CartoDB importer

CartoDB importer is a Ruby gem that makes your life easier when importing data from a file into a PostGIS database. The accepted formats for input files are:

  • CSV
  • SHP (in a zip file)
  • ODS
  • XLX(S)

Installation and dependencies

To install Ruby dependencies just install bundler the gem and run the command bundle install in your shell.

There are also some dependencies of external Python libraries. You should install pip before:

  • In Debian / Ubuntu: apt-get install python-pip

  • In MacosX: easy_install pip

And then run:

pip install GDAL chardet==1.0.1 argparse==1.2.1 brewery==0.6

How to use it?

The way to use this gem is to initialize a object of class Cartodb::Importer using the appropiate parameters.

importer = Cartodb::Importer.new :import_from_file => "path to CSV file", :srid => 4326, :database => "...",
                                 :username => "...", :password => "..."
result = importer.import!

If everything works fine, a new table will exist in the given database. A result object is return with some information about the import, such as the number of rows, or the name of the table.

puts result.rows_imported
# > 43243

If any error happens, an exception could be raised.

This is the list with all the available options to use in the constructor:

  • import_from_file: a file descriptor, Tempfile or URL with the URL from which import the data
  • srid: the value of the SRID
  • database: the name of the database where import the data
  • username: the owner of the database
  • password: the password to connect to the database
  • extra_columns: a SQL string with some extra columns that should be added to the imported table. If any of these columns already exists an error will be raised

Running the specs

CartoDB Importer has a suite of specs which define its specification. To run this suite a database named cartodb_importer_test must exist. You can create this database by running:

CREATE DATABASE cartodb_importer_test
WITH TEMPLATE = template_postgis
OWNER = postgres

Then, to run the specs just run this command:

bundle exec rspec spec/import_spec.rb