Basic GeoPackage Concepts

Identifying a GeoPackage

A GeoPackage is an SQLite Database file with a .gpkg extension. If you are unsure whether a file is an SQLite database, you can use a binary or text editor to view the starting bytes of the file and see if they state “SQLite format 3”.

Opening a GeoPackage

There are a number of ways to open a GeoPackage.

  • For using a command-line SQL interface, consider the “sqlite” command (SQLite).

  • For using a graphical SQL interface, consider DB Browser for SQLite.

  • For using a web application, consider using NGA’s application as long as the GeoPackage file isn’t too big.

  • For using a desktop application, there are a number of options. We recommend choosing the GeoPackage implementation that is best suited for your operational environment. One open source alternative is QGIS.

  • There are a number of GeoPackage APIs including the following: * GDAL / OGR * The GeoPackage-Java library

The GeoPackage community tries to maintain a list of operational GeoPackage implementations and this list can be found on the implementations page. Additional information on specific products and versions of products that implement GeoPackage can also be found at http://www.opengeospatial.org/resource/products. You can search by specific versions of the GeoPackage standard. Note: Search for all implementing products.

Creating a GeoPackage

Similarly, if you wish to create a new GeoPackage from scratch or from an existing source file such as a ShapeFile or .csv, below are some suggestions:

  • For using direct SQL access, start with the empty geopackage template

  • For using a desktop application, refer to the implementations list above

  • For using a command line program, consider the GDAL vector and raster utilities

  • This blog post (The section titled “Creating a GeoPackage with Reference Data”) provides an example that describes steps for creating a GeoPackage using ogr2ogr. The post also provides information on how to add the SpatiaLite extension to enable further spatial analysis in SQLite.

    Note: For maximum interoperability, start your database identifiers (table names, column names, etc.) with a lowercase character and only use lowercase characters, numbers 0-9, and underscores (_).

Checking a GeoPackage Version

Using a direct SQL interface such as DB Browser is the easiest way to check a GeoPackage version. SQLite uses “pragma” statements to implement non-standard SQL functions. These statements can be executed just like any other SQL statement and where relevant, they return a result set. The two pragmas you need to know are:

  • PRAGMA application_id

    • 1196444487 (the 32-bit integer value of 0x47504B47 or GPKG in ASCII) for GPKG 1.2 and greater

    • 1196437808 (the 32-bit integer value of 0x47503130 or GP10 in ASCII) for GPKG 1.0 or 1.1

  • PRAGMA user_version

    • For versions 1.2 and later, this returns an integer representing the version number in the form MMmmPP (MM = major version, mm = minor version, PP = patch). Therefore 1.2 is 10200.

Running the Executable Test Suite

The GeoPackage Executable Test Suite (ETS) is a conformance test suite that verifies the structure and content of a GeoPackage data container. To run the ETS, do the following:

  1. Open the site (linked above).

  2. Create an account using the link provided.

  3. Log in.

  4. Create a new session.

  5. Choose the GeoPackage 1.2 specification (or later if available).

  6. Provide a file using either the URL box or a file upload.

  7. Select the “Start” button.

The ETS is open source software hosted in a GitHub Repository.