Geometry viewer for PGADMIN4 : a process guided by the Google Summer of Code

Abstract

The latest version of pgAdmin4 was released in mid-2016 and moved to a web-based application that was written in Python and jQuery with Bootstrap, using the Flask framework. This new architecture of pgAdmin4 provided an excellent opportunity to integrate a geometry viewer into the application. This progress started as the geometry viewer was selected as a project for the 2018 Google Summer of Code (GSoC). The requirements for the geometry viewer was elicited through conversations with the mentors and emails to the discussion list of PostGIS and pgAdmin. Once the formal design was finalized the development started. The spatial technology stack implemented to expand pgAdmin4 with a geometry viewer was the JavaScript mapping library Leaflet JS and WKX - parser/serializer library that supports several spatial vector formats. Both these fulfilled the requirements of the coding standard of pgAdmin that all client-side code must be developed in JavaScript using jQuery and other plugins. Leaflet JS is well known for its ease of use and compatibility. WKX is lesser known but well supported and concise to the need to parse the spatial data before rendering on the Leaflet map. The decision on both of these libraries was motivated by their minimal size and possibilities for expansion for future extensions of the viewer. The first version of the geometry viewer was well-received and is currently integrated into the latest versions of pgAdmin4.