PostGIS is my favorite database. I have been using PostGIS for some times and I am pretty satisfied with the performance. In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to export a shapefile to the PostGIS database using ArcMap. I am using ArcMap 10.6 and it works very well. At the end of this post, you can see my video showing how the entire export process. So, let’s start.
Before we can export the shapefile to PostGIS, you will need to install and configure the PostgreSQL and PostGIS extension on your server. You can use Windows or Linux to install the database server. The following article will help you to set up a new PostgreSQL server and PostGIS extension on Linux.
First, open the shapefile in ArcMap.
Next, double-click Add New Connection under the Database Connections in the Arc Map Catalog window. Enter your PostgreSQL database credentials and press OK as shown below.
Now we have a working PostgreSQL connection in ArcMap. Next, we are going to export the layer to the PostGIS.
To export a shapefile to PostGIS database, follow these steps
- Right-click the PostGIS connection
- Click Import >>Feature Class (Single). If you want to import multiple features, you should choose Feature Class (Multiple).
- Select the feature class you want to export/import and give it a new name
- Optionally, you can choose the fields you want to export.
- Click OK
Please note that in order to edit the PostGIS layer in ArcGIS, you will need a special license. If you don’t have the appropriate license, then you can only import and export. No editing support.