Leo Hsu and Regina Obe: Rendering PostGIS Raster graphics with LibreOffice Base Reports

I was excited to learn from Pasha Golub's blog LibreOffice Base 3.5 now comes packaged with native PostgreSQL driver so no separate configuration is required. The connection string syntax follows the old SBC native driver of prior OpenOffice versions we itemized in Using OpenOffice Base with PostgeSQL.

What I really wanted to do with Libre Office is experiment with its graphic rendering capabilities in the Base reporting tool. As mentioned in PSQL needs a better way of outputting bytea, one of the frequently asked questions on the PostGIS list by folks using the new not yet officially released functionality in PostGIS 2.0 (now in alpha5 release) is how to render rasters with common variety tools. I suspected Base was a capable option, but had never tested it to confirm. Since I was installing new LibreOffice 3.5, I thought this might be a good test of its metal.