Oracle Spatial User's Guide and Reference - InfoLab

B
Oracle Locator
Oracle Locator (also referred to as Locator) is a feature of Oracle Database 10g
Standard Edition. Locator provides core features and services available in Oracle
Spatial. It provides significant capabilities typically required to support Internet and
wireless service-based applications and partner-based GIS solutions. Locator is not
designed to be a solution for geographic information system (GIS) applications
requiring complex spatial data management. If you need capabilities such as linear
referencing, spatial functions, or coordinate system transformations, use Oracle
Spatial instead of Locator.
Like Spatial, Locator is not designed to be an end-user application, but is a set of
spatial capabilities for application developers.
Locator is available with both the Standard and Enterprise Editions of Oracle
Database 10g. Spatial is a priced option available only with Oracle Database 10g
Enterprise Edition. Spatial includes all Locator features as well as other features that
are not available with Locator.
In general, Locator includes the data types, operators, and indexing capabilities of
Oracle Spatial, along with a limited set of the functions and procedures of Spatial.
The Locator features include the following:
■ An object type (SDO_GEOMETRY) that describes and supports any type of
geometry
■ A spatial indexing capability that lets you create spatial indexes on geometry
data
■ Spatial operators (described in Chapter 12) that use the spatial index for
performing spatial queries
■ Some geometry functions and the SDO_AGGR_MBR spatial aggregate function
■ Integration with Oracle Application Server 10g Wireless
Oracle Locator B-1