GeoDjango Installation

Overview

In general, GeoDjango installation requires:

  1. Python and Django
  2. Spatial database
  3. Geospatial libraries

Details for each of the requirements and installation instructions are provided in the sections below. In addition, platform-specific instructions are available for:

Use the Source

Because GeoDjango takes advantage of the latest in the open source geospatial software technology, recent versions of the libraries are necessary. If binary packages aren’t available for your platform, installation from source may be required. When compiling the libraries from source, please follow the directions closely, especially if you’re a beginner.

Requirements

Python and Django

Because GeoDjango is included with Django, please refer to Django’s installation instructions for details on how to install.

Spatial database

PostgreSQL (with PostGIS), MySQL, Oracle, and SQLite (with SpatiaLite) are the spatial databases currently supported.

Note

PostGIS is recommended, because it is the most mature and feature-rich open source spatial database.

The geospatial libraries required for a GeoDjango installation depends on the spatial database used. The following lists the library requirements, supported versions, and any notes for each of the supported database backends:

Database Library Requirements Supported Versions Notes
PostgreSQL GEOS, PROJ.4, PostGIS 8.1+ Requires PostGIS.
MySQL GEOS 5.x Not OGC-compliant; limited functionality.
Oracle GEOS 10.2, 11 XE not supported; not tested with 9.
SQLite GEOS, GDAL, PROJ.4, SpatiaLite 3.6.+ Requires SpatiaLite 2.3+, pysqlite2 2.5+, and Django 1.1.

Geospatial libraries

GeoDjango uses and/or provides interfaces for the following open source geospatial libraries:

Program Description Required Supported Versions
GEOS Geometry Engine Open Source Yes 3.3, 3.2, 3.1, 3.0
PROJ.4 Cartographic Projections library Yes (PostgreSQL and SQLite only) 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, 4.4
GDAL Geospatial Data Abstraction Library No (but, required for SQLite) 1.8, 1.7, 1.6, 1.5, 1.4
GeoIP IP-based geolocation library No 1.4
PostGIS Spatial extensions for PostgreSQL Yes (PostgreSQL only) 1.5, 1.4, 1.3
SpatiaLite Spatial extensions for SQLite Yes (SQLite only) 3.0, 2.4, 2.3

Install GDAL

While GDAL is technically not required, it is recommended. Important features of GeoDjango (including the LayerMapping data import utility, geometry reprojection, and the geographic admin) depend on its functionality.

Note

The GeoDjango interfaces to GEOS, GDAL, and GeoIP may be used independently of Django. In other words, no database or settings file required – just import them as normal from django.contrib.gis.

Building from source

When installing from source on UNIX and GNU/Linux systems, please follow the installation instructions carefully, and install the libraries in the given order. If using MySQL or Oracle as the spatial database, only GEOS is required.

Note

On Linux platforms, it may be necessary to run the ldconfig command after installing each library. For example:

$ sudo make install
$ sudo ldconfig

Note

OS X users are required to install Apple Developer Tools in order to compile software from source. This is typically included on your OS X installation DVDs.

GEOS

GEOS is a C++ library for performing geometric operations, and is the default internal geometry representation used by GeoDjango (it’s behind the “lazy” geometries). Specifically, the C API library is called (e.g., libgeos_c.so) directly from Python using ctypes.

First, download GEOS 3.2 from the refractions Web site and untar the source archive:

$ wget http://download.osgeo.org/geos/geos-3.3.0.tar.bz2
$ tar xjf geos-3.3.0.tar.bz2

Next, change into the directory where GEOS was unpacked, run the configure script, compile, and install:

$ cd geos-3.3.0
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

Troubleshooting

Can’t find GEOS library

When GeoDjango can’t find GEOS, this error is raised:

ImportError: Could not find the GEOS library (tried "geos_c"). Try setting GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH in your settings.

The most common solution is to properly configure your Library environment settings or set GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH in your settings.

If using a binary package of GEOS (e.g., on Ubuntu), you may need to Install binutils.

GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH

If your GEOS library is in a non-standard location, or you don’t want to modify the system’s library path then the GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH setting may be added to your Django settings file with the full path to the GEOS C library. For example:

GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH = '/home/bob/local/lib/libgeos_c.so'

Note

The setting must be the full path to the C shared library; in other words you want to use libgeos_c.so, not libgeos.so.

See also My logs are filled with GEOS-related errors.

PROJ.4

PROJ.4 is a library for converting geospatial data to different coordinate reference systems.

First, download the PROJ.4 source code and datum shifting files [1]:

$ wget http://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-4.7.0.tar.gz
$ wget http://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-datumgrid-1.5.zip

Next, untar the source code archive, and extract the datum shifting files in the nad subdirectory. This must be done prior to configuration:

$ tar xzf proj-4.7.0.tar.gz
$ cd proj-4.7.0/nad
$ unzip ../../proj-datumgrid-1.5.zip
$ cd ..

Finally, configure, make and install PROJ.4:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

PostGIS

PostGIS adds geographic object support to PostgreSQL, turning it into a spatial database. GEOS and PROJ.4 should be installed prior to building PostGIS.

Note

The psycopg2 module is required for use as the database adaptor when using GeoDjango with PostGIS.

First download the source archive, and extract:

$ wget http://postgis.refractions.net/download/postgis-1.5.2.tar.gz
$ tar xzf postgis-1.5.2.tar.gz
$ cd postgis-1.5.2

Next, configure, make and install PostGIS:

$ ./configure

Finally, make and install:

$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

Note

GeoDjango does not automatically create a spatial database. Please consult the section on Creating a spatial database template for PostGIS for more information.

GDAL

GDAL is an excellent open source geospatial library that has support for reading most vector and raster spatial data formats. Currently, GeoDjango only supports GDAL’s vector data capabilities [2]. GEOS and PROJ.4 should be installed prior to building GDAL.

First download the latest GDAL release version and untar the archive:

$ wget http://download.osgeo.org/gdal/gdal-1.8.1.tar.gz
$ tar xzf gdal-1.8.1.tar.gz
$ cd gdal-1.8.1

Configure, make and install:

$ ./configure
$ make # Go get some coffee, this takes a while.
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

Note

Because GeoDjango has it’s own Python interface, the preceding instructions do not build GDAL’s own Python bindings. The bindings may be built by adding the --with-python flag when running configure. See GDAL/OGR In Python for more information on GDAL’s bindings.

If you have any problems, please see the troubleshooting section below for suggestions and solutions.

Troubleshooting

Can’t find GDAL library

When GeoDjango can’t find the GDAL library, the HAS_GDAL flag will be false:

>>> from django.contrib.gis import gdal
>>> gdal.HAS_GDAL
False

The solution is to properly configure your Library environment settings or set GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH in your settings.

GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH

If your GDAL library is in a non-standard location, or you don’t want to modify the system’s library path then the GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH setting may be added to your Django settings file with the full path to the GDAL library. For example:

GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH = '/home/sue/local/lib/libgdal.so'
Can’t find GDAL data files (GDAL_DATA)

When installed from source, GDAL versions 1.5.1 and below have an autoconf bug that places data in the wrong location. [3] This can lead to error messages like this:

ERROR 4: Unable to open EPSG support file gcs.csv.
...
OGRException: OGR failure.

The solution is to set the GDAL_DATA environment variable to the location of the GDAL data files before invoking Python (typically /usr/local/share; use gdal-config --datadir to find out). For example:

$ export GDAL_DATA=`gdal-config --datadir`
$ python manage.py shell

If using Apache, you may need to add this environment variable to your configuration file:

SetEnv GDAL_DATA /usr/local/share

SpatiaLite

Note

Mac OS X users should follow the instructions in the KyngChaos packages section, as it is much easier than building from source.

SpatiaLite adds spatial support to SQLite, turning it into a full-featured spatial database. Because SpatiaLite has special requirements, it typically requires SQLite and pysqlite2 (the Python SQLite DB-API adaptor) to be built from source. GEOS and PROJ.4 should be installed prior to building SpatiaLite.

After installation is complete, don’t forget to read the post-installation docs on Creating a spatial database for SpatiaLite.

SQLite

Typically, SQLite packages are not compiled to include the R*Tree module – thus it must be compiled from source. First download the latest amalgamation source archive from the SQLite download page, and extract:

$ wget http://sqlite.org/sqlite-amalgamation-3.6.23.1.tar.gz
$ tar xzf sqlite-amalgamation-3.6.23.1.tar.gz
$ cd sqlite-3.6.23.1

Next, run the configure script – however the CFLAGS environment variable needs to be customized so that SQLite knows to build the R*Tree module:

$ CFLAGS="-DSQLITE_ENABLE_RTREE=1" ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

Note

If using Ubuntu, installing a newer SQLite from source can be very difficult because it links to the existing libsqlite3.so in /usr/lib which many other packages depend on. Unfortunately, the best solution at this time is to overwrite the existing library by adding --prefix=/usr to the configure command.

SpatiaLite library (libspatialite) and tools (spatialite)

After SQLite has been built with the R*Tree module enabled, get the latest SpatiaLite library source and tools bundle from the download page:

$ wget http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite/libspatialite-amalgamation-2.3.1.tar.gz
$ wget http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite/spatialite-tools-2.3.1.tar.gz
$ tar xzf libspatialite-amalgamation-2.3.1.tar.gz
$ tar xzf spatialite-tools-2.3.1.tar.gz

Prior to attempting to build, please read the important notes below to see if customization of the configure command is necessary. If not, then run the configure script, make, and install for the SpatiaLite library:

$ cd libspatialite-amalgamation-2.3.1
$ ./configure # May need to modified, see notes below.
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

Finally, do the same for the SpatiaLite tools:

$ cd spatialite-tools-2.3.1
$ ./configure # May need to modified, see notes below.
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

Note

If you’ve installed GEOS and PROJ.4 from binary packages, you will have to specify their paths when running the configure scripts for both the library and the tools (the configure scripts look, by default, in /usr/local). For example, on Debian/Ubuntu distributions that have GEOS and PROJ.4 packages, the command would be:

$ ./configure --with-proj-include=/usr/include --with-proj-lib=/usr/lib --with-geos-include=/usr/include --with-geos-lib=/usr/lib

Note

For Mac OS X users building from source, the SpatiaLite library and tools need to have their target configured:

$ ./configure --target=macosx

pysqlite2

Because SpatiaLite must be loaded as an external extension, it requires the enable_load_extension method, which is only available in versions 2.5+. Thus, download pysqlite2 2.6, and untar:

$ wget http://pysqlite.googlecode.com/files/pysqlite-2.6.0.tar.gz
$ tar xzf pysqlite-2.6.0.tar.gz
$ cd pysqlite-2.6.0

Next, use a text editor (e.g., emacs or vi) to edit the setup.cfg file to look like the following:

[build_ext]
#define=
include_dirs=/usr/local/include
library_dirs=/usr/local/lib
libraries=sqlite3
#define=SQLITE_OMIT_LOAD_EXTENSION

Note

The important thing here is to make sure you comment out the define=SQLITE_OMIT_LOAD_EXTENSION flag and that the include_dirs and library_dirs settings are uncommented and set to the appropriate path if the SQLite header files and libraries are not in /usr/include and /usr/lib, respectively.

After modifying setup.cfg appropriately, then run the setup.py script to build and install:

$ sudo python setup.py install

Post-installation

Creating a spatial database template for PostGIS

Creating a spatial database with PostGIS is different than normal because additional SQL must be loaded to enable spatial functionality. Because of the steps in this process, it’s better to create a database template that can be reused later.

First, you need to be able to execute the commands as a privileged database user. For example, you can use the following to become the postgres user:

$ sudo su - postgres

Note

The location and name of the PostGIS SQL files (e.g., from POSTGIS_SQL_PATH below) depends on the version of PostGIS. PostGIS versions 1.3 and below use <pg_sharedir>/contrib/lwpostgis.sql; whereas version 1.4 uses <sharedir>/contrib/postgis.sql and version 1.5 uses <sharedir>/contrib/postgis-1.5/postgis.sql.

To complicate matters, Ubuntu & Debian GNU/Linux distributions have their own separate directory naming system that changes each release.

The example below assumes PostGIS 1.5, thus you may need to modify POSTGIS_SQL_PATH and the name of the SQL file for the specific version of PostGIS you are using.

Once you’re a database super user, then you may execute the following commands to create a PostGIS spatial database template:

$ POSTGIS_SQL_PATH=`pg_config --sharedir`/contrib/postgis-1.5
# Creating the template spatial database.
$ createdb -E UTF8 template_postgis
$ createlang -d template_postgis plpgsql # Adding PLPGSQL language support.
# Allows non-superusers the ability to create from this template
$ psql -d postgres -c "UPDATE pg_database SET datistemplate='true' WHERE datname='template_postgis';"
# Loading the PostGIS SQL routines
$ psql -d template_postgis -f $POSTGIS_SQL_PATH/postgis.sql
$ psql -d template_postgis -f $POSTGIS_SQL_PATH/spatial_ref_sys.sql
# Enabling users to alter spatial tables.
$ psql -d template_postgis -c "GRANT ALL ON geometry_columns TO PUBLIC;"
$ psql -d template_postgis -c "GRANT ALL ON geography_columns TO PUBLIC;"
$ psql -d template_postgis -c "GRANT ALL ON spatial_ref_sys TO PUBLIC;"

These commands may be placed in a shell script for later use; for convenience the following scripts are available:

PostGIS version Bash shell script
1.3 create_template_postgis-1.3.sh
1.4 create_template_postgis-1.4.sh
1.5 create_template_postgis-1.5.sh
Debian/Ubuntu create_template_postgis-debian.sh

Afterwards, you may create a spatial database by simply specifying template_postgis as the template to use (via the -T option):

$ createdb -T template_postgis <db name>

Note

While the createdb command does not require database super-user privileges, it must be executed by a database user that has permissions to create databases. You can create such a user with the following command:

$ createuser --createdb <user>

Creating a spatial database for SpatiaLite

After you’ve installed SpatiaLite, you’ll need to create a number of spatial metadata tables in your database in order to perform spatial queries.

If you’re using SpatiaLite 3.0 or newer, use the spatialite utility to call the InitSpatiaMetaData() function, like this:

$ spatialite geodjango.db "SELECT InitSpatialMetaData();"
the SPATIAL_REF_SYS table already contains some row(s)
 InitSpatiaMetaData ()error:"table spatial_ref_sys already exists"
0

You can safely ignore the error messages shown. When you’ve done this, you can skip the rest of this section.

If you’re using a version of SpatiaLite older than 3.0, you’ll need to download a database-initialization file and execute its SQL queries in your database.

First, get it from the appropriate SpatiaLite Resources page ( http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite-2.3.1/resources.html for 2.3 or http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite-2.4.0/ for 2.4):

$ wget http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite-2.3.1/init_spatialite-2.3.sql.gz
$ gunzip init_spatialite-2.3.sql.gz

Then, use the spatialite command to initialize a spatial database:

$ spatialite geodjango.db < init_spatialite-2.X.sql

Note

The parameter geodjango.db is the filename of the SQLite database you want to use. Use the same in the DATABASES "name" key inside your settings.py.

Add django.contrib.gis to INSTALLED_APPS

Like other Django contrib applications, you will only need to add django.contrib.gis to INSTALLED_APPS in your settings. This is the so that gis templates can be located – if not done, then features such as the geographic admin or KML sitemaps will not function properly.

Add Google projection to spatial_ref_sys table

Changed in Django 1.2: Please see the release notes

Note

If you’re running PostGIS 1.4 or above, you can skip this step. The entry is already included in the default spatial_ref_sys table.

In order to conduct database transformations to the so-called “Google” projection (a spherical mercator projection used by Google Maps), an entry must be added to your spatial database’s spatial_ref_sys table. Invoke the Django shell from your project and execute the add_srs_entry function:

$ python manage shell
>>> from django.contrib.gis.utils import add_srs_entry
>>> add_srs_entry(900913)

Note

In Django 1.1 the name of this function is add_postgis_srs.

This adds an entry for the 900913 SRID to the spatial_ref_sys (or equivalent) table, making it possible for the spatial database to transform coordinates in this projection. You only need to execute this command once per spatial database.

Troubleshooting

If you can’t find the solution to your problem here then participate in the community! You can:

  • Join the #geodjango IRC channel on FreeNode. Please be patient and polite – while you may not get an immediate response, someone will attempt to answer your question as soon as they see it.
  • Ask your question on the GeoDjango mailing list.
  • File a ticket on the Django trac if you think there’s a bug. Make sure to provide a complete description of the problem, versions used, and specify the component as “GIS”.

Library environment settings

By far, the most common problem when installing GeoDjango is that the external shared libraries (e.g., for GEOS and GDAL) cannot be located. [4] Typically, the cause of this problem is that the operating system isn’t aware of the directory where the libraries built from source were installed.

In general, the library path may be set on a per-user basis by setting an environment variable, or by configuring the library path for the entire system.

LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable

A user may set this environment variable to customize the library paths they want to use. The typical library directory for software built from source is /usr/local/lib. Thus, /usr/local/lib needs to be included in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable. For example, the user could place the following in their bash profile:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib

Setting system library path

On GNU/Linux systems, there is typically a file in /etc/ld.so.conf, which may include additional paths from files in another directory, such as /etc/ld.so.conf.d. As the root user, add the custom library path (like /usr/local/lib) on a new line in ld.so.conf. This is one example of how to do so:

$ sudo echo /usr/local/lib >> /etc/ld.so.conf
$ sudo ldconfig

For OpenSolaris users, the system library path may be modified using the crle utility. Run crle with no options to see the current configuration and use crle -l to set with the new library path. Be very careful when modifying the system library path:

# crle -l $OLD_PATH:/usr/local/lib

Install binutils

GeoDjango uses the find_library function (from the ctypes.util Python module) to discover libraries. The find_library routine uses a program called objdump (part of the binutils package) to verify a shared library on GNU/Linux systems. Thus, if binutils is not installed on your Linux system then Python’s ctypes may not be able to find your library even if your library path is set correctly and geospatial libraries were built perfectly.

The binutils package may be installed on Debian and Ubuntu systems using the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install binutils

Similarly, on Red Hat and CentOS systems:

$ sudo yum install binutils

Platform-specific instructions

Mac OS X

Because of the variety of packaging systems available for OS X, users have several different options for installing GeoDjango. These options are:

Note

Currently, the easiest and recommended approach for installing GeoDjango on OS X is to use the KyngChaos packages.

This section also includes instructions for installing an upgraded version of Python from packages provided by the Python Software Foundation, however, this is not required.

Python

Although OS X comes with Python installed, users can use framework installers (2.5 and 2.6 are available) provided by the Python Software Foundation. An advantage to using the installer is that OS X’s Python will remain “pristine” for internal operating system use.

Note

You will need to modify the PATH environment variable in your .profile file so that the new version of Python is used when python is entered at the command-line:

export PATH=/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin:$PATH

Homebrew

Homebrew provides “recipes” for building binaries and packages from source. It provides recipes for the GeoDjango prerequisites on Macintosh computers running OS X. Because Homebrew still builds the software from source, the Apple Developer Tools are required.

Summary:

$ brew install postgresql
$ brew install postgis
$ brew install gdal
$ brew install libgeoip

KyngChaos packages

William Kyngesburye provides a number of geospatial library binary packages that make it simple to get GeoDjango installed on OS X without compiling them from source. However, the Apple Developer Tools are still necessary for compiling the Python database adapters psycopg2 (for PostGIS) and pysqlite2 (for SpatiaLite).

Note

SpatiaLite users should consult the SpatiaLite section after installing the packages for additional instructions.

Download the framework packages for:

  • UnixImageIO
  • PROJ
  • GEOS
  • SQLite3 (includes the SpatiaLite library)
  • GDAL

Install the packages in the order they are listed above, as the GDAL and SQLite packages require the packages listed before them. Afterwards, you can also install the KyngChaos binary packages for PostgreSQL and PostGIS.

After installing the binary packages, you’ll want to add the following to your .profile to be able to run the package programs from the command-line:

export PATH=/Library/Frameworks/UnixImageIO.framework/Programs:$PATH
export PATH=/Library/Frameworks/PROJ.framework/Programs:$PATH
export PATH=/Library/Frameworks/GEOS.framework/Programs:$PATH
export PATH=/Library/Frameworks/SQLite3.framework/Programs:$PATH
export PATH=/Library/Frameworks/GDAL.framework/Programs:$PATH
export PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/bin:$PATH

Note

Use of these binaries requires Django 1.0.3 and above. If you are using a previous version of Django (like 1.0.2), then you will have to add the following in your settings:

GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH='/Library/Frameworks/GEOS.framework/GEOS'
GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH='/Library/Frameworks/GDAL.framework/GDAL'
psycopg2

After you’ve installed the KyngChaos binaries and modified your PATH, as described above, psycopg2 may be installed using the following command:

$ sudo pip install psycopg2

Note

If you don’t have pip, follow the the installation instructions to install it.

pysqlite2

Follow the pysqlite2 source install instructions, however, when editing the setup.cfg use the following instead:

[build_ext]
#define=
include_dirs=/Library/Frameworks/SQLite3.framework/unix/include
library_dirs=/Library/Frameworks/SQLite3.framework/unix/lib
libraries=sqlite3
#define=SQLITE_OMIT_LOAD_EXTENSION
SpatiaLite

When Creating a spatial database for SpatiaLite, the spatialite program is required. However, instead of attempting to compile the SpatiaLite tools from source, download the SpatiaLite Binaries for OS X, and install spatialite in a location available in your PATH. For example:

$ curl -O http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite/spatialite-tools-osx-x86-2.3.1.tar.gz
$ tar xzf spatialite-tools-osx-x86-2.3.1.tar.gz
$ cd spatialite-tools-osx-x86-2.3.1/bin
$ sudo cp spatialite /Library/Frameworks/SQLite3.framework/Programs

Finally, for GeoDjango to be able to find the KyngChaos SpatiaLite library, add the following to your settings.py:

SPATIALITE_LIBRARY_PATH='/Library/Frameworks/SQLite3.framework/SQLite3'

Fink

Kurt Schwehr has been gracious enough to create GeoDjango packages for users of the Fink package system. The following packages are available, depending on which version of Python you want to use:

  • django-gis-py26
  • django-gis-py25
  • django-gis-py24

MacPorts

MacPorts may be used to install GeoDjango prerequisites on Macintosh computers running OS X. Because MacPorts still builds the software from source, the Apple Developer Tools are required.

Summary:

$ sudo port install postgresql83-server
$ sudo port install geos
$ sudo port install proj
$ sudo port install postgis
$ sudo port install gdal +geos
$ sudo port install libgeoip

Note

You will also have to modify the PATH in your .profile so that the MacPorts programs are accessible from the command-line:

export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/lib/postgresql83/bin

In addition, add the DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH setting so that the libraries can be found by Python:

export DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/local/lib:/opt/local/lib/postgresql83

Ubuntu & Debian GNU/Linux

Note

The PostGIS SQL files are not placed in the PostgreSQL share directory in the Debian and Ubuntu packages. Instead, they’re located in a special directory depending on the release. In this case, use the create_template_postgis-debian.sh script

Ubuntu

11.10

In Ubuntu 11.10, PostgreSQL was upgraded to 9.1. The installation commands are:

$ sudo apt-get install binutils gdal-bin libproj-dev postgresql-9.1-postgis \
     postgresql-server-dev-9.1 python-psycopg2
10.04 through 11.04

In Ubuntu 10.04, PostgreSQL was upgraded to 8.4 and GDAL was upgraded to 1.6. Ubuntu 10.04 uses PostGIS 1.4, while Ubuntu 10.10 uses PostGIS 1.5 (with geography support). The installation commands are:

$ sudo apt-get install binutils gdal-bin libproj-dev postgresql-8.4-postgis \
     postgresql-server-dev-8.4 python-psycopg2
8.10

Use the synaptic package manager to install the following packages:

$ sudo apt-get install binutils gdal-bin postgresql-8.3-postgis \
    postgresql-server-dev-8.3 python-psycopg2

That’s it! For the curious, the required binary prerequisites packages are:

  • binutils: for ctypes to find libraries
  • postgresql-8.3
  • postgresql-server-dev-8.3: for pg_config
  • postgresql-8.3-postgis: for PostGIS 1.3.3
  • libgeos-3.0.0, and libgeos-c1: for GEOS 3.0.0
  • libgdal1-1.5.0: for GDAL 1.5.0 library
  • proj: for PROJ 4.6.0 – but no datum shifting files, see note below
  • python-psycopg2

Optional packages to consider:

  • libgeoip1: for GeoIP support
  • gdal-bin: for GDAL command line programs like ogr2ogr
  • python-gdal for GDAL’s own Python bindings – includes interfaces for raster manipulation

Note

On this version of Ubuntu the proj package does not come with the datum shifting files installed, which will cause problems with the geographic admin because the null datum grid is not available for transforming geometries to the spherical mercator projection. A solution is to download the datum-shifting files, create the grid file, and install it yourself:

$ wget http://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-datumgrid-1.4.tar.gz
$ mkdir nad
$ cd nad
$ tar xzf ../proj-datumgrid-1.4.tar.gz
$ nad2bin null < null.lla
$ sudo cp null /usr/share/proj

Otherwise, the Ubuntu proj package is fine for general use as long as you do not plan on doing any database transformation of geometries to the Google projection (900913).

8.04 and lower

The 8.04 (and lower) versions of Ubuntu use GEOS v2.2.3 in their binary packages, which is incompatible with GeoDjango. Thus, do not use the binary packages for GEOS or PostGIS and build some prerequisites from source, per the instructions in this document; however, it is okay to use the PostgreSQL binary packages.

For more details, please see the Debian instructions for 4.0 (Etch) below.

Debian

4.0 (Etch)

The situation here is the same as that of Ubuntu 8.04 and lower – in other words, some packages must be built from source to work properly with GeoDjango.

Binary packages

The following command will install acceptable binary packages, as well as the development tools necessary to build the rest of the requirements:

$ sudo apt-get install binutils bzip2 gcc g++ flex make postgresql-8.1 \
    postgresql-server-dev-8.1 python-ctypes python-psycopg2 python-setuptools

Required package information:

  • binutils: for ctypes to find libraries
  • bzip2: for decompressing the source packages
  • gcc, g++, make: GNU developer tools used to compile the libraries
  • flex: required to build PostGIS
  • postgresql-8.1
  • postgresql-server-dev-8.1: for pg_config
  • python-psycopg2

Optional packages:

  • libgeoip: for GeoIP support
Source packages

You will still have to install GEOS, PROJ.4, PostGIS, and GDAL from source. Please follow the directions carefully.

5.0 (Lenny)

This version is comparable to Ubuntu 8.10, so the command is very similar:

$ sudo apt-get install binutils libgdal1-1.5.0 postgresql-8.3 \
    postgresql-8.3-postgis postgresql-server-dev-8.3 \
    python-psycopg2 python-setuptools

This assumes that you are using PostgreSQL version 8.3. Else, replace 8.3 in the above command with the appropriate PostgreSQL version.

Note

Please read the note in the Ubuntu 8.10 install documentation about the proj package – it also applies here because the package does not include the datum shifting files.

Post-installation notes

If the PostgreSQL database cluster was not initiated after installing, then it can be created (and started) with the following command:

$ sudo pg_createcluster --start 8.3 main

Afterwards, the /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.3 script should be used to manage the starting and stopping of PostgreSQL.

In addition, the SQL files for PostGIS are placed in a different location on Debian 5.0 . Thus when Creating a spatial database template for PostGIS either:

  • Create a symbolic link to these files:

    $ sudo ln -s /usr/share/postgresql-8.3-postgis/{lwpostgis,spatial_ref_sys}.sql \
        /usr/share/postgresql/8.3
    

    If not running PostgreSQL 8.3, then replace 8.3 in the command above with the correct version.

  • Or use the create_template_postgis-debian.sh to create the spatial database.

Windows

Proceed through the following sections sequentially in order to install GeoDjango on Windows.

Note

These instructions assume that you are using 32-bit versions of all programs. While 64-bit versions of Python and PostgreSQL 9.0 are available, 64-bit versions of spatial libraries, like GEOS and GDAL, are not yet provided by the OSGeo4W installer.

Python

First, download the latest Python 2.7 installer from the Python Web site. Next, run the installer and keep the defaults – for example, keep ‘Install for all users’ checked and the installation path set as C:\Python27.

Note

You may already have a version of Python installed in C:\python as ESRI products sometimes install a copy there. You should still install a fresh version of Python 2.7.

PostgreSQL

First, download the latest PostgreSQL 9.0 installer from the EnterpriseDB Web site. After downloading, simply run the installer, follow the on-screen directions, and keep the default options unless you know the consequences of changing them.

Note

The PostgreSQL installer creates both a new Windows user to be the ‘postgres service account’ and a postgres database superuser You will be prompted once to set the password for both accounts – make sure to remember it!

When the installer completes, it will ask to launch the Application Stack Builder (ASB) on exit – keep this checked, as it is necessary to install PostGIS.

Note

If installed successfully, the PostgreSQL server will run in the background each time the system as started as a Windows service. A PostgreSQL 9.0 start menu group will created and contains shortcuts for the ASB as well as the ‘SQL Shell’, which will launch a psql command window.

PostGIS

From within the Application Stack Builder (to run outside of the installer, Start ‣ Programs ‣ PostgreSQL 9.0), select PostgreSQL Database Server 9.0 on port 5432 from the drop down menu. Next, expand the Categories ‣ Spatial Extensions menu tree and select PostGIS 1.5 for PostgreSQL 9.0.

After clicking next, you will be prompted to select your mirror, PostGIS will be downloaded, and the PostGIS installer will begin. Select only the default options during install (e.g., do not uncheck the option to create a default PostGIS database).

Note

You will be prompted to enter your postgres database superuser password in the ‘Database Connection Information’ dialog.

psycopg2

The psycopg2 Python module provides the interface between Python and the PostgreSQL database. Download the latest Windows installer for your version of Python and PostgreSQL and run using the default settings. [5]

OSGeo4W

The OSGeo4W installer makes it simple to install the PROJ.4, GDAL, and GEOS libraries required by GeoDjango. First, download the OSGeo4W installer, and run it. Select Express Web-GIS Install and click next. In the ‘Select Packages’ list, ensure that GDAL is selected; MapServer and Apache are also enabled by default, but are not required by GeoDjango and may be unchecked safely. After clicking next, the packages will be automatically downloaded and installed, after which you may exit the installer.

Modify Windows environment

In order to use GeoDjango, you will need to add your Python and OSGeo4W directories to your Windows system Path, as well as create GDAL_DATA and PROJ_LIB environment variables. The following set of commands, executable with cmd.exe, will set this up:

set OSGEO4W_ROOT=C:\OSGeo4W
set PYTHON_ROOT=C:\Python27
set GDAL_DATA=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\share\gdal
set PROJ_LIB=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\share\proj
set PATH=%PATH%;%PYTHON_ROOT%;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\bin
reg ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v Path /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d "%PATH%"
reg ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v GDAL_DATA /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d "%GDAL_DATA%"
reg ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v PROJ_LIB /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d "%PROJ_LIB%"

For your convenience, these commands are available in the executable batch script, geodjango_setup.bat.

Note

Administrator privileges are required to execute these commands. To do this, right-click on geodjango_setup.bat and select Run as administrator. You need to log out and log back in again for the settings to take effect.

Note

If you customized the Python or OSGeo4W installation directories, then you will need to modify the OSGEO4W_ROOT and/or PYTHON_ROOT variables accordingly.

Install Django and set up database

Finally, install Django on your system. You do not need to create a spatial database template, as one named template_postgis is created for you when installing PostGIS.

To administer the database, you can either use the pgAdmin III program (Start ‣ PostgreSQL 9.0 ‣ pgAdmin III) or the SQL Shell (Start ‣ PostgreSQL 9.0 ‣ SQL Shell). For example, to create a 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 TEMPLATE template_postgis ENCODING 'utf8';

Footnotes

[1]The datum shifting files are needed for converting data to and from certain projections. For example, the PROJ.4 string for the Google projection (900913 or 3857) requires the null grid file only included in the extra datum shifting files. It is easier to install the shifting files now, then to have debug a problem caused by their absence later.
[2]Specifically, GeoDjango provides support for the OGR library, a component of GDAL.
[3]See GDAL ticket #2382.
[4]GeoDjango uses the find_library() routine from ctypes.util to locate shared libraries.
[5]The psycopg2 Windows installers are packaged and maintained by Jason Erickson.