[postgis-users] PostGIS over distributed worksites

[Lee Hachadoorian]

I usually use PostGIS in a localhost or a LAN setting, where I or my 
workgroup can all be connected to the database all the time.

I recently set up a QGIS project using SpatiaLite with Dropbox syncing, 
because project participants were at multiple worksites. However, 
rendering--particularly rendering of QueryLayers--is quite slow, and 
QGIS often crashes. Testing shows that QGIS is much more responsive with 
PostGIS as the back end, and although it's difficult to prove a 
negative, it seems that QGIS crashes don't happen (or at least clearly 
happen less often). So I would like to transition the project to PostGIS.

I am asking for your recommendations or experiences with setting this up 
in a way that will be fairly easy to show users who are technically 
savvy but new to database management. Some details:

1. Small workgroup (5 or so).
2. Spatial layers are big releases from city government (parcels, 
streets, infrastructure) which are updated at most a couple of times a 
year, often less frequently. Each spatial layer is updated on a 
different schedule by different agencies.
3. Data releases are in shapefile (blecch!).
4. Users do meet in person with some regularity.

As a suggestion, I am considering just having everyone set up localhost 
installs of PostGIS. When there is a new data release, one person could 
load and clean the data, then dump the table, copy the dump to Dropbox, 
and other users could load the new table in their localhost database.

Obviously this solution is not scalable--more users or more frequent 
updates would make it quite tedious--but it may work for this use case. 
I am open to criticisms and suggestions.

Thanks,
--Lee

-- 
Lee Hachadoorian
Assistant Professor of Instruction, Geography & Urban Studies
Assistant Director, Professional Science Master's in GIS
Temple University
http://geospatial.commons.gc.cuny.edu
http://freecity.commons.gc.cuny.edu