Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Conferences
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
GeoServer Beginner's Guide
GeoServer Beginner's Guide

GeoServer Beginner's Guide: Share and edit geospatial data with this open source software server

eBook
$22.99 $32.99
Paperback
$54.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m

What do you get with Print?

Product feature icon Instant access to your digital eBook copy whilst your Print order is Shipped
Product feature icon Paperback book shipped to your preferred address
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Shipping Address

Billing Address

Shipping Methods
Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

GeoServer Beginner's Guide

Chapter 1. GIS Fundamentals

In this chapter, you will learn the foundation of geographical information system and spatial data. Although you do not need to understand these subjects in great depth to take advantage of the features of GeoServer, we will give you the basic information required to understand what you will be doing in the book. You will be introduced to the magic of spatial.

We are going to cover the following topics:

  • Why is spatial data special?

  • Spatial data formats.

  • The magical world of Spatial Reference System (SRS): getting a sphere on a plane.

  • What is a map and why does it matter?

  • The art of Cartography. Building map types such as Choropleth and Proportional Symbol.

By the end of the chapter, you will have the basic skills to identify which spatial data format best suits your needs.

What is GIS about?


Since you were a kid at school you have been exposed to a lot of maps. Maps of countries, where you spent hours memorizing the boundaries, rivers, and capitals; historical maps, with the rise and fall of ancient empires, where you dreamed of being a great conqueror; economics maps, with the locations and amounts of goods and services. Every day on newspapers, on TV, or in a far more accurate presentation, in books and academic papers you look at data represented on a map. Maps are a spatial representation of data and are often the main output of a GIS.

GIS is an acronym for Geographical Information System. Does it sounds too complicated to you? Don't be afraid; it is not so different from many other systems for managing information you probably already know. The main difference is in the spatial piece of information. All the data contained in a GIS has a spatial dimension or a link to another object with spatial attributes.

So what is GIS? In a nutshell, we can define it as a system to acquire and store data, to process data, and to produce data representations, that is, maps. In this book you will learn that working with GeoServer requires you to prepare your data, process it to render in a beautiful map, and build up a set of functions that enable a user to interact with your data. So building up a GeoServer instance may be described as GIS-building.

A detailed comprehension of GIS is far beyond the scope of this book and it is not required for starting with GeoServer. But you need to have some basic skills in spatial data, maps, and spatial reference systems.

Let's go; we are going to turn you into a neo-cartographer!

The foundation of any GIS – spatial data


If you have ever built a simple map to annotate your hiking on mountains or to send driving directions to your girlfriend or boyfriend, you have dealt with spatial data.

Spatial data is the foundation of any GIS. You know that a building is likely to fall down unless it is sitting atop a strong foundation. So you need to understand spatial data or you will be producing poor map output.

But what is spatial data in simple words? From a general point of view you can consider a piece of spatial information. Each description of an object contains a reference to its position on the Earth's surface. Well, that is not a rigorous formal definition as there are a lot of objects below and over the earth's surface, but for now we are fine with this simplistic definition.

Think of some lists of familiar objects:

  • A list of bookshops with addresses

  • A list of places you visited during your trips

  • A list of points of interest, for example, restaurants, museums, and hotels, you collected with your mobile phone

  • An aerial photo with a view of a city, where you can recognize notable places

You can say where each element is located in a more or less precise way. They are real objects represented with spatial data. As you may have noted, the spatial information is represented in quite a heterogeneous way. Most people are able to recognize spatial information in any group from the previous list. Unfortunately, GIS software and GeoServer are an exception to this and tend to prefer a strong structured piece of information. If you are going to use your spatial data with GeoServer, you need to organize it more accurately. We will talk specifically about GeoServer's data connectors in Chapter 5, Adding Your Own DataStore, but for now it is important that you understand how spatial data is commonly organized and stored. As you keep on making maps, you will deal with lots of different spatial data.

Measuring the world

So spatial data are references for an object's position on the earth's surface. How can you measure and store them in a numeric format? An elementary model of the earth could be a sphere. On a sphere's surface, you can measure positions with angular units called latitude and longitude. Latitude (ϕ) measures the angle between the equatorial plane and a line that passes through that point and is normal to the surface; whereas longitude (λ) measures the angle east or west from a reference meridian (for example, that passing through Greenwich observatory) to another meridian that passes through that point. Angular measures can be expressed in digital degrees or in degrees, minutes, and seconds.

If you want to store the location of The Statue of Liberty, you can express it as Lat. 40° 41′ 21″ N, Long. 74° 2′ 40″ W with degrees, minutes, and seconds or as 40.689167, -74.044444 using decimal degrees.

Note

We normally think of earth as a sphere but this is not its real shape. Geodesy, the science of studying the earth's shape, defines earth as represented by a geoid, an ideal surface defined by the level of sea if oceans would cover the entire earth. For practical purposes, as in projections, geoid is too complicated to use and the earth's shape is defined by an ellipsoid. The ellipsoid is described by its semi-major axis (equatorial radius) and flattening.

Have a go hero – move around the planet with decimal degree coordinates

Does it sound a little bit complicated? Don't be afraid and explore locations on earth with Lat. Long. coordinates. In the following table, there are a few famous places with coordinates in decimal degrees. Point your browser to http://maps.google.com, insert coordinates in the search textbox, and then press Enter. Your map will be panned to the location. Google maps enable you to query for coordinates of any place on earth; find that function and look for some great places.

Rome, Italy

41.890, 12.492

Colorado Grand Canyon, USA

36.055, -112.122

Paris, France

48.858, 2.294

Iguazú National Park, Argentina

-25.688, -54.442

Ayers Rock, Australia

-25.345, 131.036

Projecting a sphere on a plane

Did you ever play with an orange peel? I did it a lot when I was a child, often pressing them in the hope to flatten it almost perfectly. It's a hopeless challenge, but kids are stubborn and ambitious. Many years later I found a similar analogy in a geography book. It was talking about cartographic projection and used an orange as a model of the earth. If you think of the orange's peel as the earth surface, it is suddenly clear why you can't have a planar representation of the earth's surface without a great amount of distortion.

All the maps you will ever find are on a plain paper sheet. Curved digital screens are quite uncommon in GeoGeek's nests. So how do cartographers represent a curved surface on a plain? This is done by means of a mathematical operation called projection.

Indeed, there are several different projections developed in the last few centuries by cartographers and mathematicians. There is no mathematical method to transfer a sphere or an ellipsoid to a two-dimensional space without distortion. Hence, projections modify the data and include some deformations about lengths, areas, or shapes you can observe and measure on maps.

We can classify projections according to the geographical features and properties they preserve:

  • Conformal projections preserve angles locally. Meridian and parallels intersect at 90-degree angles.

  • Equal Area projections preserve proportions between areas. In a map with equal area projections, each part has the same proportional area as the corresponding part of the earth.

  • Equidistant projections maintain a scale along one or more lines, or from one or two points to all other points on the map. Lines along which the scale (distance) is correct, are of the same proportional length as the lines they reference on the globe.

It is important that you understand there is no best projection; choosing one for your map is a trade-off. According to the portion of the earth's surface, the map that you are designing will contain and/or use the projections that suit best. Let's explore some widely-used projections.

Understanding coordinate systems


You learned about the earth's shape and about projection. Coordinate systems use these concepts to build a frame of reference to place objects on the earth's surface. There are two types of coordinate systems: projected coordinate systems and geographic coordinate systems.

  • Geographic coordinate systems use latitude and longitude as angles measured from the earth's centre, as we saw previously. A geographic coordinate system is substantially defined by the ellipsoid used to model the earth, and the position of the ellipsoid positioned relatively to the centre of the earth (called datum).

  • A projected coordinate system is defined on a flat two-dimensional surface. A projected coordinate system is always based on a geographic coordinate system, hence it uses an ellipsoid and a datum. Besides, a projected corporate systems includes a projection method to project coordinates from the earth's spherical surface onto a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate plane.

Commonly used coordinate systems

Although there are hundreds of different projections, you can limit your knowledge to some which are widely used.

Universal Transverse Mercator system

Commonly knwn as UTM, this is not really a projection. It is a system based on Transverse Mercator projection. This projection uses a cylinder tangent to a meridian to unwarp the earth's surface. A maximum of 5° of distortion from the central meridian is acceptable. The UTM splits the world into a series of 6° of longitudinal wide zones. As you may guess, there are 60 zones numbered from Long. 180W towards the east. Please note that you can't have a map representing more than one UTM zone. Indeed, UTM is well suited for big-scale maps.

Web Mercator

Web Mercator is a projection derived from Transverse Mercator. It maps ellipsoidal latitude and longitude coordinates onto a plane using spherical Mercator equations. This projection was popularized by Google in Google Maps and it is now widely used on online mapping systems. It stretches areas in a north-south direction and, unlike the Transverse Mercator, it is not conformal.

Spatial Reference Identifier (SRID)

A spatial reference system identifier is a code to easily reference a spatial reference system (SRS). An SRS contains parameters about projection, ellipsoid, and datum. It can be defined using the OGC's well-known text (WKT) representation. The SRS for the geographic WGS84 reference system is as follows:

GEOGCS["WGS 84",
    DATUM["WGS_1984",
        SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],
    PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],
    UNIT["degree",0.01745329251994328,
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],
    AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]]

The last line contains the number 4326; this is the SRID uniquely identifying this SRS. The long form should also contain the authority, that is EPSG:4326, but you will often find it indicated only by the number.

Note

EPSG is the acronym for European Petroleum Survey Group. It was founded in 1986 by several European Oil companies to collect and maintain geodetic information. In 2005, EPSG was absorbed by OGP (an international forum of Oil and Gas producers) which formed the OGP Geomatics Committee. The committee maintains the registry and publishes it as a public web interface or a downloadable database.

It is very important that you know which is your data's SRID. Without it you can't represent data on a map without the risk of great errors.

Have a go hero – explore EPSG registry

We described a couple of common and widely used SRSs, but there are a lot of them. There are several archives on the Internet where you can find detailed information about SRSs and their elements, that is ellipsoids, datums, unit of measurements, projected, or geographic reference systems. One of the most authoritative and complete data sets is the EPSG Geodetic Parameter Registry. If you are curious about it, you can open your browser and point it to http://epsg-registry.org. Then try a simple search by inserting a location name in the Area textbox:

Representing geometrical shapes


You learned how to calculate coordinates on the earth's surface. But how can you represent a real object, for example, a river, in a convenient way for a GIS?

There are two main approaches when building a spatial database, modeling vector data or raster data. Vector data uses a set of discrete locations to build basic geometrical shapes, such as points, polylines, and polygons.

Of course real objects are neither a point, nor a polyline or a polygon. In your model you have to decide which basic shape better suits the real object. For example, a town can be represented as a point if you are going to draw a map of the world with the countries' capitals shown. On the other hand, if you are going to publish a counties map, a polygon will enable you to draw the city boundaries to give a more realistic representation.

The simpler geometric object is a point. Points are defined as single coordinate pairs (x,y) when we work in two-dimensional space or coordinate triplets (x,y,z) if you want to take account of the eight coordinates. In the following examples, we use point features to store the location of active volcanoes:

Etna; 37.763; 14.993
Krakatoa; -6.102; 105.423
Aconcagua; -32.653; -70.011
Kilimanjaro; -3.065; 37.358

Did you guess the units and projections used? The coordinates are in decimal degrees and SRS is WGS84 geographic, that is EPSG:4326.

Points are simple to understand but don't give you many details about the spatial extent of an object. If you want to store rivers you need more than a coordinate pair. Indeed, you have to memorize an array of coordinate pairs for each feature in a structure called polyline:

Colorado; (40.472 -105.826, … , 31.901 -114.951)
Nile; (-2.282 29.331, … , 30.167 31.101)
Danube; (48.096 8.155, … ,45.218 29.761)

If you need to model an areal feature such as an island, you can extend the polyline object adding the constraint that it must be closed; that is the first and the last coordinate pairs must be coincident:

Ellis Island; (-74.043 40.699, -74.041 40.700, -74.040 40.700, -74.040 40.701, -74.037 40.699, -74.038 40.699, -74.038 40.698, -74.039 40.698, -74.041 40.700, -74.042 40.699, -74.040 40.698, -74.042 40.696, -74.044 40.698, -74.043 40.699)

Note

The feature model used in GIS is a little bit more complex than what we have discussed. There are some more constraints regarding vertex ordering, line intersections, and areal shapes with holes. Different GIS specified several different set of rules, often in proprietary formats. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) defined a standard for simple features, and lately most systems, open source in primis, are compliant with it. If you are curious about it, you can point your browser at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/is and look for The OpenGIS® Simple Features Interface Standard.

Modeling the real world with raster data


Raster data uses a regular tessellation, defining cells where one or more values are uniform. Usually the cells are square, although this is not a constraint. Raster data is generally used to represent value continuously changing in the space, that is, a field. You can use a regular tessellation to build a digital elevation model of the earth's surface. In the following figure, each cell has a height and width of 20 meters and the value stored is the height over the sea level in meters:

Can you use raster data to model real features like a river? Yes, you can, but there are some drawbacks you have to consider. The following figure shows a linear feature represented as vector data (the red line) and as raster data (the black and white cells). If your purpose is drawing the shapes on a map, raster data is not a good choice as raster graphics are resolution-dependent. They cannot scale up to an arbitrary resolution without the apparent loss of quality.

Representing the world


In the previous sections, we explored spatial data and SRS. They are the key elements you need to build your map. Indeed, maps are planar representation of spatial data. You need to collect the appropriate data to represent the real objects you want to include in your map and you need to choose an SRS to organize your data into the map.

Keep in mind that maps are representations, a proposition of yours. They are the way you express your knowledge and your vision of the world. To fully accomplish this, there is a third basic ingredient for your map: symbols.

Symbols enable you to add information to the features shown on a map. For example, colors can be used to indicate a classification of roads. Imagine you need to produce a map of a country with a road network. You have a vector data set containing road polylines. A simple approach is to render all features with the same symbol, as shown in following figure. The map is not really informative unless you are a transportation expert. You won't extract any information from the map and it looks ugly too.

Lets have a look at a similar map produced with ArcGIS Online (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisonline).

It contains the road network symbolized with different colors and line widths, labels showing you highway codes, major towns represented with small circles and labels. Besides, there is a background depicting heights with colors and shading. Does it now look more familiar to you?

In Chapter 6, Styling Your Layers, we will learn how to apply symbols in GeoServer to produce maps like the previous one. For now you need to familiarize yourself with simple and thematic maps.

Time for action – exploring OpenStreetMap


Are you ready to explore some nice maps? We are going to navigate through a great bunch of spatial data, OpenStreetMap.

  1. Open your browser and go to http://www.openstreetmap.org.

  2. The website offers you a small scale map centered on your actual location, as derived from browser information.

  3. Center your map on London, UK and zoom in with the tool shown on the left-hand side. You can see that many more road types and locations are now shown in the map:

  4. Now enter the Piccadilly Circus, London, UK address in the Search textbox on the left and press the Go button. A list of results matching your search is presented on the left side of the map. Pick the first item:

  5. The map is now at a great scale (look at the scalebar on the bottom-left angle) and the symbols are changed to show you greater detailed information about roads and locations. You can find street names, directions for car traffic, buildings' footprint, and icons for points of interest. The general look and feel resembles a printed city map you can pick up at tourist offices.

Note

OpenStreetMap does not require you to register for browsing or exporting the data. Anyway, if you are interested in maps and open source data, you may consider getting involved in the project. OSM is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world, currently involving over half a million users all around the world. You may add data or find errors on locations you know well.

What just happened?

You explored several maps representing the same data set in quite different ways. Different symbols and hiding subsets of data are powerful tools to produce clear and nice looking maps. You are now ready to discover a different kind of map.

Adding more colors to your maps


The maps we encountered so far are often defined as general maps. General maps focus on the description of the physical, political, and human features on the territory. All this data is portrayed for its own sake. In a nutshell, it can be said that general maps tell you where objects are located in space, while thematic maps talk about things happening in the space. Thematic maps focus on displaying a single topic and portray spatial distribution and variation. You have general data like administrative boundaries or road networks, but this is represented as a base layer for general reference.

Among thematic maps, those using choropleth or dot representations are by far the most common type you will be using GeoServer for.

Choropleth maps

Choropleth maps show statistical data aggregated over predefined regions, such as counties or states, by coloring or shading these regions. You can draw states according to their population, gross domestic product, car owners, and the number of national parks. You are not limited to a single variable; indeed you can merge different values from more than one attribute associated to spatial objects.

The following figure shows a map of European countries colored according to gross domestic product values. Legend on the right shows the five classification intervals. Values were normalized to Eu-27 average.

Proportional maps

In proportional maps, symbols of different sizes represent data associated with different areas or locations within the map. As an example, the countries' capitals can be represented with a circle proportional to their population.

Time for action – making your thematic map


Are you ready for building maps? We can do this without GeoServer; indeed we will install it in the next chapter. For now, you will play with an online map engine and Google Earth to try your understanding of thematic maps concepts.

  1. Point your browser to http://thematicmapping.org/engine/.

  2. Choose a statistical Indicator from the drop-down list, that is, CO2 emissions, then select Year as 2004. Leave all other values as the proposed defaults.

  3. Select the Preview button; a pop up will show you a Google earth plugin with countries rendered in different colors according to CO2 emissions in world countries.

  4. Now try a proportional symbol map. Select Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants as Indicator and 2006 as Year. Choose Proportional symbol for Technique and Regular polygon as symbol style. Select circle from the drop-down list. Leave the default colors unchanged and select Equal intervals for classification.

What just happened?

You built a couple of thematic maps selecting data, symbol size, and color. You will need to set exactly these parameters in GeoServer to produce beautiful maps. This time we did it without exploring the technical details behind features rendering. In Chapter 6, Styling Your Layers, you will learn how to use SLD (styled layer descriptor) to make thematic maps.

Summary


We had a brief but complete introduction to spatial data and maps in this chapter. It was somewhat a theoretical chapter, but we promise you it was the first and last of this kind! From now on, we are going to run real stuff with GeoServer.

Specifically, you learned how an object is referenced to its location, which storage models you can use with spatial data (for example, vector versus raster), and eventually you learned to represent spatial features in a map.

We are now ready to pick up GeoServer, unpack, and install it on your computer.

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Key benefits

  • Learn free and open source geospatial mapping without prior GIS experience
  • Share real-time maps quickly
  • Learn step-by-step with ample amounts of illustrations and usable code/list

Description

GeoServer is an open source server-side software written in Java that allows users to share and edit geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source using open standards. GeoServer allows you to display your spatial information to the world. Implementing the Web Map Service (WMS) standard, GeoServer can create maps in a variety of output formats. OpenLayers, a free mapping library, is integrated into GeoServer, making map generation quick and easy. GeoServer is built on Geotools, an open source Java GIS toolkit.GeoServer Beginner's Guide gives you a kick start to build custom maps using your data without the need for costly commercial software licenses and restrictions. Even if you do not have prior GIS knowledge, you will be able to make interactive maps after reading this book.You will install GeoServer, access your data from a database, style points, lines, polygons, and labels to impress site visitors with real-time maps.Follow along through a step-by-step guide that installs GeoServer in minutes. Explore the web-based administrative interface to connect to backend data stores such as MySQL, PostGIS, MSSQL, and Oracle. Display your data on web-based interactive maps, style lines, points, polygons, and embed images to visualize this data for your web visitors. Walk away from this book with a working application ready for production.After reading the GeoServer Beginner's Guide, you will have beautiful, custom maps on your website built using your geospatial data.

Who is this book for?

You are a web developer with knowledge of server side scripting, and have experience with installing applications on the server. You have a desire to want more than Google maps, by offering dynamically built maps on your site with your latest geospatial data stored in MySQL, PostGIS, MsSQL or Oracle. If this is the case, this book is meant for you.

What you will learn

  • Install GeoServer quickly
  • Access your dynamic real-time geospatial data which you can easily integrate into your own web-based application.
  • Create custom styles for lines, points, and polygons for great looking maps
  • Command GeoServer remotely using REST
  • Tune your GeoServer instance for performance
  • Move GeoServer into production
  • Learn advanced topics to extend GeoServer s capabilities
Estimated delivery fee Deliver to Argentina

Standard delivery 10 - 13 business days

$12.95

Premium delivery 3 - 6 business days

$40.95
(Includes tracking information)

Product Details

Country selected
Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Feb 21, 2013
Length: 350 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849516686
Category :
Languages :
Tools :

What do you get with Print?

Product feature icon Instant access to your digital eBook copy whilst your Print order is Shipped
Product feature icon Paperback book shipped to your preferred address
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Shipping Address

Billing Address

Shipping Methods
Estimated delivery fee Deliver to Argentina

Standard delivery 10 - 13 business days

$12.95

Premium delivery 3 - 6 business days

$40.95
(Includes tracking information)

Product Details

Publication date : Feb 21, 2013
Length: 350 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849516686
Category :
Languages :
Tools :

Packt Subscriptions

See our plans and pricing
Modal Close icon
$19.99 billed monthly
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Simple pricing, no contract
$199.99 billed annually
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just $5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts
$279.99 billed in 18 months
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just $5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts

Frequently bought together


Stars icon
Total $ 158.97
GeoServer Beginner's Guide
$54.99
PostGIS Cookbook
$54.99
OpenLayers Cookbook
$48.99
Total $ 158.97 Stars icon

Table of Contents

12 Chapters
GIS Fundamentals Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Getting Started with GeoServer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Exploring the Administrative Interface Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Accessing Layers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Adding Your Data Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Styling Your Layers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating Simple Maps Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Performance and Caching Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Automating Tasks: GeoServer REST Interface Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Securing GeoServer Before Production Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Tuning GeoServer in a Production Environment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Going Further: Getting Help and Troubleshooting Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.5
(15 Ratings)
5 star 60%
4 star 33.3%
3 star 6.7%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Filter icon Filter
Top Reviews

Filter reviews by




GPU Nov 13, 2013
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
More than half way through the book and it was fun to read through the book and set up a GIS web server within a day. No problem to follow for the most part. The only problem was to load a shapefiles into MySQL database. Have tried several times and all failed. There might be a few steps that the book did not provide or explain well. Overall, this book provides a thorough introduction to GeoServer and is a good read.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Paolo Corti Apr 11, 2013
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I have enjoyed very much to read this book. I have been exposed marginally to GeoServer in the last years, but in the last few months I have been starting using it quiet extensively, so it was nice that this book just came out now.First, the writing style of the authors is pleasant and clear, and they manage to teach you a difficult framework in a very structured and efficient way.Most of the concepts taught in the book can be mastered also from online resources, but in my opinion the book is very well structured and it is very nice to have everything packed in a single book.The books can be divided in two parts: an introductory part from chapter 1 to chapter 6 and a more advanced part from chapter 7 to chapter 12.I found the first part a bit boring, maybe because I already mastered most of the concepts with the practice, but found the second more advanced part extremely interesting.Chapter 1 gives you a gentle introduction to GIS in case you have not experience with it.In chapter 2 there is everything you need to know to install GeoServer and all of its components.Chapter 3 gives a tour of the administrative interface.After an introduction to WMS and WFS in chapter 4, in the following chapter the book explain how to add your own data in some of the most common formats (shapefiles, PostGIS, GeoTiff, Oracle Spatial and MySQL spatial) and expose them as web service.Chapter 6 is a long description on how to implement styles using the SLD OGC standard.Then from chapter 7 it starts the challenging part of the book: here you will get the basics to create very basic viewer with JavaScript framework such OpenLayers, GoogleMap API and Leaflet.Chapter 8 gives a gentle introduction on how to dramatically boost WMS performance using a caching solution with the GeoServer caching integrated tool: GeoWebCache.Chapter 9 gives an overview to GeoServer REST interface: this is extremely useful if you are planning to programmatically access to GeoServer. Using REST it is possible to do almost everythin that could be done using the administrative interface, but using code in any language. The chapter is rich of sample using the curl command line utility and Python.Chapter 10 explain GeoServe security (Users, Role and groups), while chapter 11 gives you all the tips needed to use GeoServer in production: Java configuration parameters, disabling unused services, setting of an Apache proxy, and (this is a gem in my opinion, and it has a very clear hand on) how to configure a cluster of GeoServer instances for scaling out.Finally, in the last chapter, the authors provide some more details about WFS and WCS OGC standards.To conclude this review: this is really an excellent book that provide a very good insight to the beginner, but also give you more advanced details to the experienced users. If you are serious about GeoServer development, this is a must have book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Bette Lamore Sep 10, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Everything I expected.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Jose I. Miranda Nov 29, 2013
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
If you want to know how to deploy your maps on the web, this is the book. It covers the basic installation and awesome applications. Must have book for map web developers.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Peter Moore Jun 18, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Very useful, helped me get up-to speed with implementing GeoServer very quickly. Highly recommended if you are new to implementing GeoServer within your organisation.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Get free access to Packt library with over 7500+ books and video courses for 7 days!
Start Free Trial

FAQs

What is the delivery time and cost of print book? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela
What is custom duty/charge? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customs duty are charges levied on goods when they cross international borders. It is a tax that is imposed on imported goods. These duties are charged by special authorities and bodies created by local governments and are meant to protect local industries, economies, and businesses.

Do I have to pay customs charges for the print book order? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The orders shipped to the countries that are listed under EU27 will not bear custom charges. They are paid by Packt as part of the order.

List of EU27 countries: www.gov.uk/eu-eea:

A custom duty or localized taxes may be applicable on the shipment and would be charged by the recipient country outside of the EU27 which should be paid by the customer and these duties are not included in the shipping charges been charged on the order.

How do I know my custom duty charges? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The amount of duty payable varies greatly depending on the imported goods, the country of origin and several other factors like the total invoice amount or dimensions like weight, and other such criteria applicable in your country.

For example:

  • If you live in Mexico, and the declared value of your ordered items is over $ 50, for you to receive a package, you will have to pay additional import tax of 19% which will be $ 9.50 to the courier service.
  • Whereas if you live in Turkey, and the declared value of your ordered items is over € 22, for you to receive a package, you will have to pay additional import tax of 18% which will be € 3.96 to the courier service.
How can I cancel my order? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Cancellation Policy for Published Printed Books:

You can cancel any order within 1 hour of placing the order. Simply contact customercare@packt.com with your order details or payment transaction id. If your order has already started the shipment process, we will do our best to stop it. However, if it is already on the way to you then when you receive it, you can contact us at customercare@packt.com using the returns and refund process.

Please understand that Packt Publishing cannot provide refunds or cancel any order except for the cases described in our Return Policy (i.e. Packt Publishing agrees to replace your printed book because it arrives damaged or material defect in book), Packt Publishing will not accept returns.

What is your returns and refunds policy? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Return Policy:

We want you to be happy with your purchase from Packtpub.com. We will not hassle you with returning print books to us. If the print book you receive from us is incorrect, damaged, doesn't work or is unacceptably late, please contact Customer Relations Team on customercare@packt.com with the order number and issue details as explained below:

  1. If you ordered (eBook, Video or Print Book) incorrectly or accidentally, please contact Customer Relations Team on customercare@packt.com within one hour of placing the order and we will replace/refund you the item cost.
  2. Sadly, if your eBook or Video file is faulty or a fault occurs during the eBook or Video being made available to you, i.e. during download then you should contact Customer Relations Team within 14 days of purchase on customercare@packt.com who will be able to resolve this issue for you.
  3. You will have a choice of replacement or refund of the problem items.(damaged, defective or incorrect)
  4. Once Customer Care Team confirms that you will be refunded, you should receive the refund within 10 to 12 working days.
  5. If you are only requesting a refund of one book from a multiple order, then we will refund you the appropriate single item.
  6. Where the items were shipped under a free shipping offer, there will be no shipping costs to refund.

On the off chance your printed book arrives damaged, with book material defect, contact our Customer Relation Team on customercare@packt.com within 14 days of receipt of the book with appropriate evidence of damage and we will work with you to secure a replacement copy, if necessary. Please note that each printed book you order from us is individually made by Packt's professional book-printing partner which is on a print-on-demand basis.

What tax is charged? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Currently, no tax is charged on the purchase of any print book (subject to change based on the laws and regulations). A localized VAT fee is charged only to our European and UK customers on eBooks, Video and subscriptions that they buy. GST is charged to Indian customers for eBooks and video purchases.

What payment methods can I use? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

You can pay with the following card types:

  1. Visa Debit
  2. Visa Credit
  3. MasterCard
  4. PayPal
What is the delivery time and cost of print books? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela