GeoServer Cloud

GeoServer Cloud serves your geographic data as standard WMS, WFS, WCS and WMTS services, which QGIS, Lizmap and any compatible software can read. We host the server, keep it up to date and reserve a workspace on it for you. It is included in your LizPack account: there is nothing to subscribe to.

Your workspace is created automatically. You find it under GeoServer, in the client area menu. The very first opening may take a few seconds while it is prepared.

What the page shows

The top line sums up the workspace: its name, the storage used against your quota, the number of layers against the maximum and the visibility, with the Open the console button. Below come three tabs. Data gathers Publish data, which sends a file, An instance's database, which publishes the tables of one of your instances, and Mes données, the list of your published datasets. Serving gives the four service addresses. Access sets the Visibility and gives your credentials under Console access.

Your limits

A workspace has 200 MB and 10 layers by default; the top line shows yours. An upload that would exceed the storage is refused, as is any upload once the layer ceiling is reached. To go further, write to support: limits are raised account by account, on a quote based on your volumes.

Publishing is done from the GeoServer page, not from the console: you send a file, and we create the store and its layers in your workspace.

1. In Publish data, drag your file onto the drop area, or click it to choose the file.
2. Check the file name shown, then click Publish. Cancel removes the chosen file.
3. Wait until it finishes: the bar goes from Uploading to Publishing…, then a message confirms the name of the published store.

The store is named after the file, in lower case, with spaces and special characters replaced by underscores. Above 8 MB, the file is sent in several pieces: a network cut only resends the interrupted piece. The published dataset joins the list further down the page, with its type, Vector or Raster, its size and the name of the original file.

Publishing the tables of an instance

An instance's database publishes tables already in the database of one of your instances, without exporting a file. In the list of instances, each one carries the badge Connected or To connect.

1. Choose the instance, then click Connect this database. We create for GeoServer an account that can only read this database.
2. The list of publishable tables appears. Tick the ones to publish.
3. Click the Publish button, which shows the number of tables ticked.

A table without geometry cannot become a layer: it is refused, and the others are published anyway. Tables already published are listed above the list. For an instance already connected, Refresh the connection redoes the link, should GeoServer no longer manage to read the database.

The Serving tab gives one address per service: WMS for map images, WFS for the features themselves with their attributes, WCS for rasters, WMTS for tiles. The WMS, WFS and WCS addresses only serve the layers of your workspace. The icon to the right of each address copies it.

1. Copy the address of the service you want from Serving.
2. In QGIS, create a connection of the matching type (WMS/WMTS, WFS or WCS) and paste the address.
3. If your layers are private, enter in that connection the user name and password shown under Console access.
4. Connect: your layers are listed; add the ones you need to the project.

WMS is the lightest to display: it is the right choice for a background layer. WFS transfers the geometries, which lets you query and work with the data, but weighs more on large layers.

In a project published on Lizmap

A project that uses your GeoServer layers is published like any other. When it is uploaded to your instance, we prepare it for the instance's map server: your GeoServer credentials are written into it, so that it can also read your private layers. The Lizmap configuration file is modified so that visitors' browsers never contact GeoServer directly, which would expose your password.

A project you download from Files comes back with GeoServer's public address: you can reopen it in QGIS as it is.

Visibility

The Visibility switch chooses between Public layers, readable without credentials by anyone who knows their address, and Private layers, accessible only with your GeoServer credentials. When you switch to private, we go back over the projects already uploaded to your instances, in the background, to write your credentials into them: their GeoServer layers keep displaying.

Deleting data

Each published dataset has its own Delete button. The Delete the dataset window reminds you what will disappear; Delete permanently erases the file and all its layers, and gives the space back to your quota. Maps and projects that displayed those layers stop working, and we keep no copy.

When your workspace exceeds its limits, a warning appears under the top line. Delete data from this list to be able to publish again.

The console and your credentials

Open the console opens the GeoServer console in a new tab, already signed in. Its credentials, under Console access, belong to GeoServer and are separate from your LizPack account: the eye shows the password, the icon next to it copies it.

Reset the password generates a new one, after confirmation in a window of the same name. The old one stops working at once.