SpatiaLiteenabled

SpatiaLiteenabled describes software builds in which SpatiaLite, the spatial extension for SQLite, is active or available. It is a descriptive term used to indicate that an application can store and query geospatial data using SQLite as the backend with spatial capabilities.

SpatiaLite adds geometry types such as POINT, LINESTRING, POLYGON, and their multi-variants, with a 2D spatial index (R-tree) and a comprehensive set of spatial functions for predicates and measurements, including area, length, distance, and relationships like Intersects, Contains, and Within. It also maintains a spatial metadata schema to register geometry columns and coordinate reference systems (SRIDs).

To make software SpatiaLiteenabled, the program either links against the SpatiaLite library or loads the SpatiaLite extension into SQLite at runtime. This may involve building SQLite with extension support or calling load_extension on the SQLite API and creating the necessary spatial metadata tables via CreateSpatialMetaData and related setup.

SpatiaLiteenabled applications are common in embedded GIS, mobile data collection, offline analysis, and lightweight desktop tools where a server-based GIS is unnecessary. The approach is cross-platform, supported on major operating systems, and typically used when a portable, self-contained database is desirable.

Compared with server-side spatial databases, SpatiaLite-based solutions may have limitations in concurrency, scalability, and complex multi-user workflows, though they are effective for local or small-scale GIS tasks.

See also: SpatiaLite, SQLite, GIS, spatial extension for SQLite, libspatialite.