Copying Data into Smallworld Using SOMs

I recently received a question from a colleague concerning a Data Migration Module. I suspect that other users might have the same question so I am posting the question and answer here.

Question:

I'm curious, have you ever seen or heard of Data Migration Module from GE? I know Smallworld Spatial Object Managers provide the capability to 'plug-in' data readers (SOMs) for a variety of external data formats. These plug-ins enable data from the external sources to be treated as real world objects in the same way as data held internally to the Smallworld Core virtual database but beyond that...

Through SOMs, using the external data as source and with certain mapping, migrate external data objects as PNI objects in SW. I'm certain these are customisable but is there any ready made product out there?

Answer:

I wonder if you are referring to the sas_data_copier module that ships as an example with the SOM product. In SOMs 4.0 it can be found at ...\SOMs\modules\sas_core\magik_gui\source\examples\sas_data_copier

It is not a supported product but it provides an example of how you can copy data using SOMs. The module also has some simple help documentation.

I think that the Smallworld team in Denver (USA) had done some work to make the sas_data_copier more user friendly. You may consider contacting your Smallworld account representative to see if that is something that they can make available to you.

Do you happen to have FME (see a related post here) at your site? If you do, you might consider using that as a migration tool.