The Geotools 1.0 Lite Project (1996 - 2003)

Work began on the GeoTools library in 1996 at the University of Leeds as part of a masters project to viusalize the results produced by the Geographical Analysis Machine (GAM) over the web. Not long after the first simple map display was up and running a seperate project within the Geography department at Leeds, which was looking at ways to develop and research Public Paricipation GIS (PPGIS), used the library to create an online map of the village of slaithwaite to allow the locals to discuss their thoughts about various planning issues.

The library was developed rapidly in response to the needs of this second project and the resulting toolkit, which was targeted at the Java Applet API, still exists as GeoTools-Lite . GeoTools 1 was not built with OpenGIS standards in mind (or any standards for that matter).

GeoTools 1 aimed to provide a toolkit of resources to enable the creation of interactive geographic visualization clients. GeoTools 1 was built using the Java 1.1 environment so as to enable the execution of applets on as wide a range of clients as possible without the need for a plug in. It was developed in a rather ad-hoc manner, with new features being added as and when needed.

GeoTools 1 is not being actively extended by its original development team though it would be excelent if users want to help move it from its current state (version 0.8) to a stable 1.0 release.

The Geotools 2.0 Project (2002 to 2004)

The original GeoTools 1.0 codebase was the work of only two main developers - James Macgill and Ian Turton of Leeds University. As the project grew in complexity and in popularity it became clear that further development was becoming unsustainable: partly because so few people were involved in the design process and partly because the code had evolved rather randomly. It was time for a clean start with a better design and a larger development community.

The second generation of GeoTools has been fundamentally redesigned to take advantage of the full power of the Java platform. GeoTools is contributed to by an international group of developers and is run in as decentralized a manner as possible. Because of this, GeoTools strives to cooperate with other efforts, to modularize the decision making process, and to foster an open community.

In 2002, code from the SEAGIS project was merged into the geotools 2.0 project, providing coordinate transformation services, grid coverage and rendering implementations.

The overall maintenance and future directions of GeoTools 2 is managed by the GeoTools 2 Project Management Committee (PMC). Currently this comprises 8 active developers who take joint responsibility for design and implementation decisions. The team welcomes and encourages others to become contributors and ultimately become part of the GeoTools 2 development team.

It is a long term goal of the GeoTools 2 project to refine its core API and promote its use so that it can become a recognized and standard API for Java GeoSpatial development.

THe Geotools 2.1 Project (2005 to Present)

Geotools has had a long standing commitment to cooperation with other projects involved in Java GIS Development. We are pleased collaborate with the broader Java GIS community, and standards body through our involvement with the GeoAPI project. One of the focuses of Geotools 2.1 will be the implementation of Java interfaces defined by the GeoAPI project.

New Directions in development:

• Real GML support against our FeatureType
• Joins and Feature Type manipulation - lacked volunteer time to chase after all the good ideas
• Data Access simplification - insights passed over to the GeoAPI community for wider acceptance

Continued support of ISO and OGC standards:

• Change over to new GeoAPI CRS system
• Grid Coverage Exchange support - in cooperation with GeoAPI
• Web Map Server client access
• TC211 Metadata support for ISO 19115
• Web Feature Server client access
• Web Registry Service ([WRS]) - was replaced with [CAT] by the [OGC] mid project
• Catalog 2.0 Support ([CAT]) - no existing servers hampered volunteer enthusiasm

The [Geotools 2.2 Project (the Future)

The aim of Geotools 2.2 is to support the GeoAPI Geometry model, scope may expand to include the GeoAPI Feature Model if volunteer interest is sufficent.

For more information please see the Road Map to 2.1 and Nightly Builds