GeoTools project is closing out 2018 with a GeoTools 21-M0 milestone release featuring Java 11 compatibility:

This milestone release is a preview of GeoTools 21 giving everyone a chance to help test Java 11 compatibility.

This release works with both Java 8 and Java 9, downstream projects are advised that some imports will need to be fixed when upgrading as classes were repackaged on the way to Java 11 compatibility.

We have worked very hard for this release to work with both Java 8 and Java 11. By making a milestone release available at this time we are offering GeoTools users and downstream projects the option of migrating to Java 11 when they are ready.

This release completes our participation in the OSGeo Java 2018 Code Sprint, and is made in conjunction with GeoServer 2.15-M0 and GeoWebCache 1.15-M0.

Thanks to individuals and organizations which took part in the code sprint: Boundless, GeoSolutions, GeoCat, Astun Technology, and CCRi. Additional thanks to our sponsors whose financial support helps make these activities possible: silver sponsor Gaia3D, bronze sponsors atol, osgeo:uk, and Astun Technology.

Library Restructure and Upgrading

As part of this work many GeoTools dependencies were updated, and the library was repackaged for use as Java 11 modules. The most significant change is the removal of the gt-api module with its classes being distributed across the other modules.

A key technical requirement for Java 11 compatibility is avoiding having two modules making use of the same package. To avoid this "split-package" error some classes have been moved to different packages.

For additional details see the upgrade instructions in our user guide.

The GeoTools library is now available for use on the module path, see our Java 11 Quickstart for an example:

module org.geotools.tutorial.quickstart {
   requires java.desktop;
   requires org.geotools.main;
   requires org.geotools.shapefile;
   requires org.geotools.swing;
   requires org.geotools.render;
}

We are pleased to announce that the GeoTools library can now be built with Java 8 or Java 11! Due to a technical limitation with the core java class libraries our releases will be built with Java 8 for the widest compatibility.

Our initial concern with Oracle JDK 8 reaching its end-of-life in January 2019 has been alleviated by recent industry developments. Extensive Java 8 support options are now available, with RedHat making a public commitment to contribute fixes to the Java 8 codebase, and a range of organizations committed to making Java 8 builds available on a range of platforms.

Java 8 Provider	License	Linux	macOS	Solaris	Windows	Free Updates
Oracle JDK	Binary Code Licene	x	x	x	x	2019 January
Oracle OpenJDK	GPL	x	reference only
Oracle OpenJDK	Binary Code Licene	x	x	reference only
RedHat OpenJDK	GPL	x	2023 June
Adopt OpenJDK	GPL	x	x	x	2023 September

Oracle has contributed a wide range of technologies to the OpenJDK project which now leads Java 11 roadmap going forward. 

Java 11 Provider	License	Linux	macOS	Solaris	Windows	Free Updates
Oracle JDK	Binary Code Licene	x	x	x	x	2019 March
Oracle OpenJDK	GPL	x	x	x	2019 March
RedHat OpenJDK	GPL	x	2024 October
Adopt OpenJDK	GPL	x	x	x	2022 September

GeoTools 21 series:

Posted by Jody Garnett at 9:26 PM 👁 Image

Labels: milestone, release

GeoTools is pleased to announce GeoTools 14-M0 as a technology preview:

This release is also available from our maven repository. This release is made in conjunction with GeoServer 2.8-M0 and the next release of GeoMesa.

This release is a "technology preview" giving projects, specifically GeoMesa and GeoGig, a chance to try out a new version of GeoTools that uses EJML for matrix calculations.

While we do not often release milestone releases please reach out to us if your project needs a new copy of GeoTools.

Our release-notes are now available from their new home at osgeo-org.atlassian.net:

• Change from vecmath to EJML
• JAI-EXT integration in geotools, adding native support for NODATA in rasters
• Allow extshape://arrow to receive parameters to specify its proportions [GEOT-5126]
• Add AUTO:97001 and AUTO:97002 projections
• Add read and write support for curves in Postgis data store [GEOT-5100, GEOT-5112]
• Add write support for curves in PropertyDataStore
• Add support for by layer interpolation methods to StreamingRenderer [GEOT-5064]
• Significantly speed up GML 3.x encoding speed for simple features [GEOT-5082]
• New projections supported: sinuoidal, gnomonic

We encourage everyone to take this opportunity test their application against the new version of GeoTools. We are very interested in any accuracy or performance differences.

We previously a migration schedule for moving our issue tracker from CodeHaus to Atlassian cloud hosting.

This migration is still ongoing. Issue title, description and comments have been ported over. Please wish Harrison Grundy well as he ports the remaining status and issue metadata.

CodeHaus shuts down completely on May 29th.

Efficient Java Matrix Library (EJML) is a linear algebra library for dense matrices. EJML has been integrated as a replacement for the Java 3D vecmath library which has been used previously. 

GeoTools uses linear algebra extensively during CoordinateReferenceSystem math transformations. In testing EJML we have noticed some difference with the accuracy of matrix inverse operations, but performance seems to remain steady.

This milestone release completes the work of the FOSS4G code Sprint to replace vecmath.

Posted by Jody Garnett at 10:39 AM 👁 Image

Labels: milestone, release