GeoServer

Last updated
GeoServer
Developer(s) Boundless Spatial, GeoSolutions, Refractions Research
Initial release2001 (2001) [1]
Stable release
2.26.1 [2] / 19 November 2024;32 days ago (19 November 2024)
Repository
Written in Java
Operating system Linux, MS-Windows, macOS, POSIX compliant systems
Type Geographic information system
License GPL
Website http://geoserver.org

In computing, GeoServer is an open-source server written in Java that allows users to share, process and edit geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source using open standards. GeoServer has evolved to become an easy method of connecting existing information to virtual globes such as Google Earth and NASA World Wind as well as to web-based maps such as OpenLayers, Leaflet, Google Maps and Bing Maps. GeoServer functions as the reference implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium Web Feature Service standard, and also implements the Web Map Service, Web Coverage Service and Web Processing Service specifications. [3]

Contents

Goals

GeoServer aims to operate as a node within a free and open Spatial Data Infrastructure. Just as the Apache HTTP Server has offered a free and open web server to publish HTML, GeoServer aims to do the same for geospatial data.

Features

GeoServer reads a variety of data formats, [4] including:

Through standard protocols it produces KML, GML, Shapefile, GeoRSS, PDF, GeoJSON, JPEG, GIF, SVG, PNG and more. In addition, one can edit data via the WFS transactional profile (WFS-T). [5] GeoServer includes an integrated OpenLayers client for previewing data layers.

GeoServer additionally supports efficient publishing of geospatial data to Google Earth through the use of network links, using KML. Advanced features for Google Earth output include templates for customized pop-ups, time and height visualizations, and "super-overlays".

GeoServer relies on GeoTools, a GIS library. [6]

Usage

Architecture

GeoServer uses the Spring Framework, providing a request dispatch architecture for modules implementing OGC services. The web administration application uses wicket, allowing extensions to contribute additional configuration screens. The application provides a REST API implemented using the spring-mvc-framework.

GeoServer is a web application, supporting any common servlet container (a standalone distribution is available with the Jetty (web server) as an embedded server). GeoWebCache, a Java-based caching component similar to TileCache, is bundled with GeoServer, but available separately. [7] Similarly, GeoServer packages GeoTools as a Java library, but it is also available separately. [8]

GeoServer is a longstanding application and has undergone several architectural changes. GeoServer 1.0 was built around the STRUTS framework, with the migration to Spring and Wicket taking place for GeoServer 2.0. Early versions of the REST API used restlet before migration to spring-mvc-framework.

See also

Related Research Articles

In computing, the Open Geospatial Consortium Web Feature Service (WFS) Interface Standard provides an interface allowing requests for geographical features across the web using platform-independent calls. One can think of geographical features as the "source code" behind a map, whereas the WMS interface or online tiled mapping portals like Google Maps return only an image, which end-users cannot edit or spatially analyze. The XML-based GML furnishes the default payload-encoding for transporting geographic features, but other formats like shapefiles can also serve for transport. In early 2006 the OGC members approved the OpenGIS GML Simple Features Profile. This profile is designed both to increase interoperability between WFS servers and to improve the ease of implementation of the WFS standard.

A GIS software program is a computer program to support the use of a geographic information system, providing the ability to create, store, manage, query, analyze, and visualize geographic data, that is, data representing phenomena for which location is important. The GIS software industry encompasses a broad range of commercial and open-source products that provide some or all of these capabilities within various information technology architectures.

A web framework (WF) or web application framework (WAF) is a software framework that is designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs. Web frameworks provide a standard way to build and deploy web applications on the World Wide Web. Web frameworks aim to automate the overhead associated with common activities performed in web development. For example, many web frameworks provide libraries for database access, templating frameworks, and session management, and they often promote code reuse. Although they often target development of dynamic web sites, they are also applicable to static websites.

A Web Map Service (WMS) is a standard protocol developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium in 1999 for serving georeferenced map images over the Internet. These images are typically produced by a map server from data provided by a GIS database.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JUMP GIS</span>

Java Unified Mapping Program (JUMP) is a Java based vector and raster GIS and programming framework. Current development continues under the OpenJUMP name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QGIS</span> Open-source desktop GIS software

QGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) software that is free and open-source. QGIS supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data in a range of data formats. Its name comes from an abbreviation of its previous name, Quantum GIS.

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), is a non-profit non-governmental organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation was formed in February 2006 to provide financial, organizational and legal support to the broader Libre/Free and open-source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources.

Mapbender is a graduated project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. It was awarded OGC web site of the month in 2008. It is used by PortalU and several federal states to implement the INSPIRE regulation. Many municipalities use Mapbender as City Map Services and it is used as the mapping framework for online cycle route planners.

JTS Topology Suite is an open-source Java software library that provides an object model for Euclidean planar linear geometry together with a set of fundamental geometric functions. JTS is primarily intended to be used as a core component of vector-based geomatics software such as geographical information systems. It can also be used as a general-purpose library providing algorithms in computational geometry.

ArcGIS Server is the core server geographic information system (GIS) software made by Esri. ArcGIS Server is used for creating and managing GIS Web services, applications, and data. ArcGIS Server is typically deployed on-premises within the organization’s service-oriented architecture (SOA) or off-premises in a cloud computing environment.

Geospatial metadata is a type of metadata applicable to geographic data and information. Such objects may be stored in a geographic information system (GIS) or may simply be documents, data-sets, images or other objects, services, or related items that exist in some other native environment but whose features may be appropriate to describe in a (geographic) metadata catalog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenLayers</span> JavaScript library for displaying map data in web browsers

OpenLayers is a JavaScript library for displaying map data in web browsers as slippy maps. It provides an API for building rich web-based geographic applications similar to Google Maps and Bing Maps.

A spatial data infrastructure (SDI), also called geospatial data infrastructure, is a data infrastructure implementing a framework of geographic data, metadata, users and tools that are interactively connected in order to use spatial data in an efficient and flexible way. Another definition is "the technology, policies, standards, human resources, and related activities necessary to acquire, process, distribute, use, maintain, and preserve spatial data". Most commonly, institutions with large repositories of geographic data create SDIs to facilitate the sharing of their data with a broader audience.

iGeoSIT, the Interim Geo-Spatial Intelligence Tool, is a situational awareness tool developed by the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) used widely within NATO.

MapDotNet is a suite of geographic information system (GIS) software products developed by ISC that run on Microsoft Windows. The GIS software competes with ESRI and MapInfo GIS products. MapDotNet UX is the latest generation and consists of a set of WCF web services for rendering map images and tiles and for performing spatial analysis and editing. UX includes an SDK for developing rich interactive mapping applications on Microsoft Silverlight, Windows Presentation Foundation and HTML5. MapDotNet UX also includes an Extract, Transform & Load (ETL), map design and tile cache creation tool called Studio modeled after Microsoft's Expression series of products. The MapDotNet UX renderer is built on WPF and consumes spatial data from multiple sources including Shapefiles, PostGIS, ArcSDE, Oracle Spatial, SQL Azure, SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spring Roo</span> Open-source software tool

Spring Roo is an open-source software tool that uses convention-over-configuration principles to provide rapid application development of Java-based enterprise software. The resulting applications use common Java technologies such as Spring Framework, Java Persistence API, Thymeleaf, Apache Maven and AspectJ. Spring Roo is a member of the Spring portfolio of projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SpatiaLite</span> Spatial extension to SQLite

SpatiaLite is a spatial extension to SQLite, providing vector geodatabase functionality. It is similar to PostGIS, Oracle Spatial, and SQL Server with spatial extensions, although SQLite/SpatiaLite aren't based on client-server architecture: they adopt a simpler personal architecture. i.e. the whole SQL engine is directly embedded within the application itself: a complete database simply is an ordinary file which can be freely copied and transferred from one computer/OS to a different one without any special precaution.

GIS Live DVD is a type of the thematic Live CD containing GIS/RS applications and related tutorials, and sample data sets. The general sense of a GIS Live DVD is to demonstrate the power of FLOSS GIS and encourage users to start on FLOSS GIS. However, a disc can be used for GIS data processing and training, too. A disc usually includes some selected Linux-based or Wine (software)-enabled Windows applications for GIS and Remote Sensing use. Using this disc the end users can execute GIS functions to get experience in free and open source software solutions or solve some simple business operations. The set-up and the operating behaviour of the applications can also be studied prior to building real FLOSS GIS-based systems. Recently a LiveDVD image is stored and booted from USB.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WorldMap</span> Web platform

WorldMap is a web platform for creating, displaying, analyzing, and searching spatial data and other data forms across multiple disciplines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Web GIS</span> Technologies employing the World Wide Web to manage spatial data

Web GIS, or Web Geographic Information Systems, are GIS that employ the World Wide Web to facilitate the storage, visualization, analysis, and distribution of spatial information over the Internet. The World Wide Web, or the Web, is an information system that uses the internet to host, share, and distribute documents, images, and other data. Web GIS involves using the World Wide Web to facilitate GIS tasks traditionally done on a desktop computer, as well as enabling the sharing of maps and spatial data. While Web GIS and Internet GIS are sometimes used interchangeably, they are different concepts. Web GIS is a subset of Internet GIS, which is itself a subset of distributed GIS, which itself is a subset of broader Geographic information system. The most common application of Web GIS is Web mapping, so much so that the two terms are often used interchangeably in much the same way as Digital mapping and GIS. However, Web GIS and web mapping are distinct concepts, with web mapping not necessarily requiring a Web GIS.

References

  1. "History — GeoServer 2.21.x User Manual" . Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  2. "Release 2.26.1". 19 November 2024. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
  3. "GeoServer". geoserver.org. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  4. "GeoServer". geoserver.org. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  5. "WFS reference — GeoServer 2.14.x User Manual". docs.geoserver.org. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  6. "About - GeoServer". geoserver.org. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  7. "GeoWebCache". Archived from the original on 2010-04-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. "GeoTools".