JAVA GIS create shapefile from FeatureLayer

Question

The title kind of saids it all. I am attempting to export a featurelayer to a shapefile and am not having any luck finding a library which includes this functionality or relevant code to see where to get started here. Is this possible? If so, any ideas on how to accomplish the task?

I currently have made a button to make a featurelayer from a selection as follows:

protected void doActionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
    IFeatureSelection featureSelection = getFeatureSelection();

    if (!(featureSelection instanceof IFeatureLayer)) {
        return;
    }

    FeatureLayer featureLayer;
    try {
        featureLayer = Casting.cast(featureSelection, FeatureLayer.class);
        Date currentDate = new Date();
        SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd hh:mm:ss");
        String dateString = dateFormat.format(currentDate);
        IFeatureLayer selectionLayer = featureLayer.createSelectionLayer(featureLayer.getName() + " " + dateString,
                                                                         true,
                                                                         "",
                                                                         "");
        ActiveMapContainer mapContainer = ActiveMapContainer.getInstance();
        mapContainer.getMap().addLayer(selectionLayer);
    } catch (Exception e1) {
        Log.error("CreateLayerFromSelectionAction.class doActionPerformed(ActionEvent e)", e1);
        e1.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Answer 1

I have solved this issue now and for those interested, the code is posted below... I help you all find this helpful:

public final class ExportLayerToShapefileAction extends SelectionAction {

public ExportLayerToShapefileAction() {
    super("gsExportToShapefile");
}

@Override
protected void doActionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
    IFeatureSelection featureSelection = getFeatureSelection();

    if (!(featureSelection instanceof IFeatureLayer)) {
        return;
    }

    FeatureLayer featureLayer;
    try {
        featureLayer = Casting.cast(featureSelection, FeatureLayer.class);
        Date currentDate = new Date();
        SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM-dd_hh-mm-ss");
        String dateString = dateFormat.format(currentDate);
        IFeatureLayer selectionLayer = featureLayer.createSelectionLayer(featureLayer.getName() + " " + dateString,
                                                                         true,
                                                                         "",
                                                                         "");
        JFileChooser fileChooser = new JFileChooser();
        fileChooser.setDialogTitle("Select a directory to export to.");
        fileChooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.DIRECTORIES_ONLY);
        int userSelection = fileChooser.showSaveDialog(WinMgr.getInstance().getSelectedNavigator());
        if (!(userSelection == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)) {
            return;
        }
        FileUtil.createFileIfNotExists(new File(fileChooser.getSelectedFile()
                                                        .getAbsolutePath() + "\\Layer_Export_" + dateString));
        exportLayerToShapefile(fileChooser.getSelectedFile().getAbsolutePath(),
                               "Layer_Export_" + dateString,
                               selectionLayer,
                               null,
                               null);
    } catch (Exception e1) {
        e1.printStackTrace();
    }
}

public static boolean exportLayerToShapefile(
        String shapePath,
        String shapeName,
        ILayer source,
        IEnumFieldError[] fieldErrors,
        IEnumInvalidObject invalidObjects) {
    try {
        IFeatureLayer sfeatlayer = (IFeatureLayer) source;
        IFeatureClass sfeatClass = sfeatlayer.getFeatureClass();
        IDataset sdataset = Casting.cast(sfeatClass, IDataset.class);
        IDatasetName sdatasetName = (IDatasetName) sdataset.getFullName();

        ISelectionSet sSelectionSet = (
                (ITable) source).select(new QueryFilter(),
                                        esriSelectionType.esriSelectionTypeHybrid,
                                        esriSelectionOption.esriSelectionOptionNormal,
                                        sdataset.getWorkspace());

        IWorkspaceFactory factory = new ShapefileWorkspaceFactory();
        IWorkspace targetWorkspace = factory.openFromFile(shapePath, 0);
        IDataset targetDataset = (IDataset) targetWorkspace;

        IName targetWorkspaceName = targetDataset.getFullName();
        IWorkspaceName tWorkspaceName = (IWorkspaceName) targetWorkspaceName;

        IFeatureClassName tFeatClassname = new FeatureClassName();
        IDatasetName tDatasetName = (IDatasetName) tFeatClassname;
        tDatasetName.setName(shapeName);
        tDatasetName.setWorkspaceNameByRef(tWorkspaceName);

        IFieldChecker fieldChecker = new FieldChecker();
        IFields sFields = sfeatClass.getFields();

        fieldChecker.setInputWorkspace(sdataset.getWorkspace());
        fieldChecker.setValidateWorkspaceByRef(targetWorkspace);

        fieldChecker.validate(sFields, fieldErrors, null);
        if (fieldErrors != null) {
            System.out.println("Errors encountered during field validation");
        }

        String shapefieldName = sfeatClass.getShapeFieldName();
        int shapeFieldIndex = sfeatClass.findField(shapefieldName);
        IField shapefield = sFields.getField(shapeFieldIndex);
        IGeometryDef geomDef = shapefield.getGeometryDef();
        IClone geomDefClone = (IClone) geomDef;
        IClone targetGeomDefClone = geomDefClone.esri_clone();
        IGeometryDef tGeomDef = (IGeometryDef) targetGeomDefClone;

        IFeatureDataConverter2 featDataConverter = (IFeatureDataConverter2) new FeatureDataConverter();

        invalidObjects = featDataConverter.convertFeatureClass(
                sdatasetName,
                null,
                sSelectionSet,
                null,
                tFeatClassname,
                tGeomDef,
                null,
                "",
                1000, 0);

        return true;

    } catch (IOException | Casting.CastException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return false;
}
}