# STACTA - Spatio-Temporal Asset Catalog Tiled Assets

Added in version 3.3.

Driver short name

STACTA

Driver built-in by default

This driver is built-in by default

This driver supports opening JSON files following the Spatio-Temporal Asset Catalog Tiled Assets specification. Such JSON file references tiles (also called metatiles), split from a potentially big dataset according to a tiling scheme, with several zoom levels. The driver provides a single raster view, with overviews, of the dataset described by the JSON file. The driver supports metatiles of arbitrary size.

The driver may use the Electro-Optical Extension and, starting with GDAL 3.8.2, the Raster Extension attached to an asset template.

## Configuration options

Configuration options can be specified in command-line tools using the syntax `--config <NAME>=<VALUE>` or using functions such as `CPLSetConfigOption()` (C) or `gdal.config_options` (Python). The following configuration options are available:

- GDAL_STACTA_SKIP_MISSING_METATILE=value: See `SKIP_MISSING_METATILE` open option.

## Open syntax

STACTA datasets/subdatasets can be accessed with one of the following syntaxes:

- `filename.json`: local file

- `STACTA:"https://example.com/filename.json"`: remote file

- `STACTA:"filename.json":my_asset`: specify an asset of a local/remote file

- `STACTA:"filename.json":my_asset:my_tms`: specify an asset and tiling scheme of a local/remote file

The root of the JSON file must be of type `Feature`.

Starting with GDAL 3.10, specifying the `-if STACTA` option to command line utilities accepting it, or `STACTA` as the only value of the `papszAllowedDrivers` of `GDALOpenEx()`, also forces the driver to recognize the passed filename or URL.

## Open options

Open options can be specified in command-line tools using the syntax `-oo <NAME>=<VALUE>` or by providing the appropriate arguments to `GDALOpenEx()` (C) or `gdal.OpenEx` (Python). The following open options are supported:

- WHOLE_METATILE=[YES​/​NO.]: If set to YES, metatiles will be entirely downloaded (into memory). Otherwise by default, if metatiles are bigger than a threshold, they will be accessed in a piece-wise way.

- SKIP_MISSING_METATILE=[YES​/​NO]: If set to YES, metatiles that are missing will be skipped without error, and corresponding area in the dataset will be filled with the nodata value or zero if there is no nodata value. This setting can also be set with the `GDAL_STACTA_SKIP_MISSING_METATILE` configuration option.

## Subdatasets

If a STACTA JSON file contains several asset templates and/or tiling scheme, the driver will return a list of subdataset names to open each of the possible subdatasets.

## Driver capabilities

Supports VirtualIO

This driver supports virtual I/O operations (/vsimem/, etc.)

## See Also

- STACIT - Spatio-Temporal Asset Catalog Items documentation page.