[GIS] Web mapping after Geoserver is set up

geoserversoftware-recommendationsweb-mapping

I have a PostGIS database with all of my spatial layers, which have then been loaded into Geoserver, styled with SLD's and put into Layer Groups.

The layer preview function in Geoserver is a bit minimalist though; my aim is to have a nice pretty browser map that other people in my office can use for simple viewing and querying, with tiled basemaps overlaid with WMS layers that can be turned on and off.

This is where I'm stuck…what program do I need to create the proper professional web maps? Geoserver doesn't have the best map interface, from my understanding its more of a server that another web mapping client program reads from? I have pretty minimal scripting experience but I'm willing to learn Javascript or HTML or whatnot.

Best Answer

There are many options. They all require you to do some building and configuring, and possibly some coding. Three free and open source examples are:

  • Openlayers - a Javascript API - very powerful - requires coding in javascript and HTML
  • Leaflet - a Javascript API - marginally less powerful, marginally easier to use - requires coding in javascript and HTML
  • Mapfish - complete framework - requires substantial installation and configuration (based on Openlayers and other APIs)

All of these can use standards compliant web mapping services that your Geoserver can provide.

Geoserver's own previews use Openlayers with just a small subset of its functionality.

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