Features

Geopublisher is Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) aplication that is steadily being developed by a small but active community. We have so many ideas about how the software can further simplify the geopublishing work-flow, that we don't think it's ever going to be "done".

The following matrix gives you an overview about the functionallity that is already implemented and ready-to-use in Geopublisher 1.2:

Supported data formats

Vector data ESRI Shapefiles and OGC GML can be imported. Direct import from OGC WFS and PostGIS planned for winter 09/10.
Raster data ArcASCII and GeoTIFF files can be imported. Direct import of OGC WMS planned for winter 09/10
Cartographic Styling / Layout For the cartographic styling of raster and vector data, XML-files in OGC Styled Layer Descriptor / Symbology Encoding (OGC SLD/SE) format can be imported.
Multimedia PDF documents, images (jpg, png, gif) and videos can be imported. Multimedia files can be placed directly into the menu of the atlas, or be linked to geo-objects. So you can play different multimedia, depending on the point/line/polygon clicked by the user.

Metadata

Multi-language All labels, texts, HTML-pages, menu items, about-information, etc. can be translated in multiple languages. The same exported atlas will present itself in the most appropriate language. The person creating the atlas only authors one multi-language version => no redundancies.
Quality management Geopublisher automatically creates a so-called quality-index for its content- elements. This value between 0 and 100 reflects the completeness of translations and metadata. So you can quickly determine which maps are still missing meta-information. Once your total quality-index for the whole atlas exceeds 90%, you are ready to export the atlas and you can be sure that all maps, layers, and multimedia content will be presented to the end-user with the proper contextual meta-data - in whatever language you configured. Geopublisher also provides a export function for all translations and meta-data that is tailored for translators. This simplifies the work-flow when the atlas creator needs to send the texts to many different translators.
Layers For every layer (raster- or vector) title and description can be entered in multiple languages using any special character needed. Keywords can be freely defined to make it easier for the end-user to find data. If your vector-layer is attributed, you can define exactly which attribute is visible to the atlas-user. You can define an attribute-title and an attribute-description. For further information (e.g the methods used to create the data, copyright notices, etc.) free-text HTML pages can be created for every layer and map. Within these HTML pages you can link to other elements of the atlas, like links to related PDFs, layers or maps.
Maps For every map you can define a title and description; in multiple languages; using any special character needed. You can define keywords that help the atlas-user to find the map. To provide introductory explanations for every map, you can create HTML pages. They appear automatically when opening a map. Within these HTML pages you can link to other elements of the atlas, like links to related PDFs, layers or maps.
Menu Items With Geopublisher you can define every entry of the atlas menu-bar. Every menu-item has a translated title, description and optional keywords.

Publication of the atlas

Online The exported online-version of your atlas can be started from any web browser. You can export the atlas from Geopublisher as a ready-to-use WebGIS-application. The end-users of the atlas only need a recent Java-plugin installed. If it is not installed, the browser is automatically redirected to a Java-installation web page. No additional applications are required on the web server. (No MySQL, PHP, etc..). The geodata of your atlas are downloaded on demand and will then be cached on the local computer => The second time the atlas is started, it will open much faster. Additionally the Offline-version of the atlas can be downloaded as a simple OS-independent ZIP file. When the atlas is updated, the end-user will automatically be offered to update their atlas.

Offline The exported offline-version of you atlas can be copied onto a CD, DVD, USB-stick or memory-card. From there it can be directly started without installation. The atlases run on MacOS, Linux and Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, and Win7. The atlas even starts on Windows computers where there is no Internet available and no Java installed. The atlas.exe comes with its own Java Run-Time environment that is used if a newer version is not found.

User-friendlyness

Geopublisher The integrated WYSIWYG HTML editor allows you to create appealing web pages without having any HTML syntax knowledge.

Maps Just what you need!: In Geopublisher you define exactly which function is available for the atlas user. Functions can be specifically disabled for any map or layer. The label-search allows one to search all labels of a map. For all columns of the attribute table, names and descriptions can all be localized - the atlas user will never see any ugly 12 character DBF column names. Create interactive charts that are linked with the map using the Chart-Wizard.