Book excerpt: This step-by-step guide will teach you how to use GeoServer to build custom and interactive maps using your data. About This Book Exploit the power of GeoServer to provide agile, flexible, and low -cost community projects Share real-time maps quickly Boost your map server's performance using the power and flexibility of GeoServer Who This Book Is For If you are a web developer with knowledge of server side scripting, have experience in installing applications on the server, and want to go beyond Google Maps by offering dynamically built maps on your site with your latest geospatial data stored in MySQL, PostGIS, MySQL, or Oracle, this is the book for you. What You Will Learn Install GeoServer quickly Access dynamic real-time geospatial data that you can easily integrate into your own web-based application Create custom styles for lines, points, and polygons for great-looking maps Command GeoServer remotely using REST Tune your GeoServer instance for performance Move GeoServer into production Learn advanced topics to extend GeoServer's capabilities In Detail GeoServer is an opensource server written in Java that allows users to share, process, and edit geospatial data. This book will guide you through the new features and improvements of GeoServer and will help you get started with it. GeoServer Beginner's Guide gives you the impetus to build custom maps using your data without the need for costly commercial software licenses and restrictions. Even if you do not have prior GIS knowledge, you will be able to make interactive maps after reading this book. You will install GeoServer, access your data from a database, and apply style points, lines, polygons, and labels to impress site visitors with real-time maps. Then you follow a step-by-step guide that installs GeoServer in minutes. You will explore the web-based administrative interface to connect to backend data stores such as PostGIS, and Oracle. Going ahead, you can display your data on web-based interactive maps, use style lines, points, polygons, and embed images to visualize this data for your web visitors. You will walk away from this book with a working application ready for production. After reading GeoServer Beginner's Guide, you will be able to build beautiful custom maps on your website using your geospatial data. Style and approach Step-by-step instructions are included and the needs of a beginner are totally satisfied by the book. The book consists of plenty of examples with accompanying screenshots and code for an easy learning curve.