WMS cascading in latest GeoServer

One of the new exciting features in the GeoServer 2.1 series is WMS cascading.

For those that are not familiar with it, cascading allows to expose layers coming from other WMS servers as if they were local layers. This provides for some interesting advantages:

• Clients connecting to your SDI need to care about less points of origin, which might be important for high security networks
• It is now possible to ask for maps in formats not supported by the original server, or to reproject the maps in projections not supported by the original server (GeoServer supports out of the box almost 5000 different coordinate reference systems)
• It is now possible to mix the layers with local ones to generate print oriented formats such as PDF
• It is now possible to provide more informations about the layer, such as a better description, more keywords, which will benefit all clients, in particular catalogs harvesting informations from your capabilites document

Configuration

The configuration as usage of the cascaded layers follows GeoServer traditional ease of use.

The first step is to configure a new WMS server to be cascaded. In GeoServer terms that means configuring a new store, a WMS store in particular.

The only parameter needed is the capabilities document of the cascaded server, in this case, the DEMIS one (http://www2.demis.nl/wms/wms.asp?wms=WorldMap&request=getcapabilities&version=1.0.7)

Past this point it's business as usual, one just need to choose which layers to cascade using the normal layer configuration workflow:

Result

Here is GeoServer map preview showing two layers, Topography and Borders:

Of course it is also possible to mix in some local vector layers, such as, for example, the Tasmania layer group:

As said, one of the nice things about cascading is that one can add a few features, such as reprojection, transparently. The original modis server does not advertise reprojection abilities, yet GeoServer can reproject the data into EPSG:3785 on the fly for us:

Missing Features
There is still a number of things that can be done vs cascading:

• Support for secured remote servers
• Support for vendor parameters in cascading, including custom styling
• Better networking support, with HTTP 1.1 persistent connections, limitations on the number of parallel requests to the cascaded server, and configurable timeouts
• Support for choosing the cascading format (right now PNG is used)
• Support for GetFeatureInfo cascading on servers that do not provide GML output (if the GML GetFeatureInfo output is there full cascading is already in place and working!)
• Cascading WMS 1.3 servers
• Auto configuration of the layers exposed by a remote server, so that new layers are automatically exposed by GeoServer without any manual intervention

Are you interested in any of the above features? Let us know!

Regards,
the GeoSolutions team.

GeoServer Workshop at GFOSS DAY 2010

GeoSolutions will hold a 2 hours GeoServer workshop at GFOSS DAY 2010,  the annual gathering of the Italian FOSS4G crowd.

The workshop will provide a quick introduction to the GeoServer framework and will mainly focus on:

• basic installation
• basic data configuration and publishing
• basic data exploitation

In case you are around and you want to attend the workshop, make sure to register for the conference since seats are limited!

The GeoSolutions team.

Latest on JPEG2000 Improved Support for the Java world

Dear all,
We would like to take the occasion to describe more in details some improvements that were implemented with the ImageI/O-Ext 1.0.8 release (which is now supported by GeoServer 2.0.2, 2.7.x and GeoTools 2.6.4 and 2.7.x) as well as with the previous ones.

Reader Improvements
Various improvements have been implemented for the JPEG2000 Kakadu reader in order to enhance its speed and robustness:

• More checks on stripe decompression
• Improved Warning Messages at startup
• Improved subsampling factor computation 

Writer Improvements
Various improvements have been implemented for the JPEG2000 Kakadu writer in order to enhance support for very large imagery writing in terms of more control options as well as in term of reduced footprint during the writing process itself.
Specifically we have added the following:

• Support for writing the GeoJP2 box
• Support for writing tile oriented images
• Support for Corder
• Support for ORGgen_tlm
• Support for ORGgen_plt
• Support for ORGt_parts 

Sample Code
At the following link you can find an example that tells you how to read/write JPEG2000 data using ImageIO-Ext:
http://pastebin.com/uY2n17Gz

ArtifactsReleased
Artifacts for Imageio-Ext have been deployed on the GeoSolutions maven repository, as well as on the OSGEO one.

Regards,
the GeoSolutions Team

Servizi di Supporto Professionale offerti da GeoSolutions

GeoSolutions è orgogliosa di offrire quattro piani di servizi enterprise incentrati sulla piattaforma GeoServer per aiutare i propri clienti a costruire una SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure) di classe enterprise, attraverso l'integrazione e l'armonizzazione dei migliori framework geospaziali offerti dal mondo Open Source, la OpenSDI suite.

GeoSolutions grazie alla sua vasta esperienza nella costruzione e nel supporto di infrastrutture geospaziali di classe enterprise, fornirà alla vostra azienda uno straordinario livello di supporto durante tutto il ciclo di vita del progetto per ottenere con facilità un deployment ben riuscito!


Maggiori informazioni possono essere reperite qui.
Ci potete contattare qui.

ImageI/O-Ext 1.0.8 released!

Dear all,
GeoSolutions is pleased to announce the ImageI/O-Ext 1.0.8 release.

Some minor changes with respect to 1.0.7:
- More and improved write parameters for the JPEG2000 Kakadu plugin
- Minor clean up in GDAL base framework

This release still leverage on GDAL 1.4.5, therefore no changes are required on native libraries with respect to version 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.6-1, 1.0.7.

Released artifacts have been deployed on the GeoSolutions maven repository, as well as on the OSGEO one.

Regards,
the GeoSolutions Team

Job offer @ GeoSolutions

GeoSolutions is looking for talented software engineers to fill a couple of positions which would mainly involve designing and implementing web-based geospatial applications.
Qualifications are as follows:

• Working knowledge of Java (JEE and JSE)
• Working knowledge of web 2.0 JavaScript frameworks like Ext-JS, GWT, Ext-GWT, JQuery
• Working knowledge of GeoServer  and OpenLayers
• Knowledge of web development with Python is a plus
• Good Knowledge of most important OGC specifications and concepts (WMS,
• WFS, WCS, coverage, etc...)
• At least 1 year of experience 
• Being fluent in English, both written and spoken

We offer a variety of contracts but, please, notice that our intention is to establish a long term relationship, therefore this is not a position for freelance consultants.

Working remotely is an option, although we will give priority to candidate closer to our office.

Please send a detailed resume together with a letter of presentation at jobs_at_geo-solutions.it.