Conference Paper

OpenLayers is a very popular OpenSource JavaScript webmapping library, which is used both inside of other OSGeo-projects (e.g. GeoServer) and in private / public webpages. OpenLayers makes it easy to put a very customizable map into any webpage. The 2.x-series (current stable version is 2.13.1) of the library is being actively developed and maintained and you can still build amazing applications with it. But the community has also begun working on a new major release of OpenLayers: version 3.0.0 is near (http://ol3js.org).

Why did we redesign OpenLayers? The first version in the 2.x series was released nearly 8 years ago, and in technology this feels like the stone age. Developers and users of OpenLayers have different needs now in 2014 than they had back in 2006. Also new web technologies and APIs emerged and are now available in many browsers; we fully want to utilize this potential.

The development of OpenLayers 3 (partly funded by sponsors) is an on-going process for quite some time now. At the time of the abstract submission the currently released version is v3.0.0-beta.4.

The talk of two OpenLayers core developers will introduce the newest version of OpenLayers 3. Attendants will learn what changed (in short: mostly everything) and what stayed the same (in short: the numerous possible usages of the library). We will be showing lots of examples, both the source code and the results.

Another focus will be the portrayal of the architecture behind parts of OpenLayers 3. Some technical highlights like WebGL, the vector-API, small file-sizes and the build process will be presented.

We will be demonstrating that one can use OpenLayers 3 today to build some really slick and impressive WebGIS applications which work fast and responsive nearly everywhere. Let us show you what the modernization of the OpenLayers library enables you to do.

Of course we will also be talking about the roadmap towards the final release of OpenLayers 3, and when our users can expect this release.