The release of a new major version update is a big deal (the last one was 18 months ago), and while we’ve talked about all of the new features that have been incrementally showing up, let’s put them all together here in one place:

WMS Cascading

Something many users have asked for since the very addition of WMS support is cascading, the ability of GeoServer to proxy for another remote WMS server (be it GeoServer, MapServer, or ArcGIS). This feature has many uses, such as pulling in a remote base layer and overlaying local vector data onto it or securing a locally unsecured map server. Special thanks to the University of Perugia for sponsoring this feature.

Virtual Services

Anyone who has published a large number of layers or feature types with GeoServer has probably at some point been annoyed by the fact that every single layer is published by a single global service. WMS has the ability to group and nest layers but WFS and WCS have no such equivalent. Thanks to virtual services, one can create multiple service endpoints within a single GeoServer instance. Special thanks to Landgate for funding this work.

Layers from SQL

GeoServer has always been good at publishing a flat database table but users often need to do more—such as pre-filter the data in a table, join two tables together, or generate column values on the fly with a function. Before this feature, the recommendation was to create a view, yet views can be a maintenance burden and are at times problematic.

Now one can create a layer directly from an SQL query and query definitions can be parameterized to create dynamic queries on the fly. These parameters can be restricted with regular expressions to prevent an SQL injection security hole.

Special thanks to Andrea Aime for spending much of his personal time on this one and to OBIS for providing the funding for the parametric component of the work.

Web Processing Service (WPS)

With 2.1 and the arrival of WPS we welcome a new OGC service into GeoServer. The Web Processing Service is an OGC service for performing geospatial analysis functions over the web. The specification is extensible in nature and allows for simple processes ranging from buffering a geometry to more complex processes such as image processing.

Historically, GeoServer has been focused on data delivery and did not provide tools for performing analysis on spatial data. WPS fills that gap, making GeoServer a more compete solution for geospatial web services.

Thanks to Refractions Research for the initial contribution of the WPS module and to Andrea once again for taking personal time to bring WPS support to its current state.

Unit of Measure

Support for units in SLD allows one to specify values in measurements other than pixels such as feet or meters. This adds a very powerful capability to SLD that may alleviate the need for multiple scale-dependent rendering rules and may greatly simplify complex SLD documents.

Special thanks to Milton Jonathan and Tecgraf/PUC-Rio for the initial GeoTools work to make unit of measure support possible and to Andrea for working with Milton to improve the initial patch. Note that this feature has also been backported to the stable 2.0.x branch thanks to support from SWECO and Malmö City of Sweden.

DPI Scaling

GeoServer renders images at a resolution of 90 DPI by default. While this is acceptable for most standard screen resolutions, it is unacceptable for higher-resolution printed materials. Now it is possible to supply a format option to a WMS request to control the DPI setting on the fly.

Special thanks again to SWECO and Malmö City of Sweden for sponsoring this work. Note also that this feature has also been backported to the 2.0.x branch.

Graphical File/Directory Chooser

Ever found it difficult to remember the full path when loading a shapefile or GeoTIFF?  This new improvement brings an easy graphical file and directory selection tool for browsing the file system on which GeoServer resides. This is definitely a great enhancement to make GeoServer even easier to configure.

Core improvements to support a database-backed catalog

GeoServer’s core catalog interfaces received some tweaks to more easily support different backend storage formats. The current in-memory implementation has a number of drawbacks—the most notable being that it is memory-bound, meaning it cannot scale to accomodate large numbers of layers. Support for specific new storage formats is still only available as a community module but these core improvements make it possible to more easily swap between different backends.

Font Improvements

Adding new fonts to maps should now be much easier, as one can drop font files directly into the GeoServer data directory and have them be recognized by GeoServer. The admin interface will list all fonts that are currently available, including those made available by the Java Virtual Machine.

Upgrade to Spring Security 2.0.6

GeoServer has always had Acegi Security at its core but since that library was absorbed by the Spring community it has been improved and upgraded into Spring Security, the official security module of the Spring portfolio. This brings a number of new security protocols to GeoServer, including OpenID and Windows NTLM. With even more powerful options, it should now be easier to customize the security setup.

WCS Limits

While WFS and WMS have both had the ability to limit what a user can request, now similar controls are in place for WCS calls as well. Thanks to MassGIS for funding this improvement.

WMS 1.3.0

WMS 1.3.0 is the newest version of the Web Map Service protocol. Special thanks to Ordnance Survey, Britain’s national mapping agency, for providing OpenGeo with funding to complete its implementation in GeoServer. With WMS 1.3 mandated by the INSPIRE Initiative, Ordnance Survey opted to fund the GeoServer project so that other organizations in the UK and the rest of Europe could meet their INSPIRE requirements and everyone across the globe could benefit.

SLD 1.1 / SE 1.1 enhancements

Though not every new option is fully-supported, it is now possible to use most SE 1.1 documents in GeoServer. User feedback on which new options should be supported first is greatly appreciated. Also funded by Ordnance Survey is a community module to implement the WMS extensions for INSPIRE View Service compliance—namely the language parameter and several extended capabilities fields.

GeoWebCache Integration

GeoWebCache integration allows clients to enjoy the benefits of tile caching through the regular GeoServer WMS endpoint. This enables GeoWebCache to transparently proxy for the GeoServer WMS without the need for a separate service endpoint. Taking advantage of the recently-added disk quota functionality, GeoWebCache now provides the ability to set limits on the amount of disk space used for storing tiles, allowing users to control and limit the size of the tile cache on disk. Big thanks to Gabriel Roldán of OpenGeo for the great GeoWebCache improvements.

Improvements to RESTConfig

This release also brings some improvements to RESTConfig, which is now shipped with GeoServer by default. Improvements to the API include a file upload operation that now allows for uploading files into an existing data store. This addition allows users to upload a shapefile and have it automatically converted into a PostGIS database and published as a PostGIS layer rather than as a Shapefile layer. The API also supports recursive DELETE operations, making it more convenient to remove resources that contain other resources such as stores or workspaces. Thanks to David Winslow and Justin Deoliveira of OpenGeo for these improvements.

Improved Raster Reprojection Performance

Thanks to some great work from GeoSolutions, raster reprojection performance has been significantly improved by using linear appoximations of transformation functions.

WCS Request Builder

Thanks to Andrea Aime, there is now a Web Coverage Service request builder  for graphically building WCS requests to test a coverage service. As clients for WCS have always been sparse, this tool goes a long way towards making the service more usable.

Run multiple GeoServer instances from a single data directory

There now exists a new parameter that will once again allow multiple GeoServer instances to run from a single data directory. This parameter, named “GWC_DISKQUOTA_DISABLED”, will disable the GeoWebCache disk quota module and prevent it from maintaining a lock on the data directory.

Tons of bug fixes

A new release wouldn’t be complete without bug fixes. Here is the full list of issues fixed.

Wow!

Everyone who uses GeoServer should have at least one or two items in the above list to be excited about. Download GeoServer 2.1.0, try it out, and please provide feedback and report any issues on the GeoServer mailing list.

Be sure to backup your data directory before upgrading, as with all GeoServer major version upgrades there will be changes to the data directory that will make it incompatible with 2.0.x. If using the aforementioned database-backed catalog, this should be easier than ever.

Thanks for using GeoServer!

Download GeoServer 2.1.0

This tutorial is designed for a beginner and is easy to follow. The steps she uses are:

1. Creating and editing data with QGIS
2. Designing SLDs with uDig
3. Serving maps with GeoServer
4. Creating a custom OpenLayers application
5. Posting to the web

The introduction mentions the benefits of using open source and also, interestingly, discusses the pros and cons of making a “mash-up” versus serving one’s own data.

Once again, we see Penn State as a proponent of open source GIS. Have you looked at their Master of Geographic Information Systems program lately?

1. Read the OGC SLD 1.0 specification. At 100+ pages, it can be a bit dense.
2. Read the SLD schema. Because, really, who doesn’t love interpreting schemas?

Failing those, the would-be map stylist is usually out of luck, needing to eke out an understanding of styling by asking on mailing lists and doing web searches.

When I was learning SLD, I wanted simple examples that I could understand and edit. I wanted screenshots. I wanted to know which line of code did what. I wanted to look up styles as if they were in a recipe book. But this type of reference didn’t exist at the time.

The SLD Cookbook is that reference. It is a “practical reference” to show how map styling works. It is not designed to be exhaustive, and it won’t tell you about every possible edge case. But it also has no SLDs that are hundreds of lines long, a strong hurdle to comprehension.

Want to know how to style a simple point? Look at the example, download the SLD (and the shapefile that generated the screenshot too, if you’d like), and read the details. See which line of code accomplishes what, so if you want to make the points blue instead of red, you’ll know what line to change (line 8 in this case). Want to see how to make a style where lines are styled differently by data attributes? Or by zoom level? Refer as necessary. Even those experienced with SLD may find the examples useful.

There are a few examples mixed in that leverage extensions to GeoServer/GeoTools (polygon fill hatching, labels that follow lines) but for the most part, the examples are perfectly valid according to the SLD 1.0 specification.

I’m sure that more examples can and will be added in time. I’ve already received some very good feedback from others, and some styles will likely be optimized. But every example, every screenshot, and every SLD was tested in the most recent version of GeoServer.

So take a look, and get styling! I hope you enjoy. Special thanks goes out to Geonovum, who funded this project. I personally appreciate it.

In case you haven’t been following our previous posts, GeoServer 2.0 contains a completely redesigned user interface, using Wicket. Based on feedback from our beta testers, the move to RC1 consisted mainly of user interface improvements. One specific new feature to point out is that ArcSDE stores have a better configuration panel, one that simplifies requests to raster coverages.

With 55 issues fixed, this first Release Candidate is deemed stable by the GeoServer Team. But we need your help to verify this, so please download this new version and try it out.

N.B. If you wish to connect GeoServer 2.0 to your existing data directory (from 1.7.x), beware that GeoServer 2.0 changes the directory structure a bit, so should you wish to switch back to 1.7.x, you will need to hand edit some files.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with this release! Keep sending that feedback in. Assuming no large problems are found, we should have an official release in the next month or two.

AuScope is helping to build an e-research infrastructure to federate nationally distributed data sets and develop tools to manipulate large data volumes. In collaboration with the geological surveys it is also setting up an Australian Geoscience Information Network. This network will provide the “glue” that enables the major geoscience and geospatial data stores of the government agencies to link with academic and industry communities and their applications. The Roadshow is showcasing a collection of tools as part of the Geoscience Information Network AuScope is building – which includes GeoServer with Application Schema support.

“The Australian Geoscience Information Network uses a coordinated cross-capability approach to resolving the data integration problem,” CSIRO Minerals Down Under Project Leader Ryan Fraser said. “The result is an integrated Community Earth Model which is can be accessed via the AuScope Discovery Portal and obtains its data live from the original custodians.”

The Roadshow workshop is designed to provide participants a clear idea of what they need to do to establish data services that suit their requirements. “The Roadshow will showcase the integrated Community Earth Model,” Mr Fraser said. “It will also show how the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) funded AuScope Ltd is establishing an Australian Geoscience Information Network to provide transparent access to computational tools and data and knowledge about the Australian landscape.”

For further details please contact:
Ryan Fraser, CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship, AuScope Grid
E:Ryan.Fraser@csiro.au
Ph:08 6436 8780

Robert Woodcock. CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship, AuScope Grid
E:Robert.Woodcock@csiro.au
Ph:08 6436 8760

Bruce Simons Geoscience Victoria
E:Bruce.simons@dpi.vic.gov.au

Original Article
English translation (via Google Translate)

This is a good time to remind everyone that GeoServer has mailing lists in Portuguese, along with Italian and Spanish. Moreover, with the switch to our new documentation system, we now have the ability to have GeoServer documentation in multiple languages. If you are interested in contributing, please let us know.

Presentations:

• GeoServer application schema support: complex features for the masses
• Extension to GeoServer to read ESRI Mapcaches
• Comparing apples and oranges: Uncovering the mystery of component selection in WebGIS projects
• SCENZ-Grid, The implementation of a Science Collaboration and Computation Environment
• Mobile Mapping for Field Data Collection
• Building a SDI massively based on OWS
• Web Mapping Performance Shoot-out
• OpenGeo: a ‘dot-org’ to build the Open Geospatial Web
• GeoServer, GeoTools and GeoBatch: supporting operational Meteorology and Oceanography
• Enviro: a WebGIS interface to evaluate and manage the impact of climate change at regional scale
• GeoServer in Production
• GeoServer: Past, Present, and Future
• GISVM, the ultimate tool for teaching FOSS4G

Workshops:

• Introduction to the Open GeoStack: PostGIS, GeoServer, GeoWebCache, and OpenLayers
• Making Maps Fast – Performance tuning and Tile Caching
• Organizing your geospatial data and services using GeoNetwork opensource
• Working with GeoServer

Whether you’re attending for GeoServer, for a greater understanding of all things FOSS4G, or just for the location, it looks like it’s going to be another fabulous conference. Early bird registration ends on August 7th, so if you haven’t registered yet, what are you waiting for?

GeoServer has provided a Windows installer for the past 4 years (since at least version 1.2.4, if not before). It has always been simple and functional, providing a modest wrapper for the Jetty container found in the binary distribution.

However, there are a number of ways in which GeoServer works in this environment that could be more in the spirit of Windows. So, with the release of GeoServer 1.7.5, we have redesigned the way GeoServer integrates with Windows, in the form of a new installer.

This new installer offers a host of new user-friendly features. First of all, GeoServer now shows up as a Windows service, in line with other server software such as Apache HTTP Server or PostgreSQL . This alleviates the need to have a command line window persist on the desktop when running GeoServer. Integration with Windows Services allows administrators the ability to automate the management of GeoServer, although starting and stopping GeoServer is also still possible from the Start Menu as before.

GeoServer now appears on the Add/Remove Programs list. It was always possible to uninstall via the Start Menu, but the uninstall option is now in a place where more users will expect it to be.

The installer itself has been redesigned as well. It now allows you to link to an existing data directory (if you have previously created one). Also, it allows (and encourages) you to change the username and password for the web administration interface, a feature unique to this installer. (In all other cases, it is necessary to edit the users.properties file.)

There are other some other user-friendly features added, such as the requirement (and check) for administrator rights to run the installer, to prevent errors during the install process.

Since this installer is very new and has not been tested on all platforms, we have included a link to the legacy installer that functions just like previous versions. But we encourage everyone to try out the new installer (and provide feedback on what works and what doesn’t) so that we can make the experience better. All in all, we feel that this is a marked improvement in the GeoServer Windows experience. Enjoy.

Sphinx has many advantages over a wiki. The biggest advantage is that the content of the documentation is written in plain text (using a simple markup language called reStructuredText) and then “compiled” to become the finished product. With documentation now essentially just another part of the source code, it can be brought under version control. This means that we can, for the first time, have version-specific documentation, as well as the ability to allow for simultaneous editing, conflict management, and all of the other tools associated with version control.

While wikis have many advantages, a clear hierarchy is generally not one of them. (For example, one doesn’t read Wikipedia “from the beginning.”) And while search remains a feature of our documentation, Sphinx is geared towards the creation of text that can be constructed and read like a manual. Along this line, we can now create documentation in PDF, a feature that has been asked about for years.

We have soft launched the new documentation with the release of GeoServer 1.7.4. The old wiki is still live, and will remain so. But there is still much to be done, and you can help. The documentation is still very much a work in progress, and not all of the content from the wiki has been migrated. We’ve developed a guide to documentation that describes the ways that you can contribute. The most helpful way is to create content for empty or unfinished pages, and either submit a bug report with the content attached or commit the changes on your own. (If you are interested in getting commit rights to our documentation, please send an email to the GeoServer developers mailing list.) If you are aware of a page in the wiki that should be migrated to the new site, please let us know as well.

For GeoServer 1.7.4, the documentation download contains both HTML and PDF output. I encourage everyone to download, read, and make suggestions. For our part, we will continue to work to make GeoServer easy to learn, use, and understand.