GeoServer 1.4.0 released

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Chris Holmes writes “The GeoServer Project is pleased to announce the release of version 1.4.0. The big push has been the transition of GeoServer’s architecture to a more modular, programmer friendly environment based on Spring. And from the user perspective there are several improvements for scalability and stability, along with many little fixes so that everything ‘just works’.

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 sourceforge . There is also now a demo site of GeoServer on sigma.openplans.org, and we’ve just started a blog for people to follow GeoServer without having to dive in to the full traffic of the mailing lists

In addition to some improved memory management for much better scalability, there is also new support for on the fly reprojection with KML output, allowing one to serve data from most any spatial projection in to Google Earth with no additional configuration. KML has some improvements in styling as well, there is a new German translation of the web admin tool, and the embedded Jetty server has been upgraded to the latest version. Outputting Shapefiles and gzipped GML, PDFs and SVG have also been much improved, allowing users to get at the raw data behind the map in the format they prefer. The full changelog is also available.

From the developer side, just as Ruby on Rails was extracted from Basecamp, so too is the GeoServer team starting down the path of turning the core architecture of GeoServer to be used as a generic framework, but in this case for spatial applications. Potential services like geocoding, web processing, routing and more will be able to leverage the same data configuration and extensive GeoTools toolkit that GeoServer uses. Developers will be able to write new plug-ins and distribute them independently of GeoServer, and users will have much more control over what to include in their distribution of GeoServer. This will be a continuing evolution, but already a Web Coverage Service is available in its first beta (on GeoServer 1.5.x), written as a module on top of the core architecture.

This represents a substantial investment in GeoServer’s future, and we welcome all developers and users to join us. The community already has WFS 1.1 support near completion, as well as a catalog server in the works. There is also some exciting experimentation with versioning and wiki-like functionality with the editing of maps through the transactional WFS.

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 on the features page. The latest release is found here. The GeoServer Project is completely open source, in license and development process, built by a diverse community of contributors,
whom you are encouraged to join. GeoServer is built on GeoTools, an incubating project of the new Open Source
GeoSpatial Foundation
.

About The Open Planning Project (TOPP)
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.”

Link: docs.codehaus.org