ImageIO-ext GDAL extensions

The ImageIO-ext GDAL extensions allow to leverage the GDAL libraries to read selected coverage formats. GDAL is able to ready many formats, but for the moment we do support only a few that are of general interest and that can be legally redistributed and operated in an open source server (so no ECW support, nor Kakadu JP2 support out of the box).

Configuration

Download the gdal extension for the GeoServer version you're running from Geoserver's download page, and expand its contents in geoserver/WEB-INF/lib: these jars are the bridge between GeoServer and the native coverage readers.
Then you have to download and configure the native libraries needed to actually read the coverage data. Download the libraries that do suit your GeoServer version and operating system here:

• GeoServer 1.7.0 onwards:
  • windows: windows-gdal-mrsid_1.7.0_onwards.zip
  • linux: linux-gdal-mrsid_1.7.0_onwards.zip
  • for all platforms: gdal_data_1.7.0_onwards.zip

To use these libs, be sure your JAVA_HOME environment variable is properly configured. Then:

• On Windows: copy the downloaded DLLs to your $JAVA_HOME/bin
• On Linux: if JAVA_HOME links to a JDK run the following command (requires superuser privileges): sudo unzip -o linux-gdal-mrsid.zip -d $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/i386. In case JAVA_HOME links to a JRE, use the same command with -d $JAVA_HOME/lib/i386 as destination directory specification. The unzip command will keep symbolic links.

Then setup the GDAL_DATA directory, that allows to support extra EPSG codes:

• Extract gdal_data.zip somewhere on your machine (as an instance C:/gdal_data).
• Set a GDAL_DATA environment variable linking to the directory where you have stored data contained in gdal_data.zip, making sure the web container running GeoServer will pick it up.

When running GeoServer, if everything is successfull, new coverage plugins now should appear in the web admin tool at:
Welcome -> Config -> WCS -> CoveragePlugins

Supporting other formats

GDAL supports many formats not included in this binary distribution. If you need any of them, you'll need to do a little Java coding. Get in touch with the imageio-ext developers:

• The GeoTools ImageIO-Ext page
• ImageIO-ext
  If coding does not suits your needs, check with the Commercial Support options.

How to get ECW and Kakadu support

ECW and Kakadu support already exist code wise, but we cannot redistribute the binaries due to license restrictions. If you need a build that supports those readers first make sure you have a valid server side license, and either:

• Follow the instructions to build your custom ImageIO-ext binary (see the ImageIO-ext web site
• Contact some company to build a binary for you. You best bet is with GeoSolutions, the company that contributed the ImageIO-ext plugins in the first place