Book Image

GeoServer Beginner's Guide - Second Edition

By : Stefano Iacovella
Book Image

GeoServer Beginner's Guide - Second Edition

By: Stefano Iacovella

Overview of this book

GeoServer is an opensource server written in Java that allows users to share, process, and edit geospatial data. This book will guide you through the new features and improvements of GeoServer and will help you get started with it. GeoServer Beginner's Guide gives you the impetus to build custom maps using your data without the need for costly commercial software licenses and restrictions. Even if you do not have prior GIS knowledge, you will be able to make interactive maps after reading this book. You will install GeoServer, access your data from a database, and apply style points, lines, polygons, and labels to impress site visitors with real-time maps. Then you follow a step-by-step guide that installs GeoServer in minutes. You will explore the web-based administrative interface to connect to backend data stores such as PostGIS, and Oracle. Going ahead, you can display your data on web-based interactive maps, use style lines, points, polygons, and embed images to visualize this data for your web visitors. You will walk away from this book with a working application ready for production. After reading GeoServer Beginner's Guide, you will be able to build beautiful custom maps on your website using your geospatial data.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
Index

WMS formats


Do you remember what happens when you click on the OpenLayers link from the Layer Preview page? A small web application opens, and it shows you a map with the data contained in the layer you selected. It is an application based on the OpenLayers framework, and this is also a specific format of output for your layers.

Note

OpenLayers is an open source JavaScript library to display web-based maps, similar to the mapping client from Google Maps and a growing number of others. OpenLayers is also a project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). LeafLet (http://leafletjs.com) is a promising mapping client with ties to OpenLayers. Be on the lookout for examples using LeafLet in future chapters.

OpenLayers

Let's look at the URL, and carefully, at all parameters, and analyze the request sent to GeoServer. Consider this output request for the OpenLayers demo:

http://localhost:8080/geoserver/Packt/wms?service=WMS&version=1.1.0
&request=GetMap&layers=Packt:NaturalEarthCountries...