Loading a Shapefile into PostGIS

This task shows how to load a ShapeFile into PostGIS database:

1. Ensure that postgis server is running. If not, open the terminal window and start it:

   (Windows)
   
         postgis_start.bat
   

2. Once postgis is running, enter the following command and press enter to creating a new database named ‘shape’:

   (Linux)
   
   createdb -U geosolutions -T postgis20 shape
   
   or
   
   (Windows)
   
   setenv.bat
   createdb -U geosolutions -T postgis20 shape
   

3. Then enter the following command and press enter to load the ShapeFile into ‘shape’ database:

   (Linux)
   
   shp2pgsql -I ${TRAINING_ROOT}/data/user_data/Mainrd.shp public.main_roads | psql -d shape
   
   or
   
   (Windows)
   
   shp2pgsql -I "%TRAINING_ROOT%\data\user_data\Mainrd.shp" public.main_roads | psql -U postgres -d shape
   

   The ShapeFile will be loaded within the ‘main_roads’ table of the ‘shape’ database.

   The following screenshot shows some of the table contents in pgAdmin.

   Note

   In Windows, you can run pgAdmin, executing pgAdmin.bat batch file at terminal window.

   

   A PostGIS table by ShapeFile

In the next section we will see how to add a PostGIS layer into GeoServer.