Configuring vector data sources

The default vector data formats are among the most used in both proprietary and open source GIS packages. Chances are that the data you need to publish is in one of these formats. So, let's learn how to add them to the GeoServer configuration and publish them on a map.

Java properties files

You can store your data in the Java properties files. They are plain text files where you insert all the information about your objects; both the spatial description and all the alphanumerical attributes.

Properties files are easy to manage; you can update the content adding or deleting features, for instance without needing to recreate or reconfigure the data store. On the other hand, the performance of this format is not good. This format uses plain file text without any indexing mechanism, hence retrieving features takes a lot of time. Using the properties file is a viable option if you only have a handful of features (few tens for any datasets), and creating a real data...