GeoServer 1.3.2 Released: Open Source server for Google Earth and beyond
Written by GeoServer Project
06 July 2006
The GeoServer Project is pleased to announce the release of version 1.3.2.
We know it's not a very glamorous number - if our project members were focused on marketing instead of building great software we'd probably call it GeoServer XT, or perhaps GeoServer: Google Earth edition, to more accurately reflect what we've been up to. But we think it's a pretty great release.
GeoServer is an open source, standards-based server of geospatial information, connecting spatial databases and files to the variety of clients that make up the 'geospatial web', and allowing user contributed editing through standard web-based interfaces. GeoServer can be downloaded at http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Latest
Improvements for this release include an upgrade to GeoTools 2.2.x, and some performance tuning on the toolkit, with users reporting at least a 60-70% speed increase against PostGIS. There are also great user contributed fixes to create PDF maps from WMS and to adjust headers to allow caching, which can optimize GeoServer for tiling web mapping clients like Google Maps or OpenLayers. The other big set of improvements were supported by Google, in order to leverage GeoServer's data reading and map producing capabilities to allow anyone to make their existing data available on Google Earth. The bulk of the work was to create KML/KMZ output from the open standard WMS protocol, which is compatible with Google's network link. Also funded was a basic SLD creation wizard, so that map styles can be created through the web administration GUI.
With the latest additions GeoServer becomes an ideal server for Google Earth, especially for connecting with existing spatial databases. GeoServer supports PostGIS, ArcSDE, MySQL, Oracle Spatial, DB2, and Shapefiles and recent improvements with GeoTools 2.2.x pass the majority of the spatial processing back to the database. There is also a KMScore optimization, which has GeoServer render the features as a raster to be used as a Ground Overlay, for situations when there are too many features for Google Earth to efficiently portray. GeoServer is able to handle millions of rows in a geospatial database, and will perform quite nicely as long as the map is styled efficiently with the Styled Layer Descriptors (SLD) specification from the OGC. GeoServer remains 'standard by default', so all layers configured for Google Earth will also be available as standard WMS and WFS. GeoServer's transactional capabilities also allow a community of users to update spatial data, and have it available in a variety of formats.
About GeoServer
GeoServer is an Open Source server that connects your information to the geospatial web. Its focus is ease of use and support for standards, including serving as WFS 1.0 Reference Implementation (and soon to be 1.1 as well). The goal is to serve as 'glue' for the geospatial web, connecting from legacy databases and formats to many diverse clients. GeoServer includes easy to use installers, web administration tools, and demos to get you going quickly. GeoServer's homepage is geoserver.org, and more information on features can be found at http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Features The release can be downloaded at: http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Latest The GeoServer Project is completely open source, in license and development process, built by a diverse community of contributors (http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Contributors), whom you are encouraged to join. GeoServer is built on GeoTools, a project of the Open Source GeoSpatial Foundation http://osgeo.org
About The Open Planning Project (TOPP) http://topp.openplans.org TOPP's mission is to build technology to enhance the role of the citizen in democratic society. We believe that a more informed and empowered populace will effect real change. TOPP draws inspiration from the ideas, processes and success of the open source software movement. To that end our tools enhance government transparency and provide opportunity for citizen participation in shaping society.
TOPP provides funding and leadership for the development of GeoServer, to help create a more open, interoperable infrastructure of geographic information. TOPP's interest in this is urban planning, so that geographic data is more available and open to enable citizen involvement through the use of simulations and modeling that can be built on top of the base data. But GeoServer is run in a true open source fashion, able to meet a variety of needs, and developed by a number of organizations. TOPP supports a diverse community of commercial providers, and does take on work related to GeoServer when related to its core mission. Any 'profit' made from providing services on GeoServer is re-invested back in to the project, building a sustainable open source project that many can use and improve for their needs.
Relevant weblinks: See http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Latest https://www.osgeo.org/ http://geoserver.org
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