Indexing spatial data

To support the ability to retrieve the data based on spatial coordinates, the spatial search has been introduced.

Creating indexes

To take an advantage of the spatial search, first we need to create an index with a spatial field. To mark field as the spatial field, we need to use SpatialGenerate method:

object SpatialGenerate(double lat, double lng);

object SpatialGenerate(string fieldName, double lat, double lng);

object SpatialGenerate(string fieldName, string shapeWKT);

object SpatialGenerate(string fieldName, string shapeWKT, SpatialSearchStrategy strategy);

object SpatialGenerate(string fieldName, string shapeWKT, SpatialSearchStrategy strategy, int maxTreeLevel);

public enum SpatialSearchStrategy
{
	GeohashPrefixTree,
	QuadPrefixTree,
}

where:

• fieldName is a name of the field containing the shape to use for filtering (if the overload with no fieldName is used, then the name is set to default value: __spatial)
• lat/lng are latitude/longitude coordinates
• shapeWKT is a shape in the WKT format
• strategy is a spatial search strategy (default: GeohashPrefixTree)
• maxTreeLevel is a integer that indicates the maximum number of levels to be used in the PrefixTree and controls the precision of shape representation (9 for GeohashPrefixTree and 23 for QuadPrefixTree)

In our example we will use Event class and a very simple index defined below.

public class Event
{
	public string Id { get; set; }

	public string Name { get; set; }

	public double Latitude { get; set; }

	public double Longitude { get; set; }
}

public class Events_ByNameAndCoordinates : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Event>
{
	public Events_ByNameAndCoordinates()
	{
		Map = events => from e in events
						select new
						{
							Name = e.Name,
							__ = SpatialGenerate("Coordinates", e.Latitude, e.Longitude)
						};
	}
}

If our Event contains the WKT property already:

public class EventWithWKT
{
	public string Id { get; set; }

	public string Name { get; set; }

	public string WKT { get; set; }
}

then can define our field using the Spatial method in the AbstractIndexCreationTask:

public class EventsWithWKT_ByNameAndWKT : AbstractIndexCreationTask<EventWithWKT>
{
	public EventsWithWKT_ByNameAndWKT()
	{
		Map = events => from e in events
						select new
						{
							Name = e.Name,
							WKT = e.WKT
						};

		Spatial(x => x.WKT, options => options.Geography.Default());
	}
}

where under options we got access to our geography and Cartesian factories:

public class SpatialOptionsFactory
{
	public GeographySpatialOptionsFactory Geography;

	public CartesianSpatialOptionsFactory Cartesian;
}

// GeohashPrefixTree strategy with maxTreeLevel set to 9
SpatialOptions Default(SpatialUnits circleRadiusUnits = SpatialUnits.Kilometers);

SpatialOptions BoundingBoxIndex(SpatialUnits circleRadiusUnits = SpatialUnits.Kilometers);

SpatialOptions GeohashPrefixTreeIndex(int maxTreeLevel, SpatialUnits circleRadiusUnits = SpatialUnits.Kilometers);

SpatialOptions QuadPrefixTreeIndex(int maxTreeLevel, SpatialUnits circleRadiusUnits = SpatialUnits.Kilometers);

SpatialOptions BoundingBoxIndex();

SpatialOptions QuadPrefixTreeIndex(int maxTreeLevel, SpatialBounds bounds);

Spatial search strategies

Precision

By default the precision level (maxTreeLevel) for GeohashPrefixTree is set to 9 and for QuadPrefixTree the value is 23, which means that the coordinates are represented by a 9 or 23 character string. The difference exists, because the QuadTree representation would be much less precise if the level would be the same.

Format support

From version 2.5 RavenDB also supports indexing of GeoJSON objects.

var point = new
{
	type = "Point",
	coordinates = new[] { -10d, 45d }
};

session.Store(new SpatialDoc { Shape = point });

Beside the WKT and GeoJSON following formats are also supported:

session.Store(new SpatialDoc { Point = new[] { -10d, 45d } });
session.Store(new SpatialDoc { Point = new { X = -10d, Y = 45d } });
session.Store(new SpatialDoc { Point = new { Latitude = 45d, Longitude = -10d } });
session.Store(new SpatialDoc { Point = new { lat = 45d, lon = -10d } });
session.Store(new SpatialDoc { Point = new { lat = 45d, lng = -10d } });
session.Store(new SpatialDoc { Point = new { Lat = 45d, Long = -10d } });
session.Store(new SpatialDoc { Point = "geo:45.0,-10.0;u=2.0" }); // Geo URI

Third-party spatial library integration

To integrate with other spatial libraries, the document store must be configured to use a custom library-specific JsonConverter which reads/writes WKT or GeoJSON.

Examples of such converters can be found at Simon Bartlett's github repository page.

Example

Let's assume that we have a SpatialDoc with a corresponding index available:

public class SpatialDoc_ByShapeAndPoint : AbstractIndexCreationTask<SpatialDoc>
{
	public SpatialDoc_ByShapeAndPoint()
	{
		Map = docs => from spatial in docs
					  select new
					  {
						  Shape = spatial.Shape,
						  Point = spatial.Point
					  };

		Spatial(x => x.Shape, options => options.Geography.Default());
		Spatial(x => x.Point, options => options.Cartesian.BoundingBoxIndex());
	}
}

To find all results that are within radius of or intersect specified shape query as follows:

IList<SpatialDoc> results = session
	.Query<SpatialDoc, SpatialDoc_ByShapeAndPoint>()
	.Spatial(x => x.Shape, criteria => criteria.WithinRadius(500, 30, 30))
	.ToList();

Remarks