How can I extract lat/long from GDB file in FME?

Question

I have a large GDB database of points of interest across the world. I can open this up in FME and the data viewer works great in showing me the content in a way that is easily consumable. Despite all of these data rows being filled with lots of info, and being properly mapped in the world viewer feature, I don't have the lat/long coordinates for these places.

I've tried several variations of Transformations, but I am unable to output the lat/long coordinates that I am looking for. Right now I am using a coordinateExtractor, that is successfully adding new X and Y values to the output file, but the coordinates don't show up as valid on Google maps. For example, this is what I am currently getting for a given row:

X: 1136921.462499998509884
Y: 216469.213800000026822 

I feel like I am close! But I am stuck. How can I get the lat/long coordinates for each of these rows in a format that Google Maps will take?

Answer 1

Method 1: Add a reprojector before the coordinate extractor to convert the points from the source coordinate system into LL84. The points will then be in latitude/longitude. Note that following the coordinateExtractor the X attribute will hold longitude and the Y attribute will hold latitude.

This method assumes the GDB has the current map projection for the data correctly assigned; if not - use a CoordinateSystemSetter before the reprojector.

Method 2: Alternatively, use the AttributeReprojector transformer which can be used to convert the X and Y attributes themselves into lat/lon. This way the features themselves are unchanged. You will need to specify the source and target coordinate systems.

• Wes B Ostler: thanks for your answer! That helped me get the coordinates into a format Google Maps would take. As I am going through and testing a few of them, it looks like they are pretty accurate. Some of them are slightly off, maybe within a half mile of accuracy. Is it possible that the option I used (method 1 above) is to blame? Or is this likely a limitation of the accuracy of the actual data in the GDB file?
• JimT: Hard to confirm without further information. However if most of the processed points are indeed OK - then it is fairly reasonable to assume the remaining inaccuracies is due to source data outliers.