Map server

A map server is software that provides geodata in a standardised form. Currently we’re working with the following map servers:

Geoserver
Geoserver is a map server written in Java and a project of OSGeo. The current version 2.1.3 supports the following OGC-services:

• WMS 1.1.1 and 1.3.0
• WFS/WFS-T 1.0.0 and 1.1.0
• WCS 1.0.0 and 1.1.1.
• WPS 1.0.0
• Filter Encoding
• SLD
• GML
• WMTS

The Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) is being provided by the software GeoWebCache that gets shipped with GeoServer. GeoWebCache is a potent caching-solution, that can greatly improve the performance of geodata services, especially those whose base data doesn’t change often.

For this GeoServer offers an interface, the so called Geoserver REST-API, through which all configuration parameters of Geoserver can be accessed.

Mapserver
Mapserver, also known under the former name UMN Mapserver, is also a project of OSGeo and written in C. The current version 6.0.2 supports the following OGC-standards:

• WMS
• WFS
• WMC
• WCS
• Filter Encoding
• SLD
• GML
• SOS

QGIS-Server
Those who are looking for an easy to configure WMS-server since not so long ago have the option of using QGIS-server. With this QGIS-desktop project-files can be used 1:1 as a WMS including styles and labels. For this QGIS server uses the libraries of the Open Source Software Quantum GIS (QGIS).