Installing PostGIS¶
PostGIS adds geographic object support to PostgreSQL, turning it into a spatial database. GEOS, PROJ and GDAL should be installed prior to building PostGIS. You might also need additional libraries, see PostGIS requirements.
The psycopg2 module is required for use as the database adapter when using GeoDjango with PostGIS.
On Debian/Ubuntu, you are advised to install the following packages:
postgresql-x
, postgresql-x-postgis-3
, postgresql-server-dev-x
,
and python3-psycopg2
(x matching the PostgreSQL version you want to
install). Alternately, you can build from source. Consult the
platform-specific instructions if you are on macOS or Windows.
Post-installation¶
Creating a spatial database¶
PostGIS 2 includes an extension for PostgreSQL that’s used to enable spatial functionality:
$ createdb <db name>
$ psql <db name>
> CREATE EXTENSION postgis;
The database user must be a superuser in order to run
CREATE EXTENSION postgis;
. The command is run during the migrate
process. An alternative is to use a migration operation in your project:
from django.contrib.postgres.operations import CreateExtension
from django.db import migrations
class Migration(migrations.Migration):
operations = [
CreateExtension('postgis'),
...
]
If you plan to use PostGIS raster functionality on PostGIS 3+, you should also
activate the postgis_raster
extension. You can install the extension using
the CreateExtension
migration
operation, or directly by running CREATE EXTENSION postgis_raster;
.
GeoDjango does not currently leverage any PostGIS topology functionality.
If you plan to use those features at some point, you can also install the
postgis_topology
extension by issuing CREATE EXTENSION
postgis_topology;
.
Managing the database¶
To administer the database, you can either use the pgAdmin III program
(geodjango
spatial database and user, the following may be executed from
the SQL Shell as the postgres
user:
postgres# CREATE USER geodjango PASSWORD 'my_passwd';
postgres# CREATE DATABASE geodjango OWNER geodjango;