Developer’s Corner: Turning GeoServer into an ImageServer

Dear All,
we would like to briefly talk about some of the lastest developments we have performed at GeoSolutions in order to turn GeoServer into an ImageServer.
So far GeoServer has not been able to publish single non georeferenced images as WMS layers, it always required a valid EPSG for specifying a well-known geospatial coordinate reference system. Lately, we have been working with OpenGeo on an application whose goal was to allow users to view non-georeferenced images through a WebGis based on OpenLayers. We decided to take the risk to modify the GeoServer and allow it to serve pure imagery via the WMS protocol. First thing we did was to define an EPSG code with a valid identifier that could convey enough information to have clients understand we were serving a pure image. The debate on the GeoTools mailing list was long but helpful, see the following links for reference:

Long story short, we followed Jody Garnett‘s suggestion to define an EPSG identifier using the code 404000 for a 2D wildcard coordinate reference system in meter as shown here. For those who know what a WKT is, we are showing it here below

LOCAL_CS[“Wildcard 2D cartesian plane in metric unit”,
LOCAL_DATUM[“Unknown”, 0],
UNIT[“m”, 1.0],
AXIS[“x”, EAST],
AXIS[“y”, NORTH],
AUTHORITY[“EPSG”,”404000″]]

If you are curios, here below you can see an simple non-georeferenced Jpeg shown in OpenLayers:

If you want to play with a live demo (we do not guarantee it will be up forever though…) you can follow this link.

If you want to know more about this development or if you are interested in knowing how GeoSolutions can help your organization to reach its goals, feel free to contact us.

Regards,
the GeoSolutions Team.