Several months ago we asked you about the value of a PostGIS book and if you would buy such a thing. We got a lot of favorable comments and suggestions. We think our success in getting a book contract was in large part because of this. We thank you very much for your heart-warming support.
Needless to say we got a couple of contract offers a couple of months ago and settled on Manning. We liked the fact that they had pre-book sales and also allowed readers to provide input into what they would like to see in the book. Now that our book has reached Pre-Book sale status and is now listed on the Manning site, we can celebrate a little and announce its existence. The book detail summary is not in place yet, but you can download the first chapter for free and order now if you want. http://www.manning.com/obe Ordering early allows you to get the chapters as they are written and get the final e-Book/Hardcopy. We have an estimated Hard-Copy completion of around January/February 2010 and the full ebook copy should be available about 2 months before that. The book will cover both basic concepts as well as advanced. Things that will be covered (we have chapters 1,2,3 already written but nothing is set in stone until it hits hard-copy), so feel free to voice any ideas you have on our author blog. Below are the following chapters we have planned (or done) 1) What spatial databases do in general, which ones exist, and OGC terminology 2) What geometry types PostGIS supports and how well it supports each with some simple exercises of creating each type. Here we cover 2d, 3d, 3dm basic geometry types and curved geometries 3) Data modeling -- This chapter starts by going over some basic storage models -- using schemas, do you use table inheritance, have untyped or specific typed geometry column, separate tables, separate columns, use srids or not and so forth as well as pros and cons of each. It then concludes with simple exercises demonstrating these different storage approaches. 4) Working with geometries -- this covers key geometry properties and concepts -- such as what a spatial reference system is and kinds out there, other key geometry properties and functions that take one geometry. It will conclude with business case uses for these. 5) Deals mostly with relation operations and functions that take more than one geometry as input (pretty much a companion to chapter 4) 6) This chapter covers combining what was learned in 4 and 5 to create more sophisticated queries. It will show things such as clipping geometries, splitting geometries with lines, combining spatial aggregates with sql aggregates, generating a farm of test data. 7) working with real data -- we go in depth into how to load data with shp2pgsql and OGR2OGR. Tricks for determining the spatial reference system of a data source when there is or is no meta data. Also exporting to various different data sources. 8) Speeding up queries -- demonstrates how to write optimal SQL statements as well as somewhat hackish statements to force the PostgreSQL planner to follow a more optimal plan. How to use explain and graphical explain to determine where the bottlenecks in your queries are. Choosing the right indexes (spatial and btree, compound vs. non-compound). Key PostgreSQL settings. --Part 2: 9) This covers specific use cases -- how to fix different kinds of invalid geometries, various proximity analysis/nearest neighbor exercises, using buffers, linear referencing. I think we have about 25 exercises planned out. 10) PostGIS add-ons and ancillary tools -- planned here are Tiger Geocoder, PgRouting, PLPython, PLR 11) Using PostGIS in web applications -- planned here UMN Mapserver, GeoServer, SharpMap, OpenLayers, (maybe Web Feature Server) 12) Using PostGIS in desktop environment -- here we plan to do some quick exercises using -- OpenJump, QuantumGIS, uDig, GvSig 13) WKT Raster -- new work going on here -- we'll cover difference between raster and vector data, installing WKT Raster, loading raster data, raster /vector overlays, analysis of color bands The Appendixes Appendix A: Additional Resources We'll have listings of useful blogs and sites for more tips and tricks, places to get data etc. Appendix B: Installation, Upgrade We'll provide resources where you can get binaries for PostGIS How to PostGIS enable a new db How to upgrade from one version to another (both soft and hard and the lazy hard) Appendix C: SQL Primer Basic SQL stuff that is pretty standard in most relational databases Different join types (INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, EXCEPT, UNION [ALL] with cute diagrams of each), Aggregates, recursive queries and common table expressions (new in PostgreSQL 8.4 but supported in other high-end dbs -- SQL server, IBM, Oracle), Windowing queries Doing inserts, updates, cross table updates Appendix D: PostgreSQL Specific Features Things that are somewhat unique to PostgreSQL -- such as how to create custom aggregates, arrays as data types, rules, triggers, sql and plpgsql function primer. Thanks for your support, Leo and Regina _______________________________________________ postgis-users mailing list postgis-users@postgis.refractions.net http://postgis.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/postgis-users
