GeoServer: Step-By-Step Tutorial

This video provides an overview of the entire course. 

To start this section, we’ll explore WMS and its capabilities

• Web and Map Services Specifics of the WMS standard

• The Layer Preview app

• WMS HTTP requests

Create your first layer from a data Store and view it in OpenLayers

• Publish Layer Configure Layer

• View OpenLayers

• Layer Preview

Cartographically enhance Geoserver’s map services with Styles.

• SLD Syntax for rendering maps

• Adding a new Style

• Applying Style to a Layer

Learn about Geoserver CSS, and how to apply a CSS style to a Geoserver Layer.

• Geoserver CSS Extension

• Geoserver CSS Syntax

• Apply CSS to Layer and Preview

Learn how to add labels to your maps, to make them even more informative for your end user.

• Labeling example with SLD

• Labeling fundamentals

• Apply labeling to a layer with Geoserver CSS

Learn how to use scale dependency rules to make your maps more legible for your end user.

• Scale dependency introduction

• Scale dependency example

• Apply scale dependency

Integrate what you’ve learned in this section – enhancing Geoserver WMS and OpenLayers API – into an improved web mapping app

• Create a Layer Group

• Add Layer Group references to OL WMS Example

• Add code from OL Popup Example

CQL is used to subset data based on criteria supplied in the query – in other words, filtering. Filtering allows an end-user to focus in on the data that is useful to them.

• The CQL Syntax

• Learn to use CQL in an OpenLayers Layer Preview app

• Test out CQL via a Web Service Request

CQL is used to enhance the styles provided by CSS, along with symbols. Legends are also generated with CSS, and can be retrieved by WMS.

• Enhance CSS with CQL and symbols

• Producing legends with WMS and CSS

• View the result

To enable CQL filtering in an app the UI must be adapted, along with event handlers, in Javascript.

• Use CQL via Geoserver/OpenLayers Layer Preview

• Adapt an OpenLayers example with the Layer Preview to enable CQL filtering on your own layer

• See CQL UI in action

One option for printing from OpenLayers is by exporting a PDF using the jsPDF library. This reqiures that the front-end code be developed and that Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) be enabled in Geoserver.

• Import and customize front end code for supporting export to PDF for printing

• Learn to configure Geoserver to allow front-end communication via Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

• Use the app to output custom PDFs for printing

Learn about the capabilities of PostgreSQL – a popular Open Source relational database management system – and its PostGIS extension, which provides spatial database capabilities.

• What is PostgreSQL and how to access it

• The basics of the SQL syntax

• What PostGIS does and how to access it with software and SQL

Install the PostGIS platform.

• Install with the EnterpriseDB Postgres Installer

• Start the service

• Complete the installation of PostGIS and other extensions with Stackbuilder

Learn interfaces for working with Postgres: the command line exectuable and shell interface: psql and the GUI pgAdmin management package.

• Explore and use the command line interface

• Learn about command and query syntax and syntax reference

• Meet pgAdmin and try its use

Setup a new PostGIS database with pgAdmin and learn about what it contains.

• Create and configure a new user role

• Create the new database from a template

• Learn about some of the objects in the new database like tables, functions, types and triggers

Load data into the database, for access on Geoserver.

• Import geospatial data in Shapefile format with PostGIS Shapefile Import/Export Manager

• Load tabular data in DBF file format

• Load tabular data from a plaintext comma delimited CSV file with pgAdmin

Add a PostGIS data store and layer to start using PostGIS on Geoserver

• Configure and add the PostGIS data store

• Select a table from the data you've loaded and publish this as a Geoserver Layer

• View the result in the Layer Preview section

Begin to leverage the database by creating an SQL View layer in Geoserver.

• Develop an SQL query in pgAdmin

• Create and configure the SQL view in Geoserver

• Preview the published layer

WFS is an open standards web service, comparable to WMS. Let’s explore this topic in detail and learn the basics of WFS syntax and requests.

• Learn about the differences of WFS when compared to WMS

• Learn about the differences of WFS when compared to WMS

• Explore an example of WFS in an OpenLayers web app

Learn about WFS output, which is much different than the kind of output we’ve come to expect with WMS services.

• Explore a polygon layer and how features are reproduced in the default WFS text-based output – GML

• Learn about JSON output

• View shapefile output

WFS output, unlike WMS, is in machine-readable text or file format, rather than map images. In this video you’ll learn to customize OpenLayers to display WFS GeoJSON on a map.

• Explore an OpenLayers example that uses WFS – focusing on the source code

• Customize the code so we can use it for our own Geoserver WFS

• View the result

So far, the result has not been much different to what you’ve already learned to do with WMS. In this video you will learn to update a record using a WFS transaction.

• Make changes to the database to allow Geoserver to change a table

• Enable anonymous write permissions to the table via Geoserver

• Run the WFS Transaction request through the Geoserver Demo interface and view the result

To make the map more relevant to the end user: add their location to the map.

• Learn about the fundamentals of Geolocation and methods for doing it

• Learn about challenges for Geolocation and strategies for success

• View an OpenLayers example

Adapt the Geolocation example for a mobile geolocation app on our local filesystem.

• Look at the original geolocation code, noting where changes may be made

• Edit the code, to include UI and event handler additions and changes, as well as removal of code that’s no longer needed

• View the result in the browser

Use two popular libraries to improve our web mapping app UI: Bootstrap and jQuery.

• Learn about Bootstrap and jQuery

• Use these libraries to develop an OL app based on Geoserver services

• View the result in the browser

Pull in our work with WFS-T from the last section into this responsive app, for feature editing in a mobile-friendly user interface.

• Add references to the WFS service to the app

• Create the event handlers and make these compatible with Bootstrap and jQuery

• View the result in the browser