Time for action – KML preview

Let's try another preview format, KML. This time GeoServer will not open up an application as you select the layer to preview. In fact, KML is a data format and you will need another piece of software to display it on a map.

1. If you haven't already installed Google Earth, you can download it from http://www.google.com/earth/index.html.

2. Accept the license agreement and save the installation file.

3. On the Layer Preview page, scroll to the topp:states layer and click the KML link.

4. You are prompted for saving or opening the KMZ output file. Save it on your filesystem.

5. Open the kmz file in Google Earth.

   

What just happened?

Ok, that was pretty cool. We had GeoServer displaying layers in Google Earth. Drop the book and play around with Google Earth. Zoom in and out, and notice how it streams data from GeoServer. Using the drop-down box, you can also preview layers in several other formats. SVG is ideal for importing into Adobe illustrator, for example.

Workspaces

Think of a workspace...