GeoTools 29.2 Released

 The GeoTools team are pleased to announce the release of the latest stable version of GeoTools 29.2 

    geotools-29.2-bin.zip
    geotools-29.2-doc.zip
    geotools-29.2-userguide.zip
    geotools-29.2-project.zip

This release is also available from the OSGeo Maven Repository and is made in conjunction with GeoServer 2.23.2. We are grateful to Ian Turton (Astun Technology Ltd) for carrying out the release.

Improvements and fixes in this release:

Bugs Fixed

GEOT-7266 WMTSCapabilities throws NPE for missing title

GEOT-7335 geojson-store fails with StackOverflowError when parsing an empty FeatureCollection

GEOT-7345 WFS Capabilities from local file

GEOT-7365 Problems with requesting Features from a WFS Version 2.0.0 and using a HTTP proxy

GEOT-7367 Missing null-check in GeoPackage spatial index creation

GEOT-7386 Shape://dot is too small to see on screen

Improvements

GEOT-7360 DWITHIN support for mongo DB

GEOT-7362 Multithreaded HTTP client: authentication not sent if connection pooling activated

GEOT-7381 FlatGeobufDataStore missing optimization for feature id queries

GEOT-7387 Improve URL checking

New Features

GEOT-6512 Control remote HTTP requests sent by GeoTools

GEOT-7380 GeoTIFF user-defined coordinate reference system via citation ESRI PE String =

Tasks

GEOT-7364 Upgrade sqlite-jdbc from 3.34.0 to 3.41.2.2

GEOT-7373 Upgrade hsqldb from 2.7.1 to 2.7.2

GEOT-7374 Upgrade Jackson to 2.15.2

GEOT-7375 Upgrade guava from 30.1.1 to 32.0.0

GEOT-7376 Upgrade postgresql from 42.4.3 to 42.6.0

GEOT-7378 Upgrade commons-lang3 from 3.8.1 to 3.12.0

GEOT-7394 Upgrade httpclient from 4.5.13 to 4.5.14

GEOT-7396 Upgrade wiremock to 2.35.0

 

Construction Ahead: Refactoring org.opengis to org.geotools.api

In the next release of GeoTools 30.0 there are some breaking API changes to look forward to:

• org.opengis package is renamed to org.geotools.api package
• This release will include update instructions, and a migration script, to fix your code.

This is a breaking change, the formal change control proposal is here.

Why is this changing

The GeoAPI Implementation Specification is a Java standard (Interfaces and Classes) provided by the Open Geospatial Consortium for interoperability between Java projects and libraries.

GeoTools worked on a pre-release of these interfaces in the hopes of collaborating with other projects. In GeoTools 2.7 these interfaces were folded back into the gt-opengis module due to lack of collaboration opportunities and funding.

The GeoTools library use of the org.opengis package has caused disruption for the OGC and Apache software foundations and they have asked the Open Source GeoSpatial Foundation for this matter to be addressed (see osgeo/todo#142).

Cross-project initiative and timeframe

A cross-project OpenGIS Harmonization initiative has been setup at osgeo.org, to collaboration between the above software foundations, and the affected projects from all walks of life.

The GeoTools library is coordinating our activities with a change proposal covering the following timeline:

• 2023 April: Open Standards and Open Source Software Code Sprint: initiatve promotion
• 2023 June: FOSS4G Code Sprint: Design and Planning
• 2023 August: Bolsena Code Sprint: GeoTools Refactor and API Change
• 2023 September: GeoTools 30-RC: Public release-candidate for testing and feedback
• 2023 October: GeoTools 30.0: Public release of API Change
• 2023 Q4: Last Friday of the month drop-in sprint to assist downstream projects with migration

What you can expect

You can expect to run a script and recompile / re-release your code:

ant -f remove-opengis.xml

At the end of this process you may need to re-run code formatted, or clean up unused imports.

For projects that have not yet made the upgrade to Java 11 additional work will be required to establishing a supported build environment.

Participation and Support

This activity is disruptive, and the best way to control the risk for you and your project team is to participate both in the upcoming Bolsena Code Sprint, and in testing the GeoTools 30.0-RC release candidate in early September.

To be successful this transition requires your participation and support, both with GeoTools, and also the downstream projects that will be disrupted.

• GeoTools (GEOT-7287 / remove-opengis branch)
• GeoWebCache (issue#1151)
• mapfish-print-v2 (issue#11) - blocks GeoNode and GeoServer update
• GeoFence (issue#246) - blocks GeoServer update 
• GeoServer (GEOS-11070)
• GeoNode (issue#173/issue#172)
• GeoMesa (GEOMESA-3285)
• GeoNetwork (issue#7215)
• GeoWave (issue#1914)
• GeoTrellis (issue#3515)
• 52North SOS (issue#1565)

If you are in position to offer financial assistance, this activity is covered by OSGeo sponsorship program. Your support is visible not only here but on the OSGeo website and marketting materials also.

OSGeo identified this activity as a priority in their 2023 budget. The OGC asked us to create a ticket (opengeospaital/ideas#120) for their June board meeting but have not reported back. Apache Software Foundation as a policy does not financially support activities.