GeoDjango uses and/or provides interfaces for the following open source geospatial libraries:
| Program | Description | Required | Supported Versions |
|---|---|---|---|
| GEOS | Geometry Engine Open Source | Yes | 3.12, 3.11, 3.10, 3.9, 3.8 |
| PROJ | Cartographic Projections library | Yes (PostgreSQL and SQLite only) | 9.x, 8.x, 7.x, 6.x, 5.x |
| GDAL | Geospatial Data Abstraction Library | Yes | 3.7, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.1, 3.0, 2.4 |
| GeoIP | IP-based geolocation library | No | 2 |
| PostGIS | Spatial extensions for PostgreSQL | Yes (PostgreSQL only) | 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.1, 3.0, 2.5 |
| SpatiaLite | Spatial extensions for SQLite | Yes (SQLite only) | 5.1, 5.0, 4.3 |
Note that older or more recent versions of these libraries may also work totally fine with GeoDjango. Your mileage may vary.
Note
The GeoDjango interfaces to GEOS, GDAL, and GeoIP may be used
independently of Django. In other words, no database or settings file
required – import them as normal from django.contrib.gis.
On Debian/Ubuntu, you are advised to install the following packages which will install, directly or by dependency, the required geospatial libraries:
$ sudo apt-get install binutils libproj-dev gdal-bin
Please also consult platform-specific instructions if you are on macOS or Windows.
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
macOS users must install Xcode in order to compile software from source.
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 from the GEOS website and untar the source archive:
$ wget https://download.osgeo.org/geos/geos-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2
$ tar xjf geos-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2
Then step into the GEOS directory, create a build folder, and step into
it:
$ cd geos-X.Y.Z
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
Then build and install the package:
$ cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
$ cmake --build .
$ sudo cmake --build . --target install
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.
PROJ is a library for converting geospatial data to different coordinate reference systems.
First, download the PROJ source code:
$ wget https://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
… and datum shifting files (download proj-datumgrid-X.Y.tar.gz for
PROJ < 7.x) [1]:
$ wget https://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-data-X.Y.tar.gz
Next, untar the source code archive, and extract the datum shifting files in the
data subdirectory (use nad subdirectory for PROJ < 6.x). This must be
done prior to configuration:
$ tar xzf proj-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
$ cd proj-X.Y.Z/data
$ tar xzf ../../proj-data-X.Y.tar.gz
$ cd ../..
For PROJ 9.x and greater, releases only support builds using CMake (see
PROJ RFC-7).
To build with CMake ensure your system meets the build requirements.
Then create a build folder in the PROJ directory, and step into it:
$ cd proj-X.Y.Z
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
Finally, configure, make and install PROJ:
$ cmake ..
$ cmake --build .
$ sudo cmake --build . --target install
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 should be installed prior to building GDAL.
First download the latest GDAL release version and untar the archive:
$ wget https://download.osgeo.org/gdal/X.Y.Z/gdal-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
$ tar xzf gdal-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
For GDAL 3.6.x and greater, releases only support builds using CMake. To
build with CMake create a build folder in the GDAL directory, and step
into it:
$ cd gdal-X.Y.Z
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
Finally, configure, make and install GDAL:
$ cmake ..
$ cmake --build .
$ sudo cmake --build . --target install
If you have any problems, please see the troubleshooting section below for suggestions and solutions.
When GeoDjango can’t find the GDAL library, 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'
Footnotes
| [1] | The datum shifting files are needed for converting data to and from
certain projections.
For example, the PROJ 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. |
Jan 24, 2024