Geoserver and SRS

Question

I have a very basic problem, and please bear with me since I'm new to GIS.

I have geoserver installed in a Ubuntu Box and installed a few maps in shapefile. The maps were originally in ArcGIS format .mdb, but I converted them to .shp file using ogr2ogr in Windows.

The maps, as known from the .prj file is using LCC projection. and geoserver correctly identifies them in native srs as lcc. But it mandates me to use EPSG:3034 in Declared SRS, which again forces me to use the same SRS via OpenLayers.

Isn't it the duty of WMS Server to convert projections. Shouldn't I be allowed for asking geoserver to give me map tiles in say EPSG:4326 projection??

Please give me an insight..

Answer 1

OpenLayers will request the WMS layer in the projection of the map (or the first base layer if none is set). GeoServer will return the layer in what ever projection (subject to being able to convert to that SRS) is requested. The native/declared projections just apply to the projection that the data is stored in not the display projection.

So bottom line is everything should just work out of the box. If you continue to have problems then you'll need to post some code to show what you are doing.

I can recommend my lecture notes on setting up a Web GIS server and client if you want to read more on this.