In the previous chapters, you learned how to add data to GeoServer and include it in maps. Any map, including the really simple ones that you explored in Layer Preview, requires a fundamental process--rendering of features. GeoServer performs the rendering, applying a symbology to features. This involves assigning a symbol to each feature and applying a set of rules about how features have to be drawn. Choosing a symbol and its properties is called the styling process. Styling is really important in web mapping. A map cannot be rendered without a style associated to the data. When you configured layers, you were using styles bundled with the GeoServer. In this chapter, we will explore what the style documents are and how you can create custom styles to produce beautiful maps.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
- What is the content of a style?
- What symbols can be used in GeoServer?
- How can you set rendering rules?
- How to edit your styles with the...