An XML document containing spatial data. Often these documents are captured on disk as a file with the extension ".gml".

Please be aware that a "gml" file is actually a normal XML document; it just happens to be a document is based on the "abstract" Geographic Markup Language specifications.

GML Files

GML files in udig can currently only be supported if they meet two very strict restrictions:

• filename.xsd - an xml schema document defining the "data product" being loaded
• filename.gml - an xml document defined against the schema provided above

Geography Markup Language

Most markup language specifications are published with the idea of defining a document format that applications can use to share information. I am afraid that "GML" handles things a little bit differently - it provides an XML Schema that can be used as a starting point when an organization defines a data product.

As such we really do need access to the description of the data product in order to open up a "gml document".

Geography Markup Language (we support GML 2.1.2 at this time)