I recently finished reading two books which may be of interest to open-source GIS users – “PostGIS Cookbook” and “The PyQGIS Programmer’s Guide“, both of which I highly recommend:
PostGIS Cookbook
I’ve been a fan of Stephen Mather’s blog for a while now, and have consistently found it to be a great source of trustworthy information and creative solutions to GIS problems. So when I first saw mention of his work on the PostGIS Cookbook I knew it would be a must-read for me. PostGIS is an essential part of my daily toolkit, and I’ll quickly devour any tutorial or guide which can lead me to better ways to put it to use. And that’s exactly what this book is! It’s full of tips and guides which has inspired me in a lot of techniques I’d never tried or even thought possible in PostGIS.
It’s important to point out that this book isn’t a training manual or beginner’s guide to PostGIS. It assumes readers are already familiar with using PostGIS and have a good understanding of GIS software in general. (If you’re looking for a book to start from scratch with PostGIS, PostGIS in Action is a better fit). I think that’s really what makes this book stand out though. There’s currently not a lot of books available covering PostGIS, and as far as I’m aware the PostGIS Cookbook is the only book available which is targeted to experienced PostGIS users.
Highlights for me are:
- A great explanation and write up on optimised KNN filtering in PostGIS (something which often trips me up)
- The detailed guide to topologically correct simplification of features
- The exploration of PgRouting, which is a great introduction to PostGIS’ routing abilities
- The “PostGIS and the web” chapter – I really wasn’t expecting this, but it’s quite eye opening (I’m going to have to do some digging into GeoDjango sometime)
The only criticism I have with this book is that it jumps around a lot between operating systems. While most of the code is provided for both Linux/OSX and Windows, there’s occasional examples which only have code for one specific operating system. It’s a little jarring and assumes the user is well versed in their particular operating system to workaround these omissions.
Overall, I strongly recommend the PostGIS Cookbook, and would consider it a must have for anyone serious about expanding their PostGIS abilities. (Also, looks like the publisher, Packt, have a two-for-one sale going at the moment, so it’s a good time to grab this title).
The PyQGIS Programmer’s Guide
The second book I’ve just finished reading is Gary Sherman’s “The PyQGIS Programmer’s Guide“. For those who are unaware, Gary was the original founder of QGIS back in 2002, so you can be confident that he knows exactly what he’s writing about. In The PyQGIS Programmer’s Guide Gary has created an in-depth guide on how to get started with programming for QGIS using python. It takes readers all the way from simple scripts right through to developing QGIS plugins and standalone applications based on the QGIS API.
This book fills an important void in the literature available for QGIS. Previously, the PyQGIS Developer Cookbook was the only available guide for QGIS python scripting, and unfortunately it’s a little out-of-date now. PyQGIS scripting can be a steep learning curve and that’s why this book is so appreciated.
It would be valuable to have some python knowledge and experience prior to reading this book. While the “Python Basics” chapter quickly runs through an introduction to the language, the book makes no claims to be a comprehensive python tutorial. But if you’ve dabbled in the language before and have familiarity with the python way of doing things you’ll easily be able to follow along.
Highlights are:
- The “Tips and Techniques” chapter, which is a great mini-reference for performing a range of common tasks in PyQGIS (including loading layers, changing symbol styles, editing feature attributes, etc).
- A complete tutorial for creating a QGIS plugin
- A guide to debugging PyQGIS code and plugins
I’d definitely recommend that anyone who wants to get started with PyQGIS start with Gary’s work – you’ll find it the perfect place to begin.