State of GeoServer provides an update on our community and reviews the new and noteworthy features for the Project. The community keeps an aggressive six month release cycle with GeoServer 2.8 and 2.9 being released this year. Each releases bring together exciting new features. This year a lot of work has been done on the user interface, clustering, security and compatibility with the latest Java platform. We will also take a look at community research into vector tiles, multi-resolution raster support and more. Attend this talk for a cheerful update on what is happening with this popular OSGeo project. Whether you are an expert user, a developer, or simply curious what these projects can do for you, this talk is for you.

1. State of
GeoServer 2016
FOSS4G Bonn

2. Andrea Aime
Technical Lead
andrea.aime@geo-solutions.it
@geowolf
GeoSolutions
Innovative, robust and cost-effective solutions
leveraging best-of-breed Open Source products.
Welcome
Open Source Projects
GeoTools
GeoServer
ImageIO-Ext
JAI-Ext
JAI Tools
OSGeo Foundation
Charter Member

3. Jody Garnett
Community Lead
jgarnett@boundlessgeo.com
@jodygarnett
Boundless
Provides geospatial tools and services for
managing data and building applications.
Welcome
Open Source Projects
GeoTools
GeoServer
uDig
OSGeo Foundation
Board Member
OSGeo Incubation Chair
GeoTools Project Officer
Eclipse Foundation
LocationTech Steering Committee
LocationTech Technology Project

4. GeoServer 2016

5. GeoServer at a Glance
Java Web Application to share and
edit geospatial data.
Publish data from any major spatial
data source using open standards.
Core Protocols
WMS – maps
WFS – vector
WFS-T – editing
WCS – coverage
WPS – process
Tile Protocols
WMTS – tiles
TileService – tiles
WMS-C – tiles

6. 28 → 37 members of team geoserver
624 → 619 members on geoserver-devel
500+ → 525 pull requests
New contributors being added
(others stepping back)
Smaller base of active contributors this year.
Pull requests still going strong, very active
codebase.
Simone replaces Andrea as OSGeo Officer.
13 releases this year
Health Checkup
How about team user-list?
1983 → 2005 geoserver-users
Also geoserver-italia, espanol and opengeo.cn
mailing lists

7. August 2.8.5 2.9.1
July
June 2.8.4
May 2.9.0
April 2.9-beta2
March 2.7.6 2.8.3
February
January 2.8.2
December 2.7.5
November 2.7.4 2.8.1
October 2.7.3
September 2.8.0
Releases stable maintenance
} delay

8. Q: “Update the headers” was the most common
feedback on incoming pull requests. Was it
needed?
A: Checked with OSGeo legal (thanks board):
- headers are an historical artifact from
before the Berne Convention
- no longer needed, now just informative.
Header Maintenance

9. /* (c) 2016 Open Source Geospatial Foundation - all rights reserved
* This code is licensed under the GPL 2.0 license, available at the
* root application directory.
*/
package org.geoserver.main;
New Headers Policy
The new copyright header management policy is
as simple as:
● Add a copyright header, with the current
year, to each new file
● Add a copyright header to each modified
file without one (using the current year)
● Otherwise do not change the copyright
header when an existing file is modified

10. Configuration and management

11. ● Allows GeoServer to store resources
(icons, fonts, config files) in either file
system or database “blobs”.
● Run without a “Data Directory”
(Helpful in clustered/cloud environment)
● All instances of file access were converted
to resource api
● Backwards compatible - file will be
unpacked on disk if required
● Manage via REST API
● GUI available as community module
Resource API
2.8 2.9 2.10
Scitus
Development
Boundless
Web Services
Configuration
Data
Directory
ResourceCatalog
Web Services
Configuration
JDBCConfig
ResourceCatalog

12. ● Management of icons, fonts, configuration
via REST API only?
● Community module provides a wicket user
interface
Resource browser community module
2.10
Scitus
Development
Boundless

13. Module “status” REST API (and GUI)
● Automated testing of GeoServer is a
challenge
● REST API access to the “status page”
● Easy to add additional entries
● Used to check environment for difficult to
configure modules that use native code
2.9 2.10BoundlessBoundless QA
Module name: Rendering Engine
● Module : jvm
● Component : java2d
● Version : 1.8.0_66
● Enabled : true
● Available : true
● Message : Java 2D configured with
DuctusRenderingEngine.
● Provider: OracleJDK
geoserver/rest/about/status
In development!

14. Parametric configuration
● Switching data directories between
integration/beta/production environments can
be a pain
● GeoServer 2.10 allows to stick parameters in
the configuration, and read them from the
environment
● Look ma, switching environments without
grep/sed on the data dir :-)
● Store params in property file, system or
environment variables
2.9 2.10GeoSolutions
Eumetsat
World Bank

15. Backup/restore community module
● Save the configuration to a zip file (not the
data!)
● Restore later, in the same or different
environment
● UI to run backup and restore
● Asynch operations
○ During backup the configuration is forced read only
○ During restore it’s fully locked
2.9 2.10GeoSolutions
Eumetsat
World Bank

16. Backup/restore community module (cont'd)
● Can do a “dry run”
to check if there is
any error prior to
restore
2.9 2.10GeoSolutions
Eumetsat
World Bank

17. Backup/restore
community module
(cont'd)
● REST API to run, control,
eventually cancel backups and
restores
2.9 2.10GeoSolutions
Eumetsat
World Bank

18. Raster data sources

19. Improved masking support
● Raster masking available for both image mosaic and GDAL data sources
● Both in vector (polygon footprint) and raster (binary mask) for
2.8 2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsLiguria digitale

20. Heterogeneous mosaics - color models
● Support for mosaics with sources in multiple color models
(RGB, gray, indexed), since 2.8.x
2.8 2.9 2.10GeoSolutions

21. Heterogeneous mosaics - resolution / projections
2.10BoundlessSOCOM
● Support for mosaics in multiple coordinate reference systems
(Coming in 2.10.x)

22. Excess granule removal
● Optimization for deep z-order mosaic stacks
● E.g., time series of scattered data
● Do not load imagery that is not contributing to the output
2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsBEV
In development!

23. Multiple coverages for mosaic and pyramid (2.10)
● Already available for multidimensional data (NetCDF, Grib)
● Now available also for “flat” data sources
● Meaningful if the sources are normally managed and used together (e.g.,
multispectral satellite data and its derived products)
2.9 2.10ImplementorBEV

24. Coverage view optimizations (2.10)
● A coverage view allows to bind together bands from different coverages
coming from the same source (e.g., NetCDF)
● Optimization to avoid reading all sources if the style is only using a subset of
the bands
A
B
C
Combiner
SLD Style
selecting only
A
Map
Hint about which bands
are actually going to be
used
GeoSolutionsBEV 2.9 2.10
In development!

25. GeoServer support for RAP native grid GRIB2 files
2.9
GRIB2/NetCDF rotated pole projections
Publish the native GRIB2 file format of
NOAA's latest RAPv3 North American
weather forecast model.
2.10TransientBoundless

26. Maintenance &
Technical Debt

27. ● Relying on volunteer time to keep an eye
on the codebase was not working out
○ team busy on customer work?
○ backlog of bugs piling up
● Trying an experiment
○ Once a month meeting
○ Distributed, on-line code sprint
● When:
○ First edition in July
○ Second at the end of FOSS4G
Monthly bug fixing code sprints

28. Monthly bug fixing code sprints
● Actions
○ Vet existing tickets
○ close invalid/non reproducible ones
○ close feature requests that failed to gather
resourcing in a long time...
○ Fix bugs
● Nice side effects:
○ Gets more developers familiar with the
contents of the issue tracker
○ Opportunity to get proficient with new parts
of the code base
○ Predictable, scheduled activity

29. Wicket 7
Held sprint in victoria to clear up
this long standing technical debt!
Thanks to OSGeo, Boundless,
Vivid Solutions, How 2 Map, San
Jose Water Company, Transient,
GeoBeyond, Scitus,
GeoSolutions, CCRi, Astun
Technology, and Voyager
Search for sponsoring this work.
2.9 2.10
Victoria Code
Sprint

30. Java 8
GeoServer now requires Java 8.
Why? What changed ...
- Traditionally GeoServer takes forever to support the latest Java
- Oracle now charges for Java 7 security updates
2.9 2.10Joint EffortCommunity

31. Required to upgrade the “Spring Framework”
used to wire GeoServer together:
- We needed a newer version of “Spring” for
Java 8 compatibility
- Upgraded to Spring 4 → 2 month delay to
GeoServer 2.9 release
Check that your application server supports:
- Servlet 3.0 was released in 2009
- Supported by Tomcat 7 and Tomcat 8
Spring 4
2.9 2.10Joint-EffortCommunity

32. Styling

33. Perpendicular Offset for Lines and Polygons
<LineSymbolizer>
<Stroke>
<CssParameter name="stroke">#AAAAAA</CssParameter>
<CssParameter name="stroke-width">3</CssParameter>
</Stroke>
<PerpendicularOffset>-2</PerpendicularOffset>
</LineSymbolizer>
<LineSymbolizer>
<Stroke>
<CssParameter name="stroke">#FF0000</CssParameter>
<CssParameter name="stroke-width">3</CssParameter>
<CssParameter name="stroke-dasharray">5 2</CssParameter>
</Stroke>
<PerpendicularOffset>3</PerpendicularOffset>
</LineSymbolizer>
2.8 2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsDLR

34. ncWMS like extensions to GetMap (community)
● A new styling language designed for dynamic colormaps
● Applies to all rasters based on their statistics
● Use can control min/max, log scale, animation
2.10GeoSolutions

35. Style Page
2.10BoundlessCommunity
Refactored CSS Style
Page into the main
application.
Works with
SLD, CSS, YSLD.
Improved experience for
everybody!
In development!

36. New features for CSS (2.10)
● Rendering transformations supported (feature parity with SLD!)
● Rule nesting, helps with selector duplication and makes styles more readable
/* @title Levels */
* {
transform: ras:Contour(levels: 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700);
stroke: black;
z-index: 0;
}
/* @title Values */
[@scale < 3000] {
transform: ras:RasterAsPointCollection();
mark: symbol('square');
:mark {
size: 2;
fill: black;
}
label: [GRAY_INDEX];
label-anchor: 0 0.5;
label-offset: 5 0;
font-family: Arial;
font-fill: black;
z-index: 1;
}
Extract contours at the desired levels
When zoomed-in enough, extract point
values, display center with a mark, and
value on top of it
2.10Andrea Aime
In development!

37. YSLD community module
● Style Layer Descriptor represented in
YAML
○ Uses indentation rather than XML
○ Easier to read
○ More compact
○ More flexible syntax
○ Contains variables for reusable code
○ Compatible with SLD
● REST API can convert formats
○ Preview your existing styles as YSLD
using REST API
○ View the SLD representation of YSLD
2.9 2.10ImplementorCustomer
symbolizers:
- polygon:
stroke-color: 'blue'
stroke-width: 1
fill-color: '#7EB5D3'
- text:
label: ${name}
fill-color: 'black'
anchor: [0.5, 0.5]
x-maxDisplacement: 40
x-autoWrap: 70

38. Custom Legend Graphic
Take control of the legend graphic
(Advertised in WMS GetCapapabilities).
Legend shown in compatible clients
when listing your layer.
2.9 2.10BoundlessBoundless

39. WMS

40. image/vnd.jpeg-png
● Smart format, chooses
between JPEG and PNG
depending on image
contents
● JPEG for max
compression on fully
opaque images
● PNG when transparency is
needed
● Supported both in WMS
and WMTS
PNG PNG PNG
PNG JPEG JPEG
2.9 2.10GeoSolutions

41. UTFGrid (format=application/json;type=utfgrid)
● MapBox style UTFGrid
output for WMS and
WMTS
● More flexibility
○ Non square tiles
○ Available in all projections
● Of course you can limit
yourself to simple tiles
2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsCianad

42. Vector tiles
Community module for
publishing vector tiles
- Great solution for
modern High Definition
Screens
- Use for GeoWebCache
for “MapBox without
MapBox”
- (see talk tomorrow)
2.8 2.9 2.10ImplementorCustomer

43. GetLegendGraphic layout control
● Vendor parameters to control layout of generated legend:
layout, rows, cols, rowwidth, columnheight
● Horizontal or vertical, possibility to control number of columns
● Handy for printing maps
horizontal
horizontal, 2 rows
horizontal, max row len
vertical, 2 cols
vertical, max col height
2.8 2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsUNEP

44. WFS

45. Breaking the limits of shapefile size (paging)
● A WFS shapefile extraction could go beyond the limits of shapefile max size
● If this happens, shapefiles are now paged out
● The dumping engine, including the ability to fan out different geometry types
to separate shapefiles, is now available as a utility class in GeoTools
2.8 2.9 2.10GeoSolutions
Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences

46. Easier setup for complex features with Hale
● Desktop tool to map a
flat data source to a
complex schema
● Visual
● Support for exporting
the mapping as an
app-schema mapping
● Still needs some work to
improve workflow
efficiency
2.8 2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsLAMMA

47. Speed up that complex feature
query
● Filters on primary table fields already sent
down to the DBMS as SQL
● Filters on joined fields were evaluated in
memory
● Optimizations to send those down,
leverage indexes and reduce network i/o
2.8 2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsCSI Piemonte
In memory
filtering
DBMS
filtering
In development!

48. Tiling

49. MBTiles like storage
● Store tiles in MBTiles database
● Possibility to use many databases, following a pattern, e.g.,
○ /path/to/{grid}/{dim}/{tileset}/{z}/{x}-{y}.sqlite (x and y are actually groups of values)
○ Helps with scalability, especially if not fully seeded
● Allows to store non Google Mercator projections (extension)
● Allows to store formats other than png or jpeg (extension)
● Stores in lookup table creation date for expiration support
● REST API to replace single files (automate migration from seeding
machine to serving ones)
● Not compatible with disk quota!
https://github.com/GeoWebCache/geowebcache/wiki/MBTiles-BlobStore
2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsCapgemini

50. WMTS config page
● Allows WMTS to have
its own service
metadata configured
from the UI
● Adds a point where the
INSPIRE module can
plug into for extra
configuration
2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsBEV

51. WMTS workspace specific and INSPIRE
compatibility
● WMTS now works also as a
workspace specific service (finally
multitenancy and tile caching)
● Allows to setup INSPIRE
harmonized layer names
● INSPIRE module extended to inject
INSPIRE minimum metadata in
WMTS GetCapabilities output
Workspace
1
Workspace
2
INSPIRE
compliant
Generic
tiles
2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsBEV

52. WMS/WMTS ND discovery extensions
● Data with N dimensions (time, elevation, custom ones)
● Dimensions can be related (forecasts, time and run time), the data can be
scattered (remote sensing)
● Add extra calls to query the domains. Like, if I fix a given time and bbox, what
residual ranges of elevations and run-times are available?
● Add extra calls to list specific items in a small domain (full enumeration of
possible combinations
2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsBEV

53. WPS

54. Aggregation with group-by (2.9)
● The aggregation
process has been
extended with group-by
capabilities
● Quick way to power
custom charts on your
client side
{
"GroupByAttributes": [ "groupingAttribute" ],
"AggregationResults": [
[ "Class1", 18 ],
[ "Class2", 1 ],
[ "Class3", 3 ],
[ "Class4", 3 ]
],
"AggregationFunctions": [ "Count" ],
"AggregationAttribute": "countingAttribute"
}
2.8 2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsLiguria Digitale

55. Improved WPS resource control (2.10)
● Processes are run in thread pools, they
can wait for their execution slot in queue
● Separate control for total time, and pure
execution time
2.10utas.edu.au

56. Download process improvements (community
module)
● Community module for clip and
ship support
● Asynch requests allow for large
extractions
● Can have maximum extraction
limits configured
● Added ability to also select
bands, and improved output size
estimation
WPS
2.9 2.10GeoSolutionsBEV

57. Large raster extraction optimizations
● Optimizing many concurrent large masked raster
extractions via Download process (e.g. 128
concurrent requests at the bigtiff threshold)
● Improved both scalability and reliability under
sustained load on a “big iron” (40 cores, 128GB
memory)
2.9 2.10GeoSolutions 2.8

58. Security

59. LDAP User Group Service
● We previously only had an “authentication
provider”, meaning, it used the
username/pw provided and tried to open
a LDAP connection with them
● We now also have a “user group
service”,it opens a LDAP connection
using fixed credentials, and searches the
user in the LDAP database, matching the
password
● E.g., similar to storing users in a DBMS
2.10Niels Charlier?

60. Integrated GeoFence community module
● Allows to define complex rules without running
a separate GeoFence server
● UI to edit rules
● REST API to automate rule editing
2.8 2.9 2.10Niels Charlier?

61. Integrated GeoFence community module (cnt’d)
● Separate page for “admin” rules, that is, rules
controlling administration level access
● Used to setup workspace specific admins and
the like
2.8 2.9 2.10GeosolutionsCamp2Camp

62. Research, Development
and other news

63. GeoPackage module moving to supported land
● Currently a “community module”, not officially supported
● Increasing test coverage
● More compatibility testing with OGR and friends
● OGC compliance tests
● Moving towards supported status
2.10
Ian Turton
GeoSolutions
Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences

64. GeoGig GUI
Manage repositories and publish via
WFS and WFS-T for web client
access.
2.9 2.10BoundlessGeoGig

65. GeoGig Web API
curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
"parentDirectory": "/opt/geogig/repos",
"authorName": "geogig",
"authorEmail": "geogig@geogig.org"
}'
"http://localhost:8080/geoserver/geogig/repos/myrepo/init"
REST API for managing repositories,
when combined with GeoServer REST
API a wide range of scripts are
possible.
2.9 2.10BoundlessGeoGig

66. Looking Ahead

67. Java 9 Compatibility
Java 9 has been delayed until 2017, but we
would like to ensure GeoServer will function.
Oracle will stop shipping free security updates to
Java 8 on
We have a couple incompatibilities with the
GeoTools “service provider interface” plugin
system that we will look at resolving during the
code sprint!

68. The Java Advanced Imaging library enables
GeoServer to do all kinds of great image
processing! The JAI-EXT project extends this
library with replacement no-data / footprint
aware operations.
Sadly Oracle has not maintained the project,
and has not released it as open source.
(see Replace-JAI on GeoTools wiki)
Raster Processing Engine
Joint OSGeo / LocationTech game plan:
● Raster Processing Engine API
definition of raster-processing-api
● Raster Processing Engine
reference pure-java implementation
● Raster Processing Wrapper
benchmark jai-wrapper implementation
● GeoTools Replace JAI
migrate to raster processing engine api
and coordinate transition affected projects
(GeoServer, GeoNode, uDig, GeoScript,
etc...)

69. Thanks!