Loading a Shapefile into PostGIS

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

1. Open the terminal window and enter the following command and press enter to creating a new database named ‘shape’:

   createdb -T postgis_template shape
   

2. Move to the GeoServer data directory, so that the Mainrd.shp file is in the current directory:

   cd /home/unredd/Desktop/workshop/data/user_data
   ls Mainrd.*
   

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

   shp2pgsql -I Mainrd.shp public.main_roads | psql -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 III

   

   A PostGIS table by ShapeFile

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