Styled Layer Descriptor
Encyclopedia
A Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD) is an XML schema
specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC) for describing the appearance of map layers. It is capable of describing the rendering of vector
and raster
data. A typical use of SLDs is to instruct a Web Map Service
(WMS) of how to render a specific layer.
In August 2007 the SLD specification was split up into two new OGC implementation specifications:
Styled Layer Descriptor specification now only contains the protocol for communicating with a WMS
about how to style a layer. The actual description of the styling is now exclusively described in the symbology encoding implementation specification.
XML schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself...
specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium
Open Geospatial Consortium
The Open Geospatial Consortium , an international voluntary consensus standards organization, originated in 1994. In the OGC, more than 400 commercial, governmental, nonprofit and research organizations worldwide collaborate in a consensus process encouraging development and implementation of open...
(OGC) for describing the appearance of map layers. It is capable of describing the rendering of vector
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
and raster
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
data. A typical use of SLDs is to instruct a Web Map Service
Web Map Service
A Web Map Service is a standard protocol for serving georeferenced map images over the Internet that are generated by a map server using data from a GIS database...
(WMS) of how to render a specific layer.
In August 2007 the SLD specification was split up into two new OGC implementation specifications:
- Symbology Encoding (SE)
- Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD)
Styled Layer Descriptor specification now only contains the protocol for communicating with a WMS
Web Map Service
A Web Map Service is a standard protocol for serving georeferenced map images over the Internet that are generated by a map server using data from a GIS database...
about how to style a layer. The actual description of the styling is now exclusively described in the symbology encoding implementation specification.
Desktop software
- JUMP GISJUMP GISJUMP is a Java based vector GIS and programming framework. Current development continues under the OpenJUMP name.-Features:* platform independent * reads and writes ESRI Shapefile, GML files, DXF and PostGIS...
- UDigUDiguDig is a GIS software program produced by a community led by Canadian-based consulting company Refractions Research. It is based on the Eclipse platform and features full layered Open Source GIS...
- AtlasStyler SLD editor
External links
- OpenGIS Styled Layer Descriptor Implementation Specification
- OpenGIS Symbology Encoding Implementation Specification
- AtlasStyler SLD Editor is a free-software (LGPL) SLD Editor developed with GeoToolsGeoToolsGeoTools is a free software GIS toolkit for developing standards compliant solutions.It provides an implementation of Open Geospatial Consortium specifications as they are developed...
+ Java + SwingSwing (Java)Swing is the primary Java GUI widget toolkit. It is part of Oracle's Java Foundation Classes — an API for providing a graphical user interface for Java programs....
. - SLD Cookbook, a collection of simple SLD code samples, part of the GeoServer User Manual.