Previewing a layer

You just published the layer with GeoServer! Now let's see how it looks by using the Layer Preview.

• Navigate to Data ❭ Layer Preview
• Search for countries.
• Click OpenLayers.

As you published the layer countries GeoServer not only serves this layer as WMS, in addition it automatically publishes the feature type via its WFS server.

• Return to the Layer Preview site and search for countries (see steps 1. and 2. ahead).

• Select a WFS format (e.g. the common format GeoJSON) in the dropdown menu All formats.

  

After selecting the entry you should see a new browser tab or window containing the GeoJSON representation of the layer countries similar to following excerpt:

{
    "type": "FeatureCollection",
    "totalFeatures": 254,
    "features": [{
        "type": "Feature",
        "id": "countries.1",
        "geometry": {
            "type": "MultiPolygon",
            "coordinates": [
               [
                   [
                       [-69.99693762899994, 12.577582098000022],
                       [-69.93639075399997, 12.531724351000037],
                       [-69.92467200399997, 12.519232489000018],
                        (...)
                    ]
                ]
            ]
        },
        "geometry_name": "geom",
        "properties": {
            "scalerank": 3,
            "featurecla": "Admin-0 country",
            "labelrank": 5,
            "sovereignt": "Netherlands",
            (...)
        }
    },
    (...)
    ]
};