:Author: OSGeo Live
:Version: osgeo-live4.0
:License: Creative Commons

.. _udig_overview:

.. Writing Tip: 
  Project logos are stored here:
    https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/livedvd/gisvm/trunk/doc/images/project_logos/
  and accessed here:
    images/project_logos/<filename>

.. image:: images/project_logos/logo-uDig.png
  :scale: 30
  :alt: udig logo
  :align: right
  :target: http://udig.refractions.net/

User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
=========================================

Desktop GIS
~~~~~~~~~~~

.. Writing Tip:
  Address user questions of "What does the application do?",
  "When would I use it?", "Why would I use it over other applications?",
  "How mature is the application and how widely deployed is it?".
  Don't mention licence or open source in this section.
  Target audience is a GIS practitioner or student who is new to Open Source.

.. image:: images/screenshots/1024x768/udig-overview.png
  :scale: 50
  :alt: udig workshop
  :align: right

User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig) is an open source spatial data viewer/editor, with special emphasis on the OpenGIS standards for internet GIS, the Web Map Server (WMS) and Web Feature Server (WFS) standards.

uDig is:

* **User-friendly**, providing a familiar graphical environment for GIS users;
* **Desktop located**, running natively on Windows, Mac OS/X and Linux;
* **Internet oriented**, consuming standard and de facto geospatial web services; and,
* **GIS ready**, providing the framework on which complex analytical capabilities can be built, and gradually subsuming those capabilities into the main application

For developers uDig provides a common Java platform for building spatial applications with open source components. The website provides series of clear tutorials covering making a simple tool through to releasing your own custom application.

Core Features
-------------

* Desktop Client with Drag and Drop integration for File explorer and Web Browser
* Integrate with your existing infrastructure: ArcSDE, Oracle, DB2 and more
* Work with local files: Shapefile, jpeg, png, tiff and more.
* Work with advanced spatial raster formats: ECW, MrSID, JPEG 2000
* Support for compliant Web Map Servers (GeoServer, MapServer tested)
* Integrated Web experience with an embedded browser that recognises OGC web
  services and smoothly adds links to the onscreen map
* Style Layer Descriptor control of rendering allowing you to publish your Map using the same
  settings in uDig as with popular Web Map Servers
* Deep integration of standards allowing the application to swap between the appropriate service
  as required for display, interaction and editing
* Printing and PDF Generation
* For Developers
  
  * Java Application built using the GeoTools, JTS Topology Suite and GeoAPI
  * Industrial strength plug-in system provided by Eclipse Rich Client Platform 
  * Use of native widgets

Implemented Standards
---------------------

* OGC Web Map Server (WMS)
* OGC Web Feature Server (WFS)
* OGC Web Feature Server Transactional (WFS-T)
* OGC Simple Features for SQL (SFQL)
* Web Map Server Cache (WMS-C)
* OGC Style Layer Descriptor (SLD)

Details
-------

**Website:** http://udig.refractions.net/

**Licence:** GNU Lessar General Public License (LGPL) version 2

**Software Version:** 1.2.0

**Supported Platforms:** Windows, Linux, Mac

**API Interfaces:** GeoAPI, GeoTools, ImageIO-Ext, Java Advanced Imaging, Eclipse Rich Client Platform, Eclipse Modelling Framework

**Support:** http://udig.refractions.net/users/

**Developers:** http://udig.refractions.net/developers/


Quickstart
----------

* `Quickstart documentation <../quickstart/udig_quickstart.html>`_