vapour (version 0.2.0)

vapour-package: vapour

Description

A lightweight GDAL API package for R.

Arguments

Details

Provides low-level access to 'GDAL' functionality for R packages. The aim is to minimize the level of interpretation put on the 'GDAL' facilities, to enable direct use of it for a variety of purposes. 'GDAL' is the 'Geospatial Data Abstraction Library' a translator for raster and vector geospatial data formats that presents a single raster abstract data model and single vector abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats http://gdal.org/.

Lightweight means we access parts of the GDAL API as near as possible to their native usage. GDAL is not a lightweight library, but provide a very nice abstraction over format details for a very large number of different formats.

Functions for raster and vector sources are included.

#'

vapour_all_drivers list of all available drivers, with type and features
vapour_gdal_version report version of GDAL in use

vapour_raster_gcp return internal ground control points, if present
vapour_raster_info structural metadata of a source
vapour_read_raster read data direct from a window of a raster band source
vapour_sds_names list individual raster sources in a source containing subdatasets

vapour_driver report name of the driver used for a given source
vapour_geom_summary report simple properties of each feature geometry
vapour_layer_names list names of vector layers in a data source
vapour_read_names read the 'names' of features in a layer, the 'FID'
vapour_read_attributes read attributes of features in a layer, the columnar data associated with each geometry
vapour_read_extent read the extent, or bounding box, of geometries in a layer
vapour_read_geometry read geometry in binary (blob, WKB) form
vapour_read_geometry_text read geometry in text form, various formats
vapour_report_attributes report internal type of each attribute by name

As far as possible vapour aims to minimize the level of interpretation provided for the functions, so that developers can choose how things are implemented. Functions return raw lists or vectors rather than data frames or classed types.