WMS

Web Map Server (WMS) is an OGC standard to publish data as maps. The GetMap operation, as defined by the standard, lets a client request maps as images; for example, a .png or .jpeg file.

From this section, you can change the service metadata, inserting information that will be published by the capabilities of the service. You can also control the resource allocation, as shown in the following screenshot:

The first value lets you set the maximum amount of memory that GeoServer can use when rendering an image for the client. This may be increased if you know your clients will need huge maps. Be careful when setting a different value from the default to avoid Out of Memory errors.

By increasing the Max rendering time value, you can have GeoServer processing more complex requests, but this will reduce the number of requests it can process. When the threshold is reached, GeoServer throws an error to the client.

There is also a maximum value to render errors in a single request before GeoServer throws it and switches to another one.

Watermark Settings lets you add a custom graphic to any map produced by GeoServer; this may be useful if you need to insert information about copyright from data owners.

You can change the compression level of the PNG and JPG images. Anytime GeoServer responds to a WMS GetMap request, the output is an image file. Changing this setting can help in producing better quality responses, or faster ones: