Defining the data models

We already know which database objects we are going to need to store the uploaded shapefiles:

• The Shapefile object will represent a single uploaded shapefile

• Each shapefile will have a number of Attribute objects, giving the name, data type, and other information about each attribute within the shapefile

• Each shapefile will have a number of Feature objects which hold the geometry for each of the shapefile's features

• Each feature will have a set of AttributeValue objects which hold the value for each of the feature's attributes

Let's look at each of these in more detail and think about exactly what information will need to be stored in each object.

The Shapefile object

When we import a shapefile, there are a few things we need to remember:

• The original name of the uploaded file. We will display this in the "list shapefiles" view so that the user can identify the shapefile within this list.

• The spatial reference system used by the shapefile. When we import the shapefile, we...