Google Earth
This documentation is no longer maintained. Please see the new GeoServer documentation at http://docs.geoserver.org
Google Earth and GeoServer
This page contains information on Google Earth support in GeoServer.
Google Earth is a 3-D virtual globe program. A free download from Google, it allows the user to virtually view, pan, and fly around Earth imagery. The imagery on Google Earth is obtained from a variety of sources, mainly from commercial satellite and aerial photography providers.
Google Earth recognizes a markup language called KML (Keyhole Markup Language) for data exchange. GeoServer integrates with Google Earth by supporting KML as a native output format. Any data configured to be served by GeoServer is thus able to take advantage of the full visualization capabilities of Google Earth.
Overview
View this overview for more details and background on how GeoServer and Google Earth connect to the Geospatial Web.
Quickstart
Get started serving GeoServer data on Google Earth in just a few steps.
KML Styling
Learn about styling using SLD (Styled Layer Descriptors) and how it relates to KML.
Tutorials
These tutorials walk you step-by-step through specific Google Earth topics.
- 01-Placemark Templates — Create Custom Placemark Descriptions with Templates
- 02-Time Templates — Animate your data using Google Earth's time slider
- 03-Super Overlays and GeoWebCache — Using GeoWebCache to generate Super-Overlays
- 04-Height Templates — Make 3D maps using Google Earth
- 05-Super Overlays and Extrudes with Building Data — Setting up a buildings dataset for viewing in Google Earth.
Features
These pages provide descriptions of particular Google Earth features that GeoServer supports.
- 01-KML Reflector — A description of the method for requesting KML from GeoServer
- 02-Customizing Placemarks — Customize titles and descriptions
- 03-Toggling Placemarks — Show or hide the placemark description of features
- 04-KML Height and Time — Move beyond two dimensional maps by taking advantage of height and time in Google Earth
- 05-KML Legend Overlays — Put a legend on your map
- 06-Other Filters — Advanced filtering using OGC and CQL filters
- 07-KML Super-Overlays — Dynamic, region-based KML
- 08-KML Regionation — Intelligently determine what features to display and when
- 09-Vector vs. Raster KML (Scoring) — Determining whether to output vector features or raster features