IBX: INTERLIS Binary eXchange

Stefan Ziegler is experimenting with #IBX, a binary encoding of #INTERLIS 2 data that preserves model-based content while enabling direct, selective access to the data. A prototype #QGIS plug-in and a patched #ili2db let you try out this #cloudNative take on Swiss geodata exchange yourself.
Author

Ralph Straumann

Published

October 3, 2026

On blog.interlis.guru, Stefan Ziegler describes his experiment with a binary flavour of INTERLIS 21 for data exchange, called “INTERLIS Binary eXchange” or “IBX” for short. From Stefan’s post:

[…] INTERLIS/XTF2 does have its advantages, but it is certainly not a user-friendly “working format”. Users simply want to drag and drop the file into QGIS and be done with it. […] Besides, the world keeps moving on, doesn’t it? Where is Cloud Native3 INTERLIS? […]

This fits perfectly with the basic concept of MDX4. It explicitly states that encoding rules can, in principle, be defined for any data format. So why not a binary encoding that preserves the INTERLIS content whilst also enabling direct, selective access? That’s exactly where my experiment comes in: IBX – INTERLIS Binary eXchange.

In his experiment, Stefan built a prototype that supports INTERLIS 2.3 and 2.4 full (not yet: update) data transfers. Stefan covers the details in his post and also provides both a QGIS plug-in (zip) to read IBX files and a patched version of ili2db to write IBX files from GeoPackage5 and PostgreSQL for testing purposes.

Footnotes

  1. INTERLIS is a Swiss standard for geodata modelling and data exchange.↩︎

  2. Interlis transfer format.↩︎

  3. I.e., taking full advantage of the cloud computing model; in the data world typically through enabling partial downloads of file contents through so-called HTTP range requests.↩︎

  4. Model-compliant data exchange.↩︎

  5. An open SQLite-based container format for geospatial data, defined by the OGC.↩︎