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Does anyone know if there is some kind of documentation on which database types that you can connect to in QGIS? I would also like to know if:

Can I use the databes for read only or read & write.

thanks

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2 Answers

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QGIS supports

  • PostGIS - including a dedicated PostGIS Manager plugin for seamless work
  • Spatialite - there is also Spatialite Manager
  • MSSQL 2008 Spatial - also supported by default starting from version 1.8
  • Oracle Spatial - via OGR but not by default & Oracle Spatial GeoRaster plugin
  • ESRI File/(Personal) Geodatabase - via OGR

All database connections support read&write access (except for the Personal Geodatabase which is read-only via OGR).

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Thanks, I'm working on my Bachelor dissertation. Comparing QGIS with ArcGIS Desktop Basic. Hopefully to turn some eyes on a great software in ESRI-dominating world ;) – Andersson May 30 '12 at 19:09
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Direct connection to PostGIS was the main reason we moved to QGIS. Cost is usually the most important factor to business. – Mapperz♦ May 30 '12 at 20:30
@Andersson As an end user of their APIs I can tell you that, at least up to 2005, ESRI was dominating because they provided the highest quality solution. The primary area of complaint for me was that address interpolation used by the majority of other providers, was woefully inadequate for anything more than consumer internet driving directions, and sometimes not even for all of those use cases. Secondarily, no other providers had the scope of data that ESRI did. Finding free data was a piecemeal, time consuming and unreliable task. That said, a lot can change in six years time. – user5732 May 30 '12 at 20:59
@Joshua. Well, I'm a fresh to the GIS-area compared to others here, but in Sweden (Where Im from) ESRI is dominating the field and sometimes It's seems, without reason. Many users are sitting on expensive software when non-charge open source-software can do the same thing. – Andersson May 31 '12 at 5:09
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The first place I would start looking is the QGIS.org website. Here is a link to the page for Documentation

In general, QGIS supports the GDAL/OGR Feature Libraries. To quote the OGR main page:

The OGR Simple Features Library is a C++ open source library (and commandline tools) providing read (and sometimes write) access to a variety of vector file formats including ESRI Shapefiles, S-57, SDTS, PostGIS, Oracle Spatial, and Mapinfo mid/mif and TAB formats.

Here is a list of supported formats, including a number of different databases, that are supported by GDAL/OGR, and thus, QGIS. OGR Vector Formats.

Some of the databases include

  • PostGreSQL
  • SQLite/Spatialite
  • ESRI Personal/File Geodatabase
  • MySQL
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Does the word "creation" mean Write/edit-able? I have a QGIS 1.8 version on my computer and i can open layers in ESRI file gdb but I still can't toggle editing. – Andersson May 30 '12 at 19:18
Have you verified the requirements gdal.org/ogr/drv_filegdb.html – underdark♦ May 30 '12 at 20:02
@Andersson, I am pretty sure in this context, that "Creation", means the ability to create a File GDB. There should be read/write capabilities as well. There seem to be some ongoing issues with support for the File GDB. See this thread for details: How to get ".GDB" (Esri File Geodatabase) support in Quantum GIS(OSGeo4W - QGIS) – Get Spatial May 30 '12 at 20:30

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