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My question should be very simple to answer for anyone not being a self-taught newbie like me...

On this page is a cheatsheet concerning a function to be used in GIS/DB environnement : http://www.bostongis.com/pgsql2shp_shp2pgsql_quickguide.bqg

I would like to create a script allowing users to just have to click on it to launch the process, given the proper datas. But I don't understand how to use this. It obviously doesn't work in a Python console, nor directly in the windows console. How is it supposed to work ? What language is this ?

Thanks

GuiOm Clair
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shp2pgsql is indeed a command line tool. It comes with your PostgreSQL/PostGIS installation (usually) and, if not accessible via PATH-variable, can (usually) be run from within the /bin-folder in your PostgreSQL-Installation. You can also always 'make' the programm from source in any location yourself, if needed.

EDIT:

One way to set up a script (independent of whether you use it within qgis own python environment or not) would be to use Pythons subprocess (or os.system) module (check related question here) to write to shell and execute shp2pgsql.

A slightly more sophisitcated solution to (batch) insert (multiple) shapefiles via script could be to implement ogr2ogr via gdal/ogr module within python (check this blog). That, however, would require a working installation of the gdal core library, and the respective Python bindings (at least to use outside of QGIS Python environment, where it is pre-installed AFAIK), which can be tiresome at times. Once installed correctly, it offers a powerful (I dare say almighty) toolset for geodata management and manipulation via Python, though.

Apart from that, the blog link I provided also states the implementation of a batch insert script/tool (which operates ogr2ogr) in qgis 2.8 toolbox...maybe that can help you, either with your work directly or (via sourcecode) to point you in the direction of creating your own tool.

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geozelot
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  • Ok, thank you. And would you have any clue on how I could create a plugin, potentially accessible from inside QGIS, programmed in Python, and most importantly (here comes my question) how to call shp2pgsql from within a Python script ? – GuiOm Clair Mar 20 '17 at 07:16