Converts an on-disk Shapefile into GeoJSON and imports the data into a CouchDB-compatible database (e.g. Cloudant) using node.js.

shapefile2couchdb.js

/**
 * Converts an on-disk Shapefile into GeoJSON and imports the data into a CouchDB-compatible database, 
 * like Cloudant.com!
 * requires Node.js and the 'cradle' and 'shapefile' modules.
 * - installation: save this code to a file called index.js
 * - at the shell: npm install cradle
 * - at the shell: npm install shapefile
 * - at the shell, run the program: node index.js
 */
var cradle = require('cradle'); // npm install cradle
var shapefile = require('shapefile'); // npm install shapefile

//-- variables you must set
var hostname = 'http://localhost';
var dbport = 5984; // change to 443 for https hostnames
var dbname = 'testshp'; // ex: testshapefile (TODO: or null to use shapefile name)
var username = 'rajsingh';
var pw = process.env.couchdb_password; // at the shell type: export couchdb_password="yourpwhere"

var shpfile = "myshp.shp";
//-- end variables you must set

// connect to your account
var conn = new(cradle.Connection)(hostname, dbport, {
	auth: { username: username, password: pw }, 
	cache: true, raw: false, forceSave: true
});

// check for database existence
var db = conn.database(dbname);
db.exists(function(err, exists){
	if (err) {
		console.error('ERROR: %s', err);
	} else if (exists) {
		console.log('Database %s exists, adding data to it...', dbname);
		importShapefile();
	} else {
		console.log('Creating database %s', dbname);
		db.create();
		importShapefile();
	}
});

function importShapefile() {
	reader = shapefile.reader(shpfile);
	reader.readHeader(function(err, header){
		if (err) throw error;
		console.log('header', header);
		readNextRecord();
	});
}

function readNextRecord() {
	reader.readRecord(function(error, record) {
		if (error) throw error;
		if ( record == shapefile.end ) return reader.close();
		db.save(record, function(err, response) {
			if (err) console.error(err);
			else console.log(response);
		});
		setImmediate(readNextRecord);
	});
}