{"id":749022,"date":"2013-04-30T14:15:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T18:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=640944"},"modified":"2013-04-30T14:15:03","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T18:15:03","slug":"heroku-says-postgis-support-enables-smarter-mobile-app-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/749022","title":{"rendered":"Heroku says PostGIS support enables smarter mobile app development"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case you hadn’t noticed, mobile app development is where the action is. It’s why Facebook just bought Parse<\/a>, and why Amazon<\/a>, Rackspace<\/a> and Salesforce.com<\/a> are frantically bolstering their mobile app building capabilities. And it’s why Heroku, which is owned by Salesforce.com, is now adding PostGIS 2.0 <\/a>support to its development platform.<\/p>

\"smartphones\"<\/a><\/p>

PostGIS is an extension to the PostgreSQL database that many developers use on Heroku’s platform as a service. According to a blog post announcing PostGIS 2.0 support<\/a> in beta form, Heroku’s\u00a0Craig Kerstiens wrote:<\/p>

“PostGIS 2.0 will enable a new class of Heroku applications that leverage location data. Whether you are looking to\u00a0compute walkability scores to nearby schools<\/a>,\u00a0target ads based on GPS locations<\/a>, or\u00a0search for apartments by specific neighborhoods<\/a>\u00a0PostGIS can help make you build richer functionality into your application more easily.”<\/p><\/blockquote>

Heroku’s sales pitch is that using PostGIS with Postgres gives developers more resources while cutting the number of services they might require.<\/p>

For example, a developer who might have in the past turned to a proprietary tool like ESRI’s ArcGIS,<\/a> and then manage that along with the rest of the stack can now stay with an open-source option tightly linked to the database of choice. That means reduced complexity and the ability to build richer location-based functions faster. At its most basic level, PostGIS support means you can perform\u00a0spatial queries and analysis on your data.<\/p>

And that could mean more useful apps. Instead of an app that shows you on a map where the nearest Peet’s Coffee is, you could get the best walking route to that location factoring in terrain and real world traffic or other data, according to Kerstiens.<\/p>
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