The Apache SIS™ library

Apache Spatial Information System (SIS) is a free software, Java language library for developing geospatial applications. SIS enables better representation of coordinates for searching, data clustering, archiving, or other relevant spatial needs. The library is an implementation of GeoAPI 3.0 interfaces and can be used for desktop or server applications.

SIS provides data structures for geographic data and associated metadata along with methods to manipulate those data structures. The SIS metadata module forms the base of the library and enables the creation of metadata objects which comply with the model of international standards. The SIS referencing module enable the construction of geodetic data structures for geospatial referencing such as axis, projection and coordinate reference system definitions, along with the associated operations which enable the mathematical conversion of coordinates between different systems of reference. The SIS storage modules will provide a common approach to the reading and writing of grid coverages applicable to simple imagery as to many dimensional data structures.

Some Apache SIS features are:

  • Geographic metadata (ISO 19115-1:2014)
    • Can be read from or written to ISO 19139 compliant XML documents.
    • Automatic conversions between the model published in 2003 and the revision published in 2014.
  • Referencing by coordinates (ISO 19111:2007)

Using Apache SIS

The latest SIS release is 0.7, released May 2016. Apache SIS requires a Java 6 Runtime Environment. The EPSG geodetic dataset (optional but recommended) can be installed separately.

Apache SIS is a Java library for use by other applications. Leveraging the full SIS capabilities or getting the best performance require that users write their own applications on top of SIS. However a command-line tool is provided for allowing users to experiment some SIS functionalities before writing code.

Apache SIS developer documentation

Following links are for those who wish to contribute to Apache SIS: