MBTiles

 MBTiles 是一種地圖瓦片存儲的數據規範，它使用SQLite數據庫，可大大提高海量地圖瓦片的讀取速度，比通過瓦片文件方式的讀取要快很多，適用於Android、IPhone等智能手機的離線地圖存儲。

官方地址：http://mbtiles.org —— 規範說明

The MBTiles format makes it easy to manage and share thousands or even millions of map tiles.

MBTiles is a specification for storing tiled map data in SQLite databases for immediate use and for transfer. The files are designed for portability of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of standard map tile images in a single file.

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1 Features

• Fast
  Transferring an MBTiles file is faster than transferring millions of tile images when loading them onto USB stick, mobile device, or when transferring over a network. The trade-off in database access versus filesystem access when using MBTiles is, in our experience, negligible.
• Offline
  Because MBTiles files are self contained, they can used without an Internet connection.
• Compatible
  Images are stored as blob data, so tiles can be read by most SQLite clients. There are manyimplementations of MBTiles from different organizations -- notablyTileMill,TileStream,Arc2Earth,TileStache, and MapBox for iPad.
• Open
  MBTiles is an open-source specification. The specification text itself requires attribution, but there are absolutely no restrictions or requirements placed on implementations.

2 Example

Download the Haiti Terrain Grey tileset. Then, open the MBTiles file in the sqlite client.

sqlite3 haiti-terrian-grey.mbtiles

Next, run this SQL statment.

SELECT * FROM tiles WHERE zoom_level = 5;

This displays a row for each tile on zoom level five.

5|8|17|????

5|8|18|????

5|9|17|????

5|9|18|????

5|10|17|????

5|10|18|????

The ???? characters represents PNG images stored as blob data.

 

3 Implementations

3.1 Compliant

• python: raster2mb (write)
• python: mbutil (read/write)
• python: landez (write) (uses mbutil)
• python: TileStache (code) (read/write) - a full, high-quality tile server
• Arc2Earth (write)
• python: mapproxy (announcement) (read/write)

3.2 Others

• objc: MapDBImporter (write)
• java/android: MBTilesDroidSpitter (example) (read)
• objc/iPhone: Maptual (read)
• java/Android: Locus (read)
• Windows compatible viewer: MBTilesViewer (read)
• java/Android: Nutiteq SDK

3.3 Applications

• MapBox for iPad (read)
• js: TileMill (write)
• objc: route-me - using theRMMBTilesTileSource connector (example) (read)
• TileMill OS X QuickLook & Spotlight plugins (read)

Last edited by willwhite, September 15, 2011