GeoServer 1.5.3 / 1.6.0 Beta 2

GeoServer project is a full transactional Java (J2EE) implementation of the OpenGIS Consortiums Web Feature Server specification, with an integrated WMS.
GeoServer is free software, available under the GPL 2.0 license.
Users who would like to access and modify their geographic data over the Internet using flexible, industry-approved standards should take a look at GeoServer or one of the existing commercial Web Feature Servers.
You can define your geoserver data directory in three ways:
1. "GEOSERVER_DATA_DIR" system property. this will most likely have come from "java -DGEOSERVER_DATA_DIR=..." or from you web containers GUI
2. "GEOSERVER_DATA_DIR" in the web.xml document:
< context-param >
< param-name >GEOSERVER_DATA_DIR< /param-name >
< param-value >c:myGeoserverData< /param-value >
< /context-param >
3. Defaults to the old behavior - ie. the application root - usually "server/geoserver" in your .WAR.
To make a new one of these data directories, just:
1. create the data directory
2. copy "data/" from an already running geoserver
3. create a "WEB-INF/" directory
5. copy "catalog.xml" and "services.xml" into the WEB-INF/ directory
Whats New in 1.6.0 Beta 2 Development Release:
- This is the second beta release in the 1.6 series of GeoServer. Besides the usual raft of bug fixes, the most notable additions are the much more configurable logging subsystem, the new connection pooling subsystem with much better control on the number of opened database connections, templated GetFeatureInfo, improvements in date/time handling in WFS 1.1, improved layer grouping, and new mash up demos with Google Map, Yahoo! Map and Microsoft Virtual Earth. The full change log for this release can be found here: http://jira.codehaus.org/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=10311&styleName=Html&version=13547 This release is based on Geotools 2.4-SNAPSHOT, tag = geoserver-1.6-beta2, revision 26251.
Whats New in 1.5.3 Stable Release:
Bug
- [GEOS-1271] - georss output does not work with shorthand, or without being url encoded
- [GEOS-1272] - georss output ignores bounding box
- [GEOS-1273] - atom rss producer should declare georss namespace mapping
- [GEOS-1278] - wfs:Delete does not work anymore with Oracle Datastore since 1.5.2
- [GEOS-1286] - Coverage configuration form allows pure SRS number to be inputed, but all of the code expects EPSG:XXXX instead
Improvement
- [GEOS-1118] - The wms-gs-1_0_1.js library doesnt take SLD parameter into account
- [GEOS-1274] - KML polygons should have borders by default (like before)
- [GEOS-1275] - Default text color for KML should be white
- [GEOS-1277] - Use 900913 for gs-wms.js, to help promote that value