MySQL and Geospatial Data
MySQL has had basic support for Geospatial Data since 4.1, but has lacked some of the features of the OpenGIS specifications since then. The good news is, this is rapidly changing. Our own Holyfoot has been hammering away at WorkLog #1327, to provide precise functions for our GIS support.
Even better, it’s fast. How fast? Well, the good people at Oki Labs, apart from having implemented several new GIS functions for MySQL, have done some benchmarking, and it’s looking good. If you’ll excuse the cliched comparison to Postgres, here are the response times (seconds) of MySQL GIS vs. PostGIS in Oki’s test:
| Connections | PostGIS | MySQL |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.817 | 0.220 |
| 100 | 10.517 | 0.557 |
Source: http://www.osgeo.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/foss4g2008_okumura.pdf
If you’re interested in checking it out, the source tree (regularly merged with MySQL 5.1) is available here. Have a look at Giuseppe’s guide to running a Bazaar export in MySQL Sandbox.
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Gary Pendergast, noun: Gamer, developer, MySQL, WordPress, web and music geek. Currently taking a leave of absence from life as a MySQL Support Engineer for Oracle to tour around Europe. Can be observed in his natural habit at pento.net, or usually in Bologna, Italy.
