be quicker
• The cache is cleared when the table closes

Conclusions
Only use LIVE WITHOUT CACHE when
 The data is highly volatile (changing minute to minute or even
sooner)
Use LIVE WITH CACHE when
 The table data is very large and it is not feasible to create a filter
query to download less data
 Your data changes regulary, for instance every day or during the
day
Use LINKED when
 Your data is static or only changes ones a day/week/month/year
 Performance is important
 You want to do advanced spatial analysis on the data in
MapInfo Pro

Conclusions
• If you have a small data size in your table, it will probably not matter
if you choose Live or Linked
• Using a LIVE table ensures that users log onto the database before
they can access the data
• If you use live tables we recommend that you access your data thru
a workspace with zoom levels set on the live table to prevent
downloading unnecessary data
• The support for MARS has improved the use of live with cache

DAY 2

Querying

When is the query performed?
For Linked tables query is performed when
 the table is opened the first time
 the table is refreshed.
For Live with cache tables query is performed when
 the table is added to a map
 you zoom or pan in the map
For Live without cache query is performed when
 the table is added to a map
 you zoom or pan in the map
 you refresh the map
 …

Row filtering
You can specify which records to retrieve from the database by attributes
And by geography
Value of Current_Mapper and Selection are static and not updated when the
table is refreshed.
“Selection” only available when a selection
is active
“Current_Mapper” only available when a
map is active
“Object” is only available for mappable
tables
“Like” and “not like” only available for text
columns
Do not use ”” around text values!

Querying - Expert
Write your own SQL statement
Syntax depends on the SQL dialect of the database
MapInfo Professional will “translate” certain expression when passing
the query to the database:
 Object
 Within
 Selection
 Current_Mapper
 …
You can save and open queries using the two buttons on the right side
of the dialog

Metadata of a spatial query
!table
!version 650
Definition Table
Type LINKED Charset "WindowsLatin1"
Fields 3
MI_PRINX Integer ReadOnly ;
NAME Char (50) ;
TYPE Char (50) ;
begin_metadata
"IsReadOnly" = "FALSE“
"DATALINK" = ""
"DATALINKConnectionString" = "DSN=GIS;MARS_Connection=Yes"
"DATALINKQuery" = "select ""MI_PRINX"", ""NAME"", ""TYPE"", ""OBJECT""
from ""GIS"".""dbo"".""POI"" where (OBJECT within Rectangle(
628163.45078508,6112409.85175394,720526.19639343,6186305.28363101))"
"DATALINKSpatialObj" = "ST_Spatial(HG_Box(ST_Point(628163.451003735300,
6186305.285449981700),ST_Point(720526.200186016970,6112409.856650807900)
) ,ST_Point(674344.821471954000,6149357.566051412400))"
end_metadata

Editing tables from SQL Server

Editing
The remote table must contain a primary unique index
 In a view this column should be named MI_PRINX
You can edit the data with every tool available in MapInfo Professional
When editing coordinates of a XY-coordinate table, the coordinates are
updated in the columns with the X and Y coordinates in the
database table
When changing the style on a table that has ”per row style” enabled the
new style will be stored in the column holding the style. On other
tables the change of style will be dismissed when you refresh the
table

Editing – by multiple users
If multiple users are editing the same table in SQL Server,
they must not access this database table thru the same
physical file on disk.
If they do only one user will be able to edit the table at a
time – the others will be prevented from editing as soon
as the first users starts editing.
They must access the database table thru their own (local)
copy of a MapInfo table, can be linked as well as live

Saving
Click Save Table to save the pending edits to the DBMS table
When saving the edits to the database, MapInfo checks if the records
you have changed, have been changed in the database since you
accessed these. If so, a dialog appears asking you to solve the
conflict
If you are using a linked table, MI Pro will ask if you want to refresh the
table as well. I would recommend that you say yes
Saving changes offline (only for Linked tables) can be done by closing
the table. MapInfo will ask how to store the pending edits:
 Save Changes to MapInfo Table
 Save Changed to Server
 Discard Changes

Editing

Conflict resolution in MapInfo Pro
If a table has been changed in the database when being saved,
MapInfo will prompt the user with a Conflict Resolution dialog like
this one
Here you can see what has been changed.
You can see the original server version, the current MapInfo version
and the current server version
You can decide what to keep and what to change – column by column
• Here you can see that column KATEGORI has
been changed, and how.
• You can also see that the geometry (object)
has been changed. Harder to see how that has
changed

Editing – conflict resolution

Refreshing linked tables

Refreshing
Reloading data from the database can be done with Table >
Maintenance > Refresh DBMS Table...
Refreshing a DBMS table
 Checks the database for changes
 Reapplies the query condition. Note that the query conditions
are static.
 If you have specified to filter using the current map or current
selection, this filter will always be applied to the table. To specify
a different map extent, you have to reopen the table from the
database.
MapBasic syntax is: Server Refresh name_of_table

Refreshing DBMS tables thru a
workspace
!Workspace
!Version 950
!Charset WindowsLatin1
Dim nConn As Integer
nConn = Server_Connect( "ODBC", "DSN=GIS;UID=EditUser;PWD=Edit" )
Print “Connection opened as no: " + nConn
Print “Now opening tables..."
Open Table "D:3. demodbmsBuildings.tab" Interactive
Map From Buildings
Print “Refreshing the DBMS tables..."
Server Refresh Buildings
Close Table Buildings
Print “We are done!"
Server nConn Disconnect
Undim nConn

Files versus database

Files versus database
The are a number of differences between MapInfo’s flat tab files and
keeping the data in SQL Server
 Several applications can access the data, not only MapInfo
software
 Multiple user editing
 The entire database stuff: relations, views, security, triggers etc.
When data is kept in the flat MapInfo tab files, the application needs to
handle things like
 timestamp on change
 keeping historic versions
 etc.
When the data is in the database, the database can manage these
things.

Introduction to joins

Inner Join
ID NAME LASTNAME
1 Peter 1
2 Paul 3
3 Mary 5
4 Ann 2
ID LASTNAME
1 Møller
2 Smith
3 McCartney
4 Probert
ID NAME LASTNAME
1 Peter Møller
2 Paul McCartney
4 Ann Smith
SELECT P.ID, P.NAME, L.LASTNAME
FROM dbo.PERSONS AS P
INNER JOIN dbo.LASTNAMES AS L
ON (P.LASTNAME = L.ID)

Left Outer Join
ID NAME LASTNAME
1 Peter 1
2 Paul 3
3 Mary 5
4 Ann 2
ID LASTNAME
1 Møller
2 Smith
3 McCartney
4 Probert
ID NAME LASTNAME
1 Peter Møller
2 Paul McCartney
3 Mary <NULL>
4 Ann Smith
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.LASTNAMES AS L
ON (P.LASTNAME = L.ID)

Cross Join
ID NAME LASTNAME
1 Peter 1
2 Paul 3
3 Mary 5
4 Ann 2
ID LASTNAME
1 Møller
2 Smith
3 McCartney
4 Probert
ID NAME LASTNAME
1 Peter Møller
2 Paul McCartney
4 Ann Smith
CROSS JOIN dbo.LASTNAMES AS L
WHERE (P.LASTNAME = L.ID)
Note: A Cross Join without condition will join every
record in the first table with every record in the
other table

Some (spatial) join types of SQL Server
Inner Join
SELECT R.*, P.PLACENAME
FROM dbo.ROADS AS R INNER JOIN dbo.PLACES AS P
ON (R.SP_GEOMETRY.STIntersects(P.SP_GEOMETRY) = 1)
Left Outer Join
FROM dbo.ROADS AS R LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.PLACES AS P
ON (R.SP_GEOMETRY.STIntersects(P.SP_GEOMETRY) = 1)
Cross Join
FROM dbo.ROADS AS R CROSS JOIN dbo.PLACES AS P
WHERE (R.SP_GEOMETRY.STIntersects(P.SP_GEOMETRY) = 1)

Creating spatial joins

Introduction to Geometry type

Geometry vs Geography
The geometry data type supports planar, or Euclidean (flat-earth),
data. The geometry data type conforms to the Open Geospatial
Consortium (OGC) Simple Features for SQL Specification version
1.1.0.
In addition, SQL Server supports the geography data type, which
stores ellipsoidal (round-earth) data, such as GPS latitude and
longitude coordinates.
Read more:
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb964711.aspx
Point
Line/Pline
Region
Region
Pline
Multi
Point
Collection

Geometry OGC methods
• STArea
• STAsBinary
• STAsText
• STBoundary
• STBuffer
• STCentroid
• STContains
• STConvexHull
• STCrosses
• STDifference
• STDimension
• STDisjoint
• STDistance
• STEndpoint
• STEnvelope
• STEquals
• STExteriorRing
• STGeometryN
• STGeometryType
• STInteriorRingN
• STIntersection
• STIntersects
• STIsClosed
• STIsEmpty
• STIsRing
• STIsSimple
• STIsValid
• STLength
• STNumGeometries
• STNumInteriorRing
• STNumPoints
• STOverlaps
• STPointN
• STPointOnSurface
• STRelate
• STSrid
• STStartPoint
• STSymDifference
• STTouches
• STUnion
• STWithin
• STX
• STY
They are all case sensitive!!!

Invalid geometries
Find records with invalid geometries
Select * From dbo.MYTABLE
Where SP_Geometri.STIsValid() = 0
Fix records with invalide geometries
– pure magic!? Or not!?
Update dbo.MYTABLE
Set SP_Geometri = SP_Geometri.MakeValid()

Coordinate systems – EPSG codes
Querying EPSG codes for a table, også known as SRID:
select distinct SP_GEOMETRY.STSrid from dbo.MYTABLE
If it isn’t ”right”, you can change it using this statement:
Update dbo.MYTABLE Set SP_GEOMETRY.STSrid = 25832
But do not change the EPSG code to one of a completely different coordinate system.
But there does exist coordinate systems with different EPSG codes!:
"UTM Zone 32 Euref89p25832“
, 8, 115, 7, 9.0, 0, 0.9996, 500000, 0
"ETRS TM Zone 32, Northern Hemisphere (ETRS89)p3044“
, 8, 115, 7, 9, 0, 0.9996, 500000, 0
Note that EasyLoader has its own projection file!!

Spatial SQL samples
Adding a column with the area
Select *, SP_GEOMETRY.STArea() As Area
From dbo.PLACES
Adding a column with the length
Select *, SP_GEOMETRY.STLength() As Length
From dbo.ROADS

Spatial SQL samples
Finding municipalities and their neighbours
Select t1.NAME, t2.NAME
From dbo.MUNICIPALITIES t1, dbo.MUNICIPALITIES t2
Where (t1.SP_GEOMETRY.STTouches(t2.SP_GEOMETRY) = 1
Or t1.SP_GEOMETRY.STIntersects(t2.SP_GEOMETRY) = 1)
And t1.MI_PRINX <> t2.MI_PRINX
Order By t1.NAME

Spatial SQL samples
Adding city name to only those roads, that intersects a city
Select R.*, P.PLACENAME
FROM dbo.ROADS AS R
CROSS JOIN dbo.PLACES AS P
WHERE (R.SP_GEOMETRY.STIntersects(P.SP_GEOMETRY) = 1)
Adding city name to the roads, that intersects a city and NULL to the other
roads
Select R.*, P.PLACENAME
FROM dbo.ROADS AS R
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.PLACES AS P
On (R.SP_GEOMETRY.STIntersects(P.SP_GEOMETRY) = 1)

DAY 3

Creating views in SQL Server

What is a view?
Et view can be seen as a way to look at your data
With a view you can
• limit the number of columns and/or records you want to see, for
instance to separate a table of roads into different road classes
• merge multiple columns to one column, for instance merge road
name and house no to a address column
• enrich one table with data from another table, for isntance by
transfering the postal area name from a postal table to a table with
addresses. You often do this by joining these tables. This can be
done thru alphanumerical or spatial attributes
• combine multiple tables into one.

Creating views in SQL Server – mappable
If the views must be mappable from
within MapInfo Pro, you need to make
the view mappable
You can also manually add the view to
the MapInfo_MapCatalog – if you
know all the parameters
Or you can copy the record of the base
table in the Map Catalog, insert the
copy and change the name of the
table to the name of the view

Creating views

Making a DBMS table mappable

Making a DBMS table mappable
This will add a record of that table to the MapInfo
MapCatalog specifying how MapInfo Professional should
show this table in a map
You need to specify where to get the spatial data, what
coordinate system to use and what symbology to apply
to the spatial data when displaying it in MapInfo
Professional
You can do this thru Table > Maintenance > Make DBMS
Table Mappable in MapInfo Professional
or by copying and modifying a record in the MapCatalog

Making DBMS tables mappable

A view that merges tables
The statement below should be run from a Query-vindue – not thru
View > Create New:
Create View dbo.viewAddressesUnion As
SELECT *
FROM dbo.ADDRESSES_A
UNION ALL
SELECT *
FROM dbo.ADDRESSES_B
Add it to the MapCatalog if it is mappable

Improved performance with views
If you create a view that you want to search for specific records, it might
be an idea to index the view
To be able to index your views, you need to bind the views with the
data used in the views, this is called SCHEMABINDING
You also need a unique clustered index. Otherwise you can’t index
other columns
Now you can index other columns, for instance the column with your
addresses or the like.
Read more here:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialized_view
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd171921.aspx
 http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1610/sql-server-schema-
binding-and-indexed-views/

SCHEMABINDING
Right click on your view and select Scritp View As > Alter To > New
Query Window
Add ”WITH SCHEMABINDING” as shown below
Hit F5 or click the Execute button to modify the view
Or set it while creating the view

Unique Clustered Index
Right click on the Index folder of your view and select Create New....
Write a name, like ”PK_” + the name of your view
Pick the primary key column using the Add button
Choose Clustered and check Unique
Hit OK

Creating indexed views

Triggers i SQL Server

What are Triggers?
A trigger can be called when something happens in the
database
It can be called when records are inserted, updated,
deleted
It can be called when a user logs onto the database
A trigger can be used to stamp records with information on
who changed them and when
A trigger can be used to copy changed records to a historic
table

Temporary tables in triggers
SQL Server has two temporary tables, that can be accessed in a trigger:
inserted
 Contains the new records, that are to be inserted. This table
contains the changed records as they look after the change
 Exists on insert and on update
deleted
 Contains the records that have been deleted or updated. This table
contains the records as they look before they are changed/deleted
 Exists on update and on delete

Trigger statement
CREATE TRIGGER [schema_name.] trigger_name
ON { table | view }
[ WITH <dml_trigger_option> [ ,...n ] ]
{ FOR | AFTER | INSTEAD OF } { [INSERT] [,] [UPDATE] [,] [DELETE]}
[ NOT FOR REPLICATION ]
AS { sql_statement [ ; ]
[ ,...n ]
| EXTERNAL NAME <method specifier [ ; ] > }

Create a timestamp trigger on update
CREATE TRIGGER dbo.trg_MY_TABLE_AfterUpdate
ON dbo. MY_TABLE
AFTER UPDATE
AS
Begin
Update dbo.MY_TABLE
Set DATE_CHANGED = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
USER_CHANGED = USER
Where MI_PRINX In (Select MI_PRINX From inserted);
End
GO

Create a timestamp trigger after insert
CREATE TRIGGER dbo.trg_MY_TABLE_AfterInsert
ON dbo. MY_TABLE
AFTER INSERT
AS
Begin
Update dbo.MY_TABLE
Set DATE_CREATED = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
USER_CREATED = USER
Where MI_PRINX In (Select MI_PRINX From inserted);
End
GO

Create a ”history” trigger
CREATE TRIGGER dbo.trgCopyToHistory
ON dbo.ADM_KOMMUNE_2007
AFTER DELETE,UPDATE
AS
Begin
Insert Into dbo.ADM_KOMMUNE_2007_history
(OBJECTID, NAME, OBJECTTYPE, ADM_CODE
, MI_PRINX_ORIGINAL, SP_GEOMETRY, MI_STYLE)
Select OBJECTID, NAME, OBJECTTYPE, ADM_CODE
, MI_PRINX, SP_GEOMETRY, MI_STYLE
From deleted
End
Go

Trigger updating X and Y columns
Create TRIGGER [dbo].[trg_MYTABLE_AfterUpdate]
ON [dbo].[MYTABLE]
AFTER INSERT, UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
UPDATE DBO.MYTABLE
SET X = SP_GEOMETRY.STX,
Y = SP_GEOMETRY.STY
WHERE MI_PRINX IN (SELECT MI_PRINX FROM inserted)
END

Creating triggers

Using MapBasic to access SQL Server

Process
Create connection
nConn = Server_Connect("ODBC“, "DSN=GIS")
Do something
Server Create Map
Server Create Style
Server Create Table
Server Link Table
Register Table
Server Refresh
Server Set Map
Server_Execute
Commit Table
…
Close Connection
Server nConn Disconnect

Server_Execute
You can use the Server_Execute function to send SQL statements to
the SQL Server to be executed
Make sure that you have an connection to the database open
Print Server_Execute(1, ”Drop table dbo.PLACES”)
Print Server_Execute(1, ”Delete From
MapInfo.MapInfo_MapCatalog
Where OWNERNAME = ’dbo’
and TABLENAME = ’PLACES’”)
Do remember to replace the ” and ’ in the MapBasic window when
copied from a PowerPoint

MapBasic applications - FindDBMS
Find DBMS is a small utility showing how a search can be done using a
spatial database on the back end
The tool searches a predefined table in the database using the
connection #1. This could be changed to be a specific data source.
The tool lets you enter some value to search for. When you hit Enter,
the SQL Select is sent to the database and the matching values are
returned and shown in a listbox.
When you click on any of the returned values, the matching record is
highlighted in the map and the map is zoomed to the record
Note that you should have the table searched open in a map. The
name of this table is specified in the config file: FIND DBMS.ini

Find DBMS

MapBasic applications - TableRefresh
TableRefresh is a small utility that will search a file structure for tables
The tables found will be opened and if they are either a Linked or a
WFS table, the application can refresh them if this has been
specified
The tool is controlled by the configuration file

Table Refresh

Partner offerings
A number of our partners has seen a need for helping
customers take advantage of spatial databases
This has resulted in a number of applications for this area.
Here are two examples, but there are more out there

LE34 – GIS34 Manager

Aligned Assets - GeoStore

Final Words
We have now looked at how to
• prepare a database to be used by MapInfo Professional
• access a spatial database from MapInfo Professional
• upload data to the spatial database using EasyLoader
• open tables from a spatial database from MapInfo
Professional
• create views in a spatial database
• implement some triggers in the spatial database
• take advantage of the spatial database from MapBasic

Questions
 Peter Horsbøll Møller
 peter.moller@pb.com
 www.mapinfo.com

Every connection is a new opportunity
™

MapInfo Professional 12.0 and SQL Server 2008

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