How to get only one feature from MySQL?

Question

I would like to get only one feature from a MySQL database.

What am I currently doing?
I use the Add Vector Layer functionality in QGis to get the features (polygons) from the MySQL database. They are all displaying fine, but my problem is that I would like to get only one feature/polygon from the database, filtering by a MySQL query by example (it would be perfect).

Is there a way to do so ?

Thank you !

Answer 1

When you connect to your database and after you selected the table your wish to view, there is a button which says "Build Query". And then you tell qgis which features you want to fetch.

EDIT:

If for some reason you cannot access the build-in query builder you can create a View.

Go in the database and enter,

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW myView AS SELECT * FROM <SPATIAL_TABLE> where <constraints>;

And then point qgis at the created view. Also check this answer for more details

Answer 2

I found a solution using the ogr2ogr executable, which supports MySQL (if you're using PostgreSQL, see pgsql2shp and shp2pgsql). I'm using it like this and it works fine.

ogr2ogr -overwrite -where "YOUR SQL CONDITION" -f "ESRI Shapefile" SHPCREATED.shp MYSQL:vine,host=localhost,user=root YOURTABLE

If you're under Mac OS X, the executable has been installed in /Library/Frameworks/GDAL.framework/Versions/1.9/Programs/

NB: I was looking for a solution which was possible in command-line, because I'm working on a website and I would like to do these tasks automatically; therefore this is perfect for me.