Exploring GeoWebCache

A prominent member of the tile map caching software family is GeoWebCache (http://geowebcache.org/), a Java open source project. Just as any caching system, it acts as a proxy between the clients and the map server. If you use the standalone version, your map server can be any that is in compliance with WMS standard. Indeed, GeoWebCache uses the WMS syntax to retrieve tiles from the map server. It exposes the tiles in several ways; with the GeoServer integrated version you can use the following:

• WMS (Web Mapping Service)

• WMS-C (WMS Tiling Client Recommendation)

• WMTS (Web Map Tiling Service)

• TMS (Tile Map Service)

You can use an external instance of GeoWebCache, disabling the one that is included, but there are many advantages in using the internal one. You can use a single interface to administer both GeoServer and GeoWebCache and you don't have to use a custom URL or a special endpoint; all the layers you publish on GeoServer are automatically configured as cached. You...