Support for non-default Schema-API field types

Hi All,

I'm having lots of fun playing with the data module. One thing that strikes me is the need to support non-standard database field-types that are not supported by schemaAPI by default. I see Data playing a big role in hooking Drupal up to external databases, and not all external database implement the same field types that Drupal does. Data support for field types such as datetime, time, enum, geometry etc. would go a long-way towards making Drupal interoperability with external data-sources a breeze. Luckily schemaAPI has the functionality to extend it's field-type mappings:

$schemea['myfield] = array(
  'type' => 'abstracted_field_type',
  'mysql_type' => 'MAGIC_TYPE',
  'pgsql_type' => 'whatever',
);

I know that there is already talk here http://drupal.org/node/623974 of refactoring data_get_field_definitions. In my mind, it would make sense to hook the new data_get_field_definitions (or whatever replaces it) up to the "Create new table" UI (data_ui_create_form_submit in data_ui_admin.inc). In my mind this would be a perfect place to implement support for non-standard field types.

My particular interest in all this is managing geospatial data in Drupal. I've managed to hack things around a bit using variations on this:

$schemea['myfield] = array(
  'type' => 'geometry',
  'mysql_type' => 'geometry',
  'pgsql_type' => 'GEOMETRY',
);

This will allow you to store spatial geometry data in the database that can then be queried by the geo module and mapped by the openlayers module. Hacking things in seems to be working OK.

I'm also working on a module called Spatial Import to parse shapefiles and imports them into drupal using either Data or table-wizard. (It implements the Parser ctools plugin you guys created). I'm attaching it here if you are curious. I will be releasing it as a project when I have it cleaned up a little more.