PostGIS is an open-source extension to PostgreSQL® designed to add support for storing, indexing and querying geographic data.

This extension adds several features and functions, such as geometric and geographic processing, geocoding, topologies and raster processing. You can find more information on the official documentation.

PostGIS at Scalingo

PostGIS has some particularities which you should be aware of before getting started.

• PostGIS requires quite a lot of resources to run properly. We strongly advise to use at least a Starter 512 plan.

Enabling PostGIS

To enable PostGIS:

1. Provision a new PostgreSQL® database
2. Access your database using the Interactive Remote Console

3. Enable the postgis extension using the following commands:

   From the PostgreSQL® console, run the following command:

    CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS postgis;
   

   The output should look like this:

    CREATE EXTENSION
    my_app_4553=>
   

4. PostGIS is now enabled and ready to be used!