Using Geopackages

Geopackage is a new open standard for geospatial data exchange from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), an industry standards organization. It is intended to allow users to bundle multiple layers of various types into a single file that can easily be passed to others. This recipe demonstrates how to utilize this new data format and what to expect in the future.

Getting ready

For this recipe, you will need a Geopackage file, often the extension is .gpkg. There should be a naturalearthsample.gpkg file in the provided sample data.

You'll also need GDAL 1.11 or newer; if you have QGIS 2.6 or newer, this probably came with a new enough GDAL. If you don't have a new enough GDAL, consider upgrading QGIS, which usually bundles newer versions.

Tip

Want to check what versions you have? In QGIS, open Help | About | About.

How to do it…

1. Open the Add Vector dialog.
2. Click on the Browse button and select the naturalearthsample.gpkg file:
   
3. Now, back in the main dialog, click...