GeoServer and GeoTools have moved to Git and GitHub for version control and source hosting.  We hope that this change will make work easier for existing GeoServer developers and encourage contributions from new ones.

Git is a relatively new version management software.  Compared with the Subversion software that GeoServer previously used, it offers several features including offline commits and history browsing, cryptographic checksums for commits, and several advanced options for automatic merging.  In addition, Git’s distributed nature means that any potential contributor can “fork” the GeoServer code and make changes instead of waiting on a GeoServer committer to grant access.  (Such changes must still be approved by the GeoServer development team in order to be included in an official GeoServer release.)

Along with the shift to Git, we are moving GeoServer’s source hosting to GitHub.  GitHub provides free hosting for open-source projects, including nice tracking of forks, a syntax-highlighting source browser, and interesting reports on who is contributing to the project. GeoServer’s documentation, bug tracking, mailing lists, and IRC chat, however, are unaffected by the move.

The GeoServer developer manual has been updated with instructions on working with Git.  If you are a Git guru with some tips to add to the guide, a savvy user with addenda for the manual, or a Java hacker with bugs to fix, please fork us on GitHub!

A lot of great GeoServer-related content is published every month by individuals and organizations working on the project. Below you’ll find some highlights from the previous month:

• Dynamic WMS styling with GeoServer: SLD and library mode (GeoSolutions)

• GeoServer Stunning image quality + max compression rate = New PNG8 quantizer is served! (GeoSolutions)

• Accurate datum shift and full transformation control in GeoServer (GeoSolutions)

• GeoServer to the rescue with cascading services (GeoServer)

• Creating a GeoServer Split Polygon WPS Process (Part I) (OpenGeo)

If you have anything else to add, comment on this post and we’ll make sure to check out your blog for next month.

The GeoServer Users mailing list is often replete with stories about how folks are using GeoServer to solve problems and be successful. For more casual watchers of GeoServer who are not on this list, you may not get to hear about these success stories. So, to switch things up on this blog, we thought we’d report on success story from longtime GeoServer community member Roger Bedell. Here, he talks about using GeoServer as a replacement for MSRMAPS.

Another awe-inspiring moment provided by GeoServer. Recently, MSRMAPS (Microsoft Research Maps, originally known as **TerraServer**), a WMS server for digital raster graphics (DRGs) and digital orthophoto quarter quadrangles (DOQQs) was shut down. Nobody really cared about the DOQQs, but this was just about the only DRG WMS server out there. Looking around, I found that the [USGS](http://usgs.gov) has a DRG server: > >

[ http://raster.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/DRG/TNM_Digital_Raster_Graphics/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS]( http://raster.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/DRG/TNM_Digital_Raster_Graphics/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS)

> > However it is split into UTM zones and different resolutions. I just wanted 4326 for the entire US, like Terraserver provided. So, I created a GeoServer [Amazon EC2 Micro](http://aws.amazon.com/free/) instance (which is free for a year) using the basic Amazon Linux AMI (AMI ID: ami-e565ba8c), and installed just [Tomcat](http://tomcat.apache.org) and and [GeoServer 2.2 beta 2](http://geoserver.org/display/GEOS/GeoServer+2.2-beta2): ` sudo yum update sudo yum install httpd httpd-devel tomcat7 wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/geoserver/files/GeoServer/2.2-beta2/geoserver-2.2-beta2-war.zip/download unzip geoserver-2.2-beta2-war.zip sudo chown tomcat:tomcat geoserver.war sudo mv geoserver.war /var/lib/tomcat7/webapps/ sudo /sbin/service httpd start sudo /sbin/service tomcat7 start ` I then added a [cascaded WMS store](http://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/user/data/cascaded/wms.html) and used the GetCapabilities URL above. This automatically added and published all of the layers. Then I put together a [layer group](http://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/user/webadmin/data/layergroups.html) with all the layers. The only change I made was to check the "Default Style" box, otherwise I would get a WMS error. I set the coordinate system for the layer group to EPSG:4326, and it worked. Thank you GeoServer team!

For those who are interested in using this composite layer, here is the capabilities document to a hosted GeoServer:

[http://ogi.state.ok.us/geoserver/USGSNationalMap/wms?service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=GetCapabilities](http://ogi.state.ok.us/geoserver/USGSNationalMap/wms?service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=GetCapabilities)

The layer in question is called DRGComposite. And if you’d like you see a preview of this layer without creating a new store in your GeoServer:

[http://ogi.state.ok.us/geoserver/USGSNationalMap/wms/reflect?layers=DRGComposite&format=openlayers](http://ogi.state.ok.us/geoserver/USGSNationalMap/wms/reflect?layers=DRGComposite&format=openlayers)

Thank you, Roger, for sharing your story!

If you have other GeoServer success stories and would like to share them here, please comment on this post and let the rest of us know!

The GeoServer team is happy to announce the release of GeoServer 2.1.4, now available for download.

For the most part this is a maintainance release consisting of bug fixes, but as usual a few new features and improvements have managed to creep in. The release contains a total of  46 between bug fixes and improvements. Some of the new and noteworthy include:

• various improvements to the SQL server data store extension

• snappier GUI when working with data whose coordinate system cannot be direclty matched to a native EPSG code

• more accurate GetFeatureInfo

• support for geography columns in SQL views against PostGIS

• GetLegendGraphics now takes into account UOM and DPI parameters

• ip based control and blacklisting in the control-flow extension

• before/after custom sql statements when hitting DBSMs (session oriented sql, can be used to switch authentication in the database

And more. Check out the change log for the entire list. A big thank you to all core developers, and a particular mention to users that contributed patches for this release. This includes:

• Lars Lingner for addding the “forceLabel” parameter to GetLegendGraphic

• Rudi Hochmeister for speeding up the JSON output format on large layers

• Robert Coup for making SQL views parameters easier to pass in

• Tony Young for making WCS 1.0 DescribeCoverage support the “all coverages” description mode

• Hajo Kliemeck for making GetFeatureInfo work properly with user defined SLDs, and for improving legend decoration code

• Tim Shaub for making the OpenLayers preview work with Firefox 10+

And of course, thanks to all those who helped out by filing bug reports.

Download 2.1.4, try it out and help us to continue to improve GeoServer by providing feedback on the mailing list and reporting bugs in the issue tracker.

The GeoServer team is happy to announce the second beta release of GeoServer 2.2, now available for download.

The 2.2-beta2 release includes a number of great improvements and bug fixes. Some of the highlights include:

• Support for 8-bit PNG output with transparency resulting in a nice tradeoff of performance and appealing visualization. Special thanks to Andrea for this new feature.

• Continued work for supporting high accuracy datum transformations that now allows for user defined transformations supplied via WKT. Thanks to the Catalan Cartographic Institute for funding the work and to Oscar Fonts and Andrea for doing the development.

• A new** lenient capabilities mode** that allows the GeoServer capabilities documents to remain functioning despite the presence of misconfigured layers. Thanks to David Winslow for this work.

And much more. See the complete changelog of this release for the entire list.

Download and try out 2.2-beta2 today. You can help us get closer to the official 2.2 release by reporting issues in the bug tracker and on the mailing list.

Thanks for supporting GeoServer!