No-Code way to create Geoserver Styling

By Default, Any Vector data or raster data doesn't hold any information about how it should be visualized on the client-side.

In Geoserver, we have a specific module of Styling which allows users to create styling based on various aspects such as Graphics symbols, Attributes, Zoom level, etc.

By default, Geoserver style is written in SLD format which is a markup language written in XML. A simple point style with a red circle of size 6 pixels in SLD looks like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?
<StyledLayerDescriptor version="1.0.0"
? xsi:schemaLocation="https://www.opengis.net/sld https://schemas.opengis.net/sld/1.0.0/StyledLayerDescriptor.xsd"
? xmlns="https://www.opengis.net/sld" xmlns:ogc="https://www.opengis.net/ogc"
? xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
? <NamedLayer>
? ? <Name></Name>
? ? <UserStyle>
? ? ? <Title>violet square point style</Title>
? ? ? <FeatureTypeStyle>
? ? ? ? <Rule>
? ? ? ? ? <Title>violet point</Title>
? ? ? ? ? <PointSymbolizer>
? ? ? ? ? ? <Graphic>
? ? ? ? ? ? ? <Mark>
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? <WellKnownName>circle</WellKnownName>
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? <Fill>
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? <CssParameter name="fill">#f00</CssParameter>
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? </Fill>
? ? ? ? ? ? ? </Mark>
? ? ? ? ? ? ? <Size>6</Size>
? ? ? ? ? ? </Graphic>
? ? ? ? ? </PointSymbolizer>
? ? ? ? </Rule>


? ? ? </FeatureTypeStyle>
? ? </UserStyle>
? </NamedLayer>
</StyledLayerDescriptor>        

For someone who is not from a programming background, this might look scary. For this reason, we also have some no-code ways of creating style.

Geostyler for Geoserver

Geostyler is an Open source project which allows users to create SLDs, Open layers styling, etc. using UI. It has 3 options to use.

1. Installing the Geostyler package in your project to allow users to create style in your web app
2. Using Geostyler Demo to quickly create the style
3. Using the Geostyler Geoserver plugin to use Geostyler's capabilities without leaving the Geoserver style page

To know more about how to use Geostyler, please refer to this video

QGIS Styling for Geoserver

If you are familiar with QGIS, this might be an easier way for you to create style. Here is how you can do it

• Open data in QGIS, right-click on the layer and head to symbology in properties

• Create styling according to the need

• Export Style as SLD

• Upload style in Geoserver style

• Save Style

This is a very easy way to create styling.

If No-Code is so good, why to learn SLD way to write styling?

No-code is good to create basic styling where you can select graphics, attribute styling, and zoom level. But it is still difficult to create very complex stylings.

e.g. Styling with ELSE Clause

When we create rule-based styling in QGIS, we can use the ELSE clause to weed out all the data that doesn't fall in any of the other conditions.

Even though this works perfectly fine in QGIS, when we load the same style file in Geoserver, it shows a different result.

Just like this, It is difficult to create a style based on spatial conditions such as intersecting, dwithin, etc.

To understand the logic behind writing SLD, and how to create styling for various different conditions, make sure to follow my Youtube channel and Newsletter