# RFC 44: Add Parseable Output Formats for ogrinfo and gdalinfo

Authors: Dan “Ducky” Little, Faza Mahamood

Contacts: danlittle at yahoo dot com, fazamhd at live dot com

Status: Development. gdalinfo -json implemented in GDAL 2.0

## Summary

Add XML and JSON output to the ogrinfo and gdalinfo utilities.

## Background

ogrinfo and gdalinfo are incredibly useful metadata gathering tools. Their native text-based output formats, however, are not easily parseable by common external tools. Both XML and JSON are easily parsed and adding those output formats would substantially increase the utility for those looking to add the ogrinfo and gdalinfo utilities to a scripting stack.

## Implementation

An example implementation can be seen at the following github fork https://github.com/theduckylittle/gdal/blob/trunk/gdal/apps/ogrinfo.cpp

To add the XML output to each utility will require “breaking up” the main loop into contingent chunks. All diagnostic messages will also need to be moved to STDERR to ensure that output on STDOUT is always parseable. The XML representation will be constructed using the MiniXML library built into GDAL.

## Proposed json format for gdalinfo

    {
        "description": "...",
        "driverShortName": "GTiff",
        "driverLongName": "GeoTIFF",
        "files": [ (if -nofl not specified)
            "../gcore/data/byte.tif",
            "../gcore/data/byte.tif.aux.xml"
        ],
        "size": [
            20,
            20
        ],
        "coordinateSystem": {
            "proj": "+proj=.......", (if -proj4 specified)
            "wkt": "PROJCS[....]"
        },
        "gcps": { (if -nogcp not specified)
            "coordinateSystem": {
                "proj": "+proj=.......", (if -proj4 specified)
                "wkt": "PROJCS[....]"
            },
            "gcpList": [
                {
                    "id": "1",
                    "info": "a",
                    "pixel": 0.5,
                    "line": 0.5,
                    "X": 0.0,
                    "Y": 0.0,
                    "Z": 0.0
                },
                {
                    "id": "2",
                    "info": "b",
                    .
                    .
                    .
                }
            ]
        },
        "geoTransform": [
            440720.000000000000000,
            60.000000000000000,
            0.0,
            3751320.000000000000000,
            0.0,
            -60.000000000000000
        ],
        "cornerCoordinates":{
          "upperLeft":[
            440720.0,
            3751320.0
          ],
          "lowerLeft":[
            440720.0,
            3750120.0
          ],
          "upperRight":[
            441920.0,
            3751320.0
          ],
          "lowerRight":[
            441920.0,
            3750120.0
          ],
          "center":[
            441320.0,
            3750720.0
          ]
        },
        "wgs84Extent":{
          "type":"Polygon",
          "coordinates":[
          [
            [
              -117.642054,
              33.9023677
            ],
            [
              -117.6419729,
              33.8915454
            ],
            [
              -117.6290752,
              33.9024346
            ],
            [
              -117.6289957,
              33.8916123
            ],
            [
              -117.642054,
              33.9023677
            ]
           ]
          ]
        },
        "rat": { (if -norat not specified)
            "row0Min": 40918,
            "binSize": 1,
            "fieldDefn": [
                {
                    "index": 0,
                    "name": "Histogram",
                    "type": "integer",
                    "usage": "PixelCount"
                },
                {
                    "index": 1,
                    "name": "fieldName2",
                    "type": 2,
                    "usage": 2
                },
            ],
            "rows": [
                {
                    "index": 0,
                    "f": [
                        1,
                        4
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "index": 1,
                    "f": [
                        5,
                        4
                    ]
                },
                .
                .
                .
            ]
        },
        "metadata": { (if -nomd not specified)
            "": {
                "key1": "value1"
            },
            "IMAGE_STRUCTURE": {
                "key1": "value1"
            },
            "OTHER_DOMAIN": {
                "key1": "value1"
            },
        },
        "cornerCoordinates": {
            "upperLeft": [
                440720.000,
                3751320.000
            ],
            "lowerLeft": [
                440720.000,
                3750120.000
            ],
            "upperRight": [
                441920.000,
                3751320.000
            ],
            "lowerRight": [
                441920.000,
                3750120.000
            ],
            "center": [
                441320.000,
                3750720.000
            ]
        },
        "bands": [
            {
                "description": "...",
                "band": 1,
                "block": [
                    20,
                    20
                ],
                "type": "Byte",
                "colorInterp": "Gray",
                "min": 74.000,
                "max": 255.000,

                "computedMin": 74.000, (if -mm specified)
                "computedMax": 255.000,

                "minimum": 74.000, (if -stats specified)
                "maximum": 255.000,
                "mean": 126.765,
                "stdDev": 22.928,

                "unit": "....",
                "offset": X,
                "scale": X,
                "noDataValue": X,
                "overviews": [
                    {
                        "size": [
                            400,
                            400 ],
                        "checksum": X (if -checksum specified)
                    },
                    {
                        "size": [
                            200,
                            200 ],
                        "checksum": X (if -checksum specified)
                    }
                ],
                "mask": {
                    "flags": [
                        "PER_DATASET",
                        "ALPHA"
                    ],
                    "overviews": [
                        {
                            "size": [
                                400,
                                400 ]
                        },
                        {
                            "size": [
                                200,
                                200 ],
                        }
                    ]
                },
                "metadata": { (if -nomd not specified)
                    "__default__": {
                        "key1": "value1"
                    },
                    "IMAGE_STRUCTURE": {
                        "key1": "value1"
                    },
                    "OTHER_DOMAIN": {
                        "key1": "value1"
                    },
                },
                "histogram": { (if -hist specified)
                    "count": 25,
                    "min": -0.5,
                    "max": 255.5,
                    "buckets": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
                },
                "checksum": 4672, (if -checksum specified)
                "colorTable": { (if -noct not specified)
                    "palette": "RGB",
                    "count": 6,
                    "entries": [
                        [255,255,255,255],
                        [255,255,208,255],
                        [255,255,204,255],
                        [153,204,255,255],
                        [0,153,255,255],
                        [102,102,102,255]
                    ]
                }
            },
            {
                "band": 2,
                "block": [
                    20,
                    20
                ],
                .
                .
                .
            }
        ]
    }

## Impacted drivers

None.

## Impacted utilities

gdalinfo

- Adds a “-xml” output option.

- Adds a “-json” output option.

ogrinfo

- Adds a “-xml” output option.

- Adds a “-json” output option.

## Backward Compatibility

This change has no impact on backward compatibility at the C API/ABI and C++ API/ABI levels. Default output will remain the same. The new XML output will only effect users who specify “-xml” or “-json” on the command line.

## Testing

The Python autotest suite will be extended to test the new XML/JSON outputs and existing tests will be modified to check STDERR for diagnostic messages.

## Ticket

No tickets.

## Voting history

Proposed.