Server-side web GIS applications allow you to build secure, web-based portals to your GIS data that allow display, analysis, and editing of GIS data from anywhere there is an internet connection.  This is demonstrated with open-source software so that the concepts are accessible to everyone without cost. If you prefer to use commercial software I think you will still benefit from this course as the core concepts apply to both.

Static GIS data can be displayed in a web map with a JavaScript mapping API such as Leaflet (used in this course), OpenLayers, or Google Maps.  Powerful analysis of that data can be performed on the client computer using the Turf.js JavaScript library. But if you need the ability to make changes to that data or view changes made by others in real time you need to access a common data store on a server. We will be using PostGIS, a spatial extension to the PostgreSQL database as the common data store. The concepts you learn will be applicable to other databases as well. You can learn most of what you need to store and analyze spatial data with PostGIS in my course “Introduction to spatial databases with PostGIS and QGIS“.

This course builds on the environmental consulting application that was built in the course “Display and analyze GIS data on the web with Leaflet“. The first part of the course is focused on building a secure portal that will allow the projects client to view, filter, search, and analyze both spatial and non-spatial data from the web. We start with the secure portal that we built in my course “PHP registration, login, and registration system” to prevent unauthorized access to the client’s data. Then we modify the client-side application to work with data stored in PostGIS rather than from static GeoJSON files. All of the searching, filtering, and analysis functionality is moved to the server so that any changes made to the database are immediately available to the client.

In the second part of the course we create a second secure portal for project managers. This contains all the functionality available on the client portal but will also allow creating new data, modifying existing data, and deleting data from a web application.  A leaflet plugin called Leaflet-PM is used to handle the editing of spatial geometries on the client. Those changes are then sent to the database using standard SQL INSERT and UPDATE statements.

This course does have several prerequisites. “Display and analyze GIS data on the web with Leaflet” and “PHP registration, login, and content management system” are required as we will use code developed in those courses throughout this course. I also highly recommend my course “Introduction to spatial databases with PostGIS and QGIS“. That course will teach you what you need to know about SQL and working with PostGIS. The SQL we use in this course is pretty simple for practical reasons. Without a solid foundation in PostGIS you will lack a full understanding of the capabilities available to you from a web interface.

Because this course builds on so many other technologies and thus has so many prerequisites I am making all my courses available until the end of July for only $15 each.  All the links on this page as well as those on my courses page will reflect this discount. Other pages on this site will not but you can always enter the coupon code “JULYSALE” to get that discount.

This course has over 15 hours of content and is available now on Udemy.com for only $15 until the end of july. As with all my courses,  more will be added as I get a chance.  More information can be seen in the video below.

Thanks for your interest in this course. I’m very excited to release it as I believe that the combination of QGIS 3.0 and PostGIS amounts to an open-source “Killer App”.  It solves many frustrating problems that I had to deal with throughout my career as the GIS specialist for small to medium sized environmental consulting companies. I think it is equally applicable to any organization that is outgrowing single-user desktop GIS but unable to pay the ten’s of thousands of dollars required to move into multi-user enterprise databases with commercial GIS software. It took quite a bit of effort to learn how to do this on my own and my hope, as always, is to help others navigate this technology without repeating the mistakes I made. Continue reading “New Course: Introduction to spatial databases with PostGIS and QGIS”