README.md documentation for the project

Author: David Kaiser

README.md

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+# geometry-api-java
+
+This is the Esri Geometry API that can be used to enable spatial data processing in 3rd-party data-processing solutions.  Developers of custom MapReduce-based applications for Hadoop can use this API for spatial processing of data in the Hadoop system.  The API is also used by the [Hive UDF’s](https://github.com/esri/hive-spatial) and could be used by developers building geometry functions for 3rd-party applications such as [Cassandra]( https://cassandra.apache.org/), [HBase](http://hbase.apache.org/), [Storm](http://storm-project.net/) and many other Java-based “big data” applications.
+
+## Features
+* API methods to create simple geometries directly with API, or by importing from supported formats: JSON, WKT, Shape
+* API methods for spatial operations: union, difference, intersect, clip, cut, buffer
+* API methods for topological relationship tests: equals, within, contains, crosses, touches
+
+## Instructions
+
+1. Download and unzip the .zip file or clone the repository.
+2. Deploy esri-geometry-api.jar to the target system, add a reference to it in a Java project.
+3. To build the jar, Javadoc, and run the unit-tests, run the “ant” command-line command from within the cloned directory. The ant tool runs the “build.xml” script which creates the jar, runs the unit tests, then creates the Javadoc documentation files.
+
+## Requirements
+
+* Java JDK 1.6 or greater
+* Experience developing MapReduce applications for [Hadoop](http://hadoop.apache.org/).
+* Familiarity with text formats of spatial data, such as JSON or WKT, would be useful. 
+
+## Resources
+
+* [ArcGIS Geodata Resource Center]( http://resources.arcgis.com/en/communities/geodata/)
+* [ArcGIS Blog](http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/)
+* [twitter@esri](http://twitter.com/esri)
+
+## Issues
+
+Find a bug or want to request a new feature?  Please let us know by submitting an issue.
+
+## Contributing
+
+Anyone and everyone is welcome to contribute. 
+
+## Licensing
+Copyright 2012 Esri
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+
+A copy of the license is available in the repository's [license.txt]( https://raw.github.com/Esri/geometry-api-java/master/license.txt) file.