Shortest Path Routing with PostGIS | PGRouting | Network Analysis | Complete Web Project | Part 4

In this powerful episode, we finally plug in the brain behind our routing system — the pgRouting extension — and execute our first shortest path query using the Dijkstra algorithm.

This is where all the effort from previous parts — clean geometries, nodes, and edges — comes together to generate actual routes between any two points on your network.

✅ What’s Covered in this Video:

🔧 Step 4: Enable pgRouting

• Check if pgRouting is installed using pg_extension

• Install extension using CREATE EXTENSION pgrouting;

• Confirm version and availability with pgr_version()

🚀 Step 5: Run the Shortest Path Query

• Use pgr_dijkstra() to compute the shortest path between two nodes

• Join the result with network_edges to get full geometry and attributes

• Store the resulting route in a short_path table for further analysis or visualization

💡 Why This Step is a Game-Changer:

Routing logic is now LIVE! With pgRouting enabled and Dijkstra in action, we’ve transitioned from a static map to a dynamic, queryable routing engine inside PostgreSQL/PostGIS.

You can now find optimized routes between any two nodes, which can be used in QGIS, Web Apps (Leaflet), or even integrated into APIs for real-time routing services.

In the next part, we’ll build dynamic queries using input points (start and end), and store results via materialized views to support web apps and APIs.