Valid datetime in GeoPackage

Question

I am adding spatial objects to a GeoPackage database. To register a new spatial table I use a formulation like:

INSERT INTO gpkg_contents
        (table_name, data_type, identifier, description, last_change, 
         min_x, max_x, min_y, max_y, srs_id)
VALUES ('location',
        'features',
        'Locations',
        'Relevant locations',
        DateTime('now'),
        -180, 180, -90, 90,
        4326);

I use the validate_gpkg.py utility from GDAL to validate the resulting GeoPackage, and always get the same error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "validate_gpkg.py", line 1673, in <module>
    verbose=verbose)
  File "validate_gpkg.py", line 1640, in check
    checker.check()
  File "validate_gpkg.py", line 1614, in check
    self._check_gpkg_contents(c)
  File "validate_gpkg.py", line 312, in _check_gpkg_contents
    (last_change, table_name))
  File "validate_gpkg.py", line 88, in _assert
    raise GPKGCheckException('Req %s: %s' % (str(req), msg))
__main__.GPKGCheckException: Req 15: last_change = 2019-03-27 16:20:27 for table_name = profile is invalid datetime

Instead of DateTime('now') I have also tried with CURRENT_TIME and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, but the result is always the same. How can I obtain a GeoPackage-valid time stamp to insert in the gpkg_contents table?

Answer 1

The geopackage spec[1] calls for ISO-8601 formatting.

You can get this format using strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%fZ','now')

[1] http://www.geopackage.org/spec/#r5