PostGIS: Using Geospatial Data with Rails
Last updated November 21, 2022
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PostGIS is available in public beta. The beta is available on all Standard-tier or higher databases and currently supports PostGIS version 2.5. To enable PostGIS after connecting to your PostgreSQL database, run:
CREATE EXTENSION postgis;
Setting up PostGIS with Rails
To use PostgreSQL as your database in Ruby applications, include the activerecord-postgis-adapter gem in your Gemfile.
To fully take advantage of PostGIS with Rails on Heroku, configure your app with a custom buildpack which includes the appropriate system dependencies. This buildpack includes that support. Be sure to deploy the buildpack before building any gems.
gem 'activerecord-postgis-adapter'
Run bundle install to download and resolve all dependencies. For more information on getting setup with activerecord-postgis-adapter you can visit their docs.
After you’ve installed the gem, change the adapter to “postgis”. You can see how to modify your Rails connection adapter here.