How-To: Spatial and Ruby on OSX

Notes on getting started using Ruby and rgeo on OSX to manipulate spatial data. 


Setup:
1. Download and install ruby 1.92

$ curl ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org//pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.2-p180.tar.gz -o ruby-1.9.2-p180.tar.gz 
$ tar xvfz ruby-1.9.2-p180.tar.gz
$ cd ruby-1.9.2-p180
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

2. Download and install homebrew package manager

$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSLk https://gist.github.com/raw/323731/install_homebrew.rb)"

3. Download and install geos and proj libraries. The ruby gem rgeo requires geos and proj. While it is possible to build rgeo against  the Kyng Chaos Frameworks, it's far easier to install these libraries using brew.

$ brew install geos
$ brew intall proj

4. Install rgeo. RGeo is a ruby gem based on the OGC Simple Features Specification.

$ sudo gem install rgeo

5. Install supporting rgeo gems.
Shapefile:

$ sudo gem install dbf
$ sudo gem install rgeo-shapefile

PostGIS:

$ gem install pg
$ gem install rgeo-activerecord
$ gem install activerecord-postgis-adapter

GeoJSON:

$ gem install rgeo-geojson

Install GeoServer on Amazon EC2 without leaving the browser

Learned a new trick from @waxpancake at ThinkUp, so here's how to install GeoServer on a Ubuntu Maverick 10.10 EC2 instance with out leaving the browser.

Launch an Ubuntu AMI, in this example I use ami-cef405a7, but check this page to find a suitable AMI from Canonical. 

I use a micro instance in this example, but you can use any size.

Copy the following script in the User Data textbox. The script downloads the install script from the earlier blog post and runs it.

#!/bin/bash -ex
exec > >(tee /var/log/user-data.log|logger -t user-data -s 2>/dev/console) 2>&1

# download the install script and run it
cd /home/ubuntu
wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6706687/geoserver-ubuntu-ec2-install.sh 
chmod 755 geoserver-ubuntu-ec2-install.sh
./geoserver-ubuntu-ec2-install.sh

It should look like this:

You can tag your instance or leave it blank.

Use an existing keypair or create a new one.

Use and existing security group or create a new one. Note that port 80 and 22 need to be open for Apache and ssh respectively.

Launch the instance.

That's it! It may take a minute or three to get everything installed, configured, and running even if the console shows that the instance is running.

Install script for Geoserver on Ubuntu EC2 instance

Continuing with the theme of running stuff on the free tier of Amazon Web Services, here's a script to install Geoserver proxied through apache for when you want to throw up a quick map server. The script installs Geoserver 2.02 on Ubuntu Maverick 10.10 using ami-cef405a7.

The script is available here.

#
# install Geoserver on Ubuntu Maverick 10.10
# note: Geoserver is proxied through apache so port 8080 is not used
#
# @spara 11/15/10
#

# setup sources 
sudo sh -c "echo ' ' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://archive.canonical.com/ maverick partner' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-get update

# magic! (installs java without physically accepting license)
echo "sun-java6-jdk shared/accepted-sun-dlj-v1-1 boolean true" | sudo -E debconf-set-selections

# setup prerequisites 
sudo apt-get -y install sun-java6-bin
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun
sudo apt-get -y install unzip

# set java paths
sudo touch /etc/profile.d/java.sh
sudo sh -c "echo 'export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun' >> /etc/profile.d/java.sh"
sudo sh -c "echo 'export PATH=$PATH;$JAVA_HOME/bin' >> /etc/profile.d/java.sh"
sudo source /etc/profile.d/java.sh

#install tomcat6
sudo apt-get install -y tomcat6
sudo chgrp -R tomcat6 /etc/tomcat6
sudo chmod -R g+w /etc/tomcat6

# install and config apache
sudo apt-get install -y apache2
sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/proxy.conf /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/proxy.conf
sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/proxy.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/proxy.load
sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/proxy_http.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/proxy_http.load

# add tomcat proxy
sudo chmod 666 /etc/apache2/sites-available/default
sudo sed -i '$d'  /etc/apache2/sites-available/default
sudo sh -c "echo ' ' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo 'ProxyRequests Off' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo '# Remember to turn the next line off if you are proxying to a NameVirtualHost' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo 'ProxyPreserveHost On' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo ' ' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo '' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo '    Order deny,allow' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo '    Allow from all' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo '' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo ' ' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo 'ProxyPass /geoserver http://localhost:8080/geoserver' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo 'ProxyPassReverse /geoserver http://localhost:8080/geoserver' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo ' ' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo sh -c "echo '' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/default"
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

# get geoserver, change to version you want
sudo service tomcat6 stop
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/geoserver/geoserver-2.0.2-war.zip
sudo unzip -d /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/ geoserver-2.0.2-war.zip
sudo chown -R tomcat6 /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/geoserver.war
sudo chgrp g+w tomcat6 /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/geoserver.war

# restart
sudo service tomcat6 restart
sudo service apache2 restart

# echo message
addy=$(GET http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-hostname)
echo " "
echo "Geoserver is available at: http://$addy/geoserver"


# additional tweaks for production instances
#
# add the following options to catalina.sh
#
# JAVA_OPTS="-Djava.awt.headless=true -Xms256m -Xmx768m -Xrs -XX:PerfDataSamplingInterval=500 -XX:MaxPermSize=128m -DGEOSERVER_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/geoserver/data"