PHP Shapefile 3.2.0

What’s new in Version 3.2.0

• Added Shapefile::OPTION_DBF_ALLOW_FIELD_SIZE_255 constructor option for both ShapefileReader and ShapefileWriter classes

Thanks to some feedback I discovered that some well-established libraries and software (e.g.: pgsql2shp) do not comply to dBase specs that allow a maximum field size of 254 bytes and export shapefiles whose DBF files have fields with a size of 255 bytes. I ignore the reason why in the original specs they decided for a maximum length of 254 instead of 255 when a whole byte is available to define it, but it is what it is.
This new Shapefile::OPTION_DBF_ALLOW_FIELD_SIZE_255 option comes in handy to allow PHP Shapefile to read (and write too, why not?) files that use the whole 255 lenght: by default it is set to false to comply to the specs, but set it to true and unlock the real power of the whole 255 characters!

I know this new option looks like no big deal to justify a new minor version, especially after the feature-rich 3.1.0 release, nonetheless this library tries to strictly follow semantic versioning and a new feature requires a minor release.

Download and documentation

Go to the Lab page: PHP Shapefile