In these two videos I discuss performance considerations when choosing a hosting service for your PostGIS database, how to determine if you should invest in higher download speeds on the client side or better performance on the server side, and strategies for mitigating slow response times. Continue reading “Deploying a PostGIS Database Parts 5 and 6 – Performance considerations”
Deploying a PostGIS database Part 4 – The AcuGIS Cloud
In this video I show how to deploy your PostGIS database to a second remote server option, the AcuGIS Cloud. In general my perception is that getting started with AcuGIS was much easier for general GIS use than A2 hosting. They focus on GIS and they know GIS. Installing PostGIS was a breeze, they have the latest versions of both PostgreSQL and PostGIS available, they have all the extensions for PostGIS, and they have shp2pgsql and raster2pgsql available right in their control panel which simplifies loading your data. Continue reading “Deploying a PostGIS database Part 4 – The AcuGIS Cloud”
Deploying a PostGIS database Part 3 – Moving your database to the server
In the previous 2 videos we signed up for a web hosting service and deployed a PostGIS database to it. In this video we will move the database that we have been working with on our localhost instance to the server so that it can be accessed by other clients. Continue reading “Deploying a PostGIS database Part 3 – Moving your database to the server”
Deploying a PostGIS database Part 2 – Web hosting service
This video goes through the process of signing up for a web hosting service with A2 hosting. You can literally have an instance of PostGIS up and running in half an hour for under $5/month that can be accessed from your own web map or from other clients such as QGIS.
What makes A2 Hosting so good for GIS applications is that they offer PostgreSQL databases in their standard cPanel package which means that you can easily install and use PostGIS. Most web hosting services only offer MySQL although you may be able to have them install PostgreSQL for you. Continue reading “Deploying a PostGIS database Part 2 – Web hosting service”
Deploying a PostGIS database Part 1 – Background
Learning to use PostGIS deployed on your local computer is very simple. The real power of a spatial database, however, is setting it up on a server so that it can be accessed by multiple clients simultaneously. This is a little bit more complicated. Continue reading “Deploying a PostGIS database Part 1 – Background”
Reports in QGIS 3.0
QGIS 3.0 has a powerful new way to create automated mapbook products called reports. If you are familiar with map atlas’s in QGIS 3 or data driven pages in ArcGIS you will be somewhat familiar with the basic premise. Continue reading “Reports in QGIS 3.0”
Working with multiple map views in QGIS 3.0
One of the many great new features of QGIS 3.0 is its ability to view and work with multiple map canvases or map views. You can link the location and scales of these views together so that they are centered in the same place but showing different data at different scales. For instance you can make an overview map showing the location of the main data frame in a larger spatial context or a close-up showing detailed aerial photography. Continue reading “Working with multiple map views in QGIS 3.0”
Getting started with PostGIS
For many years I had been hearing about spatial databases. I knew that some of the frustrating issues I was dealing with as the GIS specialist for small environmental consulting companies could be addressed with the technology. But consulting is all about billable hours and its really hard to convince your boss to give you the unbillable time needed to figure it all out. And its really hard and probably unethical to expect a client to let you figure it all out on their dime. So until a few years ago I kept chugging away with single-user file-based data storage and wasted an enormous amount of time managing data and people to prevent conflicts that could have easily been prevented with a spatial database. Continue reading “Getting started with PostGIS”
Exploring the graphical modeler in QGIS 3.0
This video provides an introduction to the QGIS graphical modeler. It was created using a pre-release version of QGIS 3.0 (scheduled to be released Dec 8, 2017). My understanding is that many of the actual algorithms have been reworked under the surface to increase performance, but there are only very minor changes to the graphical modeler user interface. If you are using QGIS 2.xx you should have no problems following this video, although I believe that any models created in 2.xx will need to be redone in 3.xx. Continue reading “Exploring the graphical modeler in QGIS 3.0”
Converting a Shapefile to GeoJSON with QGIS
GeoJSON is becoming a common data storage format for sharing data, especially in the open source world. GeoJSON is very convenient for web GIS applications and for smaller amounts of data, a zipped GeoJSON text file is often the most compact option as it lacks the overhead of some other storage formats. You can learn more about the details of GeoJSON, and why you might want to use it here.
The video below provides instruction on how to save a shapefile as a GeoJSON text file in QGIS. If you want to learn more about creating your own web maps, please check out my courses on Udemy.com.