Time for action – adding a GeoServer layer as overlay

One of the most common things you can do with Google Maps API is use their data set as a basemap and add a GeoServer layer on top of the basemap.

You will use the sample code of this chapter, which you can download from the Packt Publishing website.

The Google Maps API doesn't have a method to calculate the BBOX parameters to query GeoServer's WMS server. So we'll need to calculate those on our own based on the x and y coordinates and the zoom level:

1. Once downloaded, the sample code has to be installed on your server. We can use Tomcat as a web server. Unpack the archive in the /webapps/ROOT folder inside the Tomcat installation folder.

2. Open your browser and point it to http://localhost:8080/chapter7/index.html.

3. The page shows a list of links to the sample maps that we will use in this chapter. We will start with a simple map showing the Google basemap with the USA counties layer on top of it. Click on the GeoServer as overlay link to open...