Book Image

Python Geospatial Development - Second Edition - Second Edition

By : Erik Westra
Book Image

Python Geospatial Development - Second Edition - Second Edition

By: Erik Westra

Overview of this book

Geospatial development links your data to places on the Earth's surface. Writing geospatial programs involves tasks such as grouping data by location, storing and analyzing large amounts of spatial information, performing complex geospatial calculations, and drawing colorful interactive maps. In order to do this well, you'll need appropriate tools and techniques, as well as a thorough understanding of geospatial concepts such as map projections, datums and coordinate systems. Python Geospatial Development - Second Edition teaches you everything you need to know about writing geospatial applications using Python. No prior knowledge of geospatial concepts, tools or techniques is required. The book guides you through the process of installing and using various toolkits, obtaining geospatial data for use in your programs, and building complete and sophisticated geospatial applications in Python. Python Geospatial Development teaches you everything you need to know about writing geospatial applications using Python. No prior knowledge of geospatial concepts, tools or techniques is required. The book guides you through the process of installing and using various toolkits, obtaining geospatial data for use in your programs, and building complete and sophisticated geospatial applications in Python. This book provides an overview of the major geospatial concepts, data sources and toolkits. It teaches you how to store and access spatial data using Python, how to perform a range of spatial calculations, and how to store spatial data in a database. Because maps are such an important aspect of geospatial programming, the book teaches you how to build your own “slippy map” interface within a web application, and finishes with the detailed construction of a geospatial data editor using Geodjango. Whether you want to write quick utilities to solve spatial problems, or develop sophisticated web applications based around maps and geospatial data, this book includes everything you need to know.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Python Geospatial Development
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Open source spatially-enabled databases


If you wish to use an open source database for your geospatial development work, you currently have three main options: MySQL, PostGIS and SpatiaLite. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and no one database is the ideal choice in every situation. Let's take a closer look at each of these spatially-enabled databases.

MySQL

MySQL is the world's most popular open source database, and is generally an extremely capable database. It is also spatially-enabled, though with some limitations, which we will get to in a moment.

The MySQL database server can be downloaded from http://mysql.com/downloads for a variety of operating systems, including MS Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Click on the MySQL Community Server link to download the server.

Once downloaded, running the installer will set up everything you need, and you can access MySQL directly from the command line:

% mysql
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection...