Developing a Web Map Server Using GeoServer - Revision history

AJ Monfette: /* Setting Up and Using GeoServer: */ Image update

2025-10-02T02:52:40Z

Setting Up and Using GeoServer:: Image update

AJ Monfette: Spelling and grammar changes.

2025-10-01T21:47:42Z

Spelling and grammar changes.

Show changes

AJ Monfette: /* WMS Reflector */

2025-10-01T21:06:36Z

WMS Reflector

AJ Monfette at 21:06, 1 October 2025

2025-10-01T21:06:05Z

AJ Monfette at 20:03, 1 October 2025

2025-10-01T20:03:32Z

AJ Monfette at 19:49, 1 October 2025

2025-10-01T19:49:28Z

AJ Monfette: /* Get Legend Graphic */

2025-10-01T19:38:11Z

Get Legend Graphic

AJ Monfette at 19:28, 1 October 2025

2025-10-01T19:28:02Z

AJ Monfette: /* Adding Style Elements: */

2025-10-01T19:24:17Z

Adding Style Elements:

AJ Monfette: Redoing the layer publishing section

2025-10-01T18:49:31Z

Redoing the layer publishing section

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 To run GeoServer, navigate to the bin folder in whatever directory you installed the software, and click on the startup icon. This will launch a command prompt showing diagnostic information, now that the command prompt has appeared you can access the server. Open your preferred browser and go to http://localhost:8080/geoserver/web, this will take you to the GeoServer web administration page. There will be a login option at the top right hand side of the page, if you set up a unique username and password during the installation enter it there, if not use the default "admin" as the username and "geoserver" as the password. This will bring you to your homepage, where you have access to all of GeoServer's functions and where all of your data is stored.
-[[File:WebAdminHOme.png|750px]]
+[[File:HomeScreen.png|750px]]
 '' Figure 1: The web administration home page once you have logged into geoserver. ''

@@ Line 247: / Line 247: @@
 A reflect request of the above GetMap function would look like this.
 * http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms/reflect?layers=FED_CA_2023_EN
-''Changing what follows the layer= expression with a valid layer in your GeoServer will provide different maps ''
+''Changing what follows the layers= expression with a valid layer in your GeoServer will provide different maps ''
 This will bring up the map of the federal electoral districts at a default width of 512 pixels. This method is much easier than typing in the long GetMap function, but does takes away some of the control.

@@ Line 238: / Line 238: @@
 <br>
+An example of the GetMap function for the federal electoral districts layer:
+http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms?request=GetMap&service=WMS&Version=1.3.0&layers=FED:FED_CA_2023_EN&styles=polygon&srs=EPSG:3347&bbox=3658201.4942857143,658872.9742857143,9019156.614285715,6083004.851428571&width=506&height=512&format=image%2Fpng
-[[File: GetMap.png|500pxls]]
-''Figure 10: An example of the GetMap function for the federal electoral districts layer.''
 == WMS Reflector ==
@@ Line 247: / Line 246: @@
 A reflect request of the above GetMap function would look like this.
-* http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms/reflect?layers=FED_CA_1_0_0_ENG
+* http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms/reflect?layers=FED_CA_2023_EN
+''Changing what follows the layer= expression with a valid layer in your GeoServer will provide different maps ''
 This will bring up the map of the federal electoral districts at a default width of 512 pixels. This method is much easier than typing in the long GetMap function, but does takes away some of the control.
-[[File: reflector.png|500px]]
-''Figure 11: An example of the reflector function for the federal electoral districts layer.''
 == Serving your web map ==
 Now that you are able to view your maps using GeoServer on the local computer, it would be useful to be able to view map on a computer that is not on your home network. To serve maps that can be viewed beyond your own network, the user will need some sort of web server/web site that they can serve their maps out to.
 =Conclusion=
-GeoServer is an extremely useful tool for viewing spatial data over the web. This tutorial has taught you how to install, set up, add data, style your data, and finally serve it out. These are just basic functions of GeoServer, for more information on GeoServer and its capabilities read the GeoServer manual.
+GeoServer is an extremely useful tool for viewing spatial data over the web. This tutorial has taught you how to install, set up, add data, style your data, and finally serve it out. These are just basic functions of GeoServer, for more information on GeoServer and its capabilities, read the GeoServer manual.
 =References=
@@ Line 267: / Line 263: @@
 GeoServer User Manual [http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/]
-Geobase: Federal Electoral Districts [http://www.geobase.ca/geobase/en/data/admin/fed/description.html]
+Geobase: Federal Electoral Districts [https://app.geo.ca/en-ca/map-browser/record/18bf3ea7-1940-46ec-af52-9ba3f77ed708]
 *

@@ Line 211: / Line 211: @@
-The below link would lead to a image showing the federal electoral districts from GeoServer, with a width of 506 pixels, a height of 512 pixels, and a png file format. This link can be modified to meet an get map request, make sure to change the layer name and remove the parentheses. This link will only work on the same computer that you have GeoServer on (i.e. the "localhost" address points the computer back to itself).
+The link below would lead to an image showing the federal electoral districts from GeoServer, with a width of 506 pixels, a height of 512 pixels, and a PNG file format. This link can be modified to meet a get map request; make sure to change the layer name and remove the parentheses. To find the information needed to perform the GetMap request, visit the desired layers' data and publishing information found by editing the layers properties. Here you can find the layer name, style, bounding box, and spatial reference. This link will only work on the same computer that you have GeoServer on (i.e. the "localhost" address points the computer back to itself).
 http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms? (Normally used to get to the web administration page)
@@ Line 223: / Line 223: @@
 &layers=FederalElectoralDistricts:FED_CA_2023_EN (The layer that has been requested)
-&styles=polygon (The styles in which the layers are to be rendered, usually left blank)
+&styles=polygon (The styles in which the layers are to be rendered)
 &srs=EPSG:3347(The spatial reference)
-&bbox=3658201.4942857143,658872.9742857143,9019156.614285715,6083004.851428571 (The bounding box)
+&bbox=3658201.4942857143,658872.9742857143,9019156.614285715,6083004.851428571 (The bounding box, noted during the layer publishing step)
 &width=506 (The width requested)
@@ Line 234: / Line 234: @@
 &format=image%2Fpng (The image format requested)
 <br>

@@ Line 214: / Line 214: @@
 http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms? (Normally used to get to the web administration page)
+request=GetMap (The operation that has been requested)
 &service=WMS (The service that has been requested)
@@ Line 219: / Line 221: @@
 &Version=1.1.0 (The version of GeoServer that is being used)
-request=GetMap (The operation that has been requested)
+&layers=FederalElectoralDistricts:FED_CA_2023_EN (The layer that has been requested)
-&layers=FederalElectoralDistricts:FED_CA_1_0_0_ENG (The layer that has been requested)
-&styles= (The styles in which the layers are to be rendered, usually left blank)
+&styles=polygon (The styles in which the layers are to be rendered, usually left blank)
-&srs=EPSG:3979 (The spatial reference)
+&srs=EPSG:3347(The spatial reference)
-&bbox=3658201.4942857143,658872.9742857143,9019156.614285715,6083004.862857142 (The bounding box)
+&bbox=3658201.4942857143,658872.9742857143,9019156.614285715,6083004.851428571 (The bounding box)
 &width=506 (The width requested)

@@ Line 119: / Line 119: @@
 The GetLegendGraphic is a request that allows you to see the legend for a specific map that has been made. For more imformation visit this GeoServer page. [https://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/services/wms/get_legend_graphic/index.html] For example, if I wanted to see the legend for the Federal Electoral Districts I would use the following URL.
-http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms?REQUEST=GetLegendGraphic&VERSION=1.0.0&FORMAT=image/png&WIDTH=20&HEIGHT=20&LAYER=FED_CA_1_0_0_ENG
+http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms?REQUEST=GetLegendGraphic&VERSION=1.0.0&FORMAT=image/png&WIDTH=20&HEIGHT=20&LAYER=FED_CA_2023_EN
 This URL can be used to get the legend for any of the maps that you may have on GeoServer, the only thing that will need to be changed is what is at the end of the link where it says Layer=, that will just have to be set to whatever layer the user wishes to see. As of this moment, there is no easy way to get the legend to display on a user's map when they use the GetMap function, but the user can click on different features in the map and the server will display information about those features on the bottom on the map. For example, if I click on one of the federal electoral districts, it would tell me things like the district name, the size, etc., as long as all of that data is associated with the layer.

@@ Line 99: / Line 99: @@
 Once the color has been changed in the SLD code, click the validate button at the bottom of the page. This will make sure there are no errors in the code. If the code is good a message will appear at the top of the page. Once the code has been validated, go to the top of the page and in the workspace box and choose your layer, and hit submit. Now the SLD code has been associated with your layer, you can go to the layer preview and look at the change in color.
-[[ File: LayerPreview.png|500px ]]
+[[ File: MapDarkBlue.png|500px ]]
 '' Figure 7: Layer preview of the federal districts layer, with a dark blue color. ''
@@ Line 105: / Line 105: @@
 Now that the color of the polygon has been changed, let's add labels to the polygons.
-[[File: Label.png|500px ]]
+[[File: AddingText.png|500px ]]
 '' Figure 8: SLD code for adding labels to polygons. ''
@@ Line 111: / Line 111: @@
 As can be seen in Figure 8, the polygon labels are determined by the text symbolization from line 31 - 35. This section of code tells the server that there is a label that needs to be added to the polygons, and then line 33 <ogc:PropertyName>ED_NAMEE</ogc:PropertyName> tells the server what attribute field from the layer to use as the labels. In this case it was ED_NAMEE, or English Names, for federal electoral districts. At this point the color of the map was also changed to a lighter green using the code #40FF40 to make the labels easier to see.
-[[File: LabelPreview.png|500px]]
+[[File: MapWithLables.png|500px]]
 '' Figure 9: Demonstrating the labels for the federal electoral districts layer. ''

@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 '' Figure 3: The data store creation page. ''
+Now that the data has been loaded to GeoServer, it has to be published. To do this, navigate to the layers page on the left hand side
-Now that the data has been loaded to GeoServer, it has to be published. Once you have clicked save and your data store has been created, you will be brought to the new layer page. This page will show you the data that has been uploaded and give you the option to publish that data. Click on the publish tab this will bring you to the layer configuration page, once you have configured your data appropriately click the save data button and now your data has been published to GeoServer. Once you have published your data, navigate to the layer tab on the left hand side of the page, find your data and click preview to see your data.
+* Click the "Add a new layer" option in the top left of this page
+* From the drop down, select the workspace and store that you are looking to publish. This will open the New layer page
+* In the information about the layer, click on "Publish" located under "Action"
+* Many options can be changed for publishing, but the two requirements are ensuring SRS handling is set to "Force declared" and setting bounding boxes
+* Compute the bounding boxes by clicking on "Compute from data" and "Compute from native bounds".
+* Once all the changes are made, click Apply and Save
+'' Note: save the values for Native Bounding Box as these will be used later ''
-'' Notes ''
-'' * Make sure that the SRS is force declared. ''
-'' * Compute the bounding boxes by clicking on the compute from data and compute from native bounding boxes. ''
 [[File:LayerPublishing.png|750px]]