Generate MapBox VectorTiles from GeoDjango models

Directly with PostgreSQL/PostGIS 2.4+ or python native mapbox_vector_tile

Read full documentation

Installation

Basic

pip install django-vectortiles

• By default, postgis backend is enabled.
• Ensure you have psycopg2 set and installed

If you don't want to use Postgis and / or PostgreSQL

pip install django-vectortiles[python]

• This will incude mapbox_vector_tiles package and its dependencies
• Set VECTOR_TILES_BACKEND to "vectortiles.backends.python"

Examples

• assuming you have django.contrib.gis in your INSTALLED_APPS and a gis compatible database backend

# in your app models.py

from django.contrib.gis.db import models


class Feature(models.Model):
    geom = models.GeometryField(srid=4326)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=250)

Simple Example:

from yourapp.models import Feature

# in a vector_layers.py file
from vectortiles import VectorLayer


class FeatureVectorLayer(VectorLayer):
    model = Feature
    vector_tile_layer_name = "features"
    vector_tile_fields = ("name",)

# in your view file

from yourapp.vector_layers import FeatureVectorLayer

from vectortiles.views import MVTView


class FeatureTileView(MVTView):
    layer_classes = [FeatureVectorLayer]


# in your urls file
from django.urls import path
from yourapp import views

urlpatterns = [
    ...
    path('tiles/<int:z>/<int:x>/<int:y>', views.FeatureTileView.as_view(), name="feature-tile"),
    ...
]

Use TileJSON and multiple domains:

# in your view file

from django.urls import reverse

from vectortiles.views import TileJSONView
from yourapp.vector_layers import FeatureVectorLayer


class FeatureTileJSONView(TileJSONView):
    """Simple model TileJSON View"""

    name = "My features dataset"
    attribution = "@JEC Data"
    description = "My dataset"
    layer_classes = [FeatureVectorLayer]

    def get_tile_url(self):
        """ Base MVTView Url used to generates urls in TileJSON in a.tiles.xxxx/{z}/{x}/{y} format """
        return str(reverse("feature-tile", args=(0, 0, 0))).replace("0/0/0", "{z}/{x}/{y}")


# in your urls file
from django.urls import path
from yourapp import views

urlpatterns = [
    ...
    path('tiles/<int:z>/<int:x>/<int:y>', views.FeatureTileView.as_view(), name="feature-tile"),
    path("feature/tiles.json", views.FeatureTileJSONView.as_view(), name="feature-tilejson"),
    ...
]
]
# in your settings file
ALLOWED_HOSTS = [
    "a.tiles.xxxx",
    "b.tiles.xxxx",
    "c.tiles.xxxx",
    ...
]

VECTOR_TILES_URLS = [
    "https://a.tiles.xxxx",
    "https://b.tiles.xxxx",
    "https://c.tiles.xxxx",
]

Usage without PostgreSQL / PostGIS

Just import and use vectortiles.mapbox.view.MVTView instead of vectortiles.postgis.view.MVTView

Usage with Django Rest Framework

django-vectortiles can be used with DRF if renderer_classes of the view is overridden (see DRF docs). Simply use the right BaseMixin and action on viewsets, or directly a GET method in an APIView. See documentation for more details.

Development

With docker and docker-compose

Copy .env.dist to .env and fill SECRET_KEY and POSTGRES_PASSWORD

docker-compose build
# docker-compose up
docker-compose run /code/venv/bin/python ./manage.py test

Local

• Install python and django requirements (python 3.6+, django 2.2+)
• Install geodjango requirements
• Have a postgresql / postgis 2.4+ enabled database
• Use a virtualenv

pip install .[dev] -U