Requests for comment/Native geospatial data types

From mediawiki.org
Request for comment (RFC)
Native geospatial data types
Component General
Creation date
Author(s) Jnatividad
Document status in draft

Background[edit]

The GeoData extension is deployed in mediawiki sites and its API is widely used by the community to hyperlocalize knowledge. It currently stores geospatial data using int/float MySQL datatypes, rather than native spatial data types.

Proposal (in general)[edit]

  • GeoData as it is, already requires MySQL 5. MySQL 5 supports spatial datatypes anyway, why not use them instead?
  • Using spatial datatypes will allow us to take advantage of more advanced spatial functions (e.g. within, touches, etc.)
  • A lot of knowledge stored in mediawikis are geospatial by nature.

Discussion[edit]