GeoServer 2.9.0 Released - John Jason Fallows

The GeoServer team is overjoyed to announce the GeoServer 2.9.0 release. Downloads are available (zip, war, dmg and exe) along with docs and extensions. We will be working with OSGeo to provide a signed DMG download shortly.

This release is made by Jody Garnett (Boundless) and Devon Tucker (Boundless) in conjunction with GeoWebCache 1.9.0 and GeoTools 15.0.

For more information on this release check the release notes (2.9.0|RC1|beta2|beta, M0).

Highlights

As this is a major release GeoServer 2.9.0 includes a number of important changes, including both new features and compatibility requirements.

Java 8 Required

This release requires the use of Java 8, and is compatible with both Oracle JDK and Open JDK.

Servlet 3 Required

Due to internal upgrades GeoServer now requires a Servlet 3 compatible application server.

The standalone downloads for Mac, Windows and Linux has been update to Jetty 9.2.13
Tomcat users will be required to upgrade to Tomcat 7 or newer (for those doing a WAR install)

Web Administration

A number of improvements and clarifications have been made to the web administration application:

The Layers and Layer Preview has been restructured to lead with layer title in the first column, layer workspace and name combined into the second column. By popular request these pages now use layer (rather than resource) actions with “Add a new layer”, and “Remove selected layers”.
Global Settings have been grouped into a section for configuration of web services and a section for internal settings (affecting the GeoServer application as a whole).
Image Processing and Raster Access are clearly presented with controls for memory and CPU use. Previously these screens were expressed in terms of the internal components used.

User Guide

The user guide has been restructured:

The document layout has been reduced to a smaller number of sections
- Data management covers vector, raster, database and web services along with common settings
- Services (WMS, WFS, WCS, WPS, CSW) have been gathered into a single section for consistency, even though WPS is an optional install.
The duplication between service description and application configuration has been resolved:
- Each Service is described, both in terms of functionality, alongside details on how the service is configured
- The Web administration interface section remains focused on on application configuration, linking to to service configuration above (to prevent duplication).
Tutorials have been gathered into a single location.

Resource REST API

A new feature for GeoServer 2.9 is the ability to manage resources (icons, fonts, configuration files) via the REST API. This approach works with both the default file based GeoServer configuration and JDBCConfig community module.

GET: rest/resource/styles/grass_fill.png?

GET: rest/resource/styles/grass_fill.png?operation=metadata&format=json

{  "ResourceMetadata":  {
 
     "name": "grass_fill.png",
 
     "parent": {
 
       "path": "/styles",
 
       "link": {
 
          "href": "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/resource/styles",
 
          "rel": "alternate",
 
          "type": "application/json"
 
       }
 
     },
 
     "lastModified": "2016-05-27 19:31:30.0 UTC",
 
     "type": "resource"
 
   }
 
}

About/Status REST API

The about REST API already reports on the jars installed and the version of high-level components. GeoServer 2.9 includes the addition of about/status which reports not only what components are installed, but if they are correctly functioning. We will be working with this endpoint in subsequent releases to better reporting on GeoServer installation status.

GET rest/about/status

Internal Upgrades

Internally GeoServer has received a number of important upgrades:

Update to Spring 4: The upgrade to Spring 4 is responsible for the delay of the GeoServer 2.9 and was required for Java 8 compatibility. This upgrade was far reaching with both the REST-API and Security integration requiring a concerted quality assurance effort on geoserver-devel.

This upgrade was technically challenging resulting in a delay to the 2.9 release schedule. Thanks to everyone who helped out, beta testers, and Justin, Andrea and Niels for tackling the harder issues.
Upgrade to JAI-EXT to 1.0.9: To enable JAI-EXT use startup parameter org.geotools.coverage.jaiext.enabled=true (for more information see Image Processing in the user guide).
Upgrade to Wicket 7: The web administration application has been updated to use the latest Wicket library, thanks to a larger team effort. We would like to thank the sponsors of the Wicket 7 upgrade sprint: OSGeo, Boundless, Vivid Solutions, How 2 Map, San Jose Water Company, Transient, Geobeyond (with in-kind sponsors GeoSolutions, CCRi, Astun Technology and Voyager).
The GeoServer default data directory has been updated with titles and descriptions for many layers (to better take advantage of the user interface improvements). The previously disabled Pk50095 layer (shown below) is now enabled by default.