Update: January 2009
Emily Gouge (egouge@refractions.net)

I've updated this code significantly.  More information can be found on the wiki:
http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOTOOLS/Caching+Module

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GOOGLE SUMMER OF CODE 2007 PROJECT : CACHING DATA IN UDIG

PROJECT OVERVIEW

    Caching data and the ability to support intermittent network
    connections and limited bandwidth is required for a number of
    Geo-applications, as these are still serious limitations when
    designing apps for the operationanal world.

    The aim of this project was to add a geofeatures caching framework
    to the GeoTools library, as it serves as a foundation to the uDig
    client.

    The contributed code extends the spatial index framework proposed
    by Marios Hadjieleftheriou
    <http://research.att.com/~marioh/spatialindex> to build a
    FeatureCache framework. This framework intends to be reusable so
    as to vary implementation details such as type of
    spatial index used, type of storage back end.

    The main idea of this work is to group features according to a
    predefined partition of space (and time if working in
    n-dimensions). This partition is used to retrieve and store
    features in the cache, and takes advantage of the underlying
    spatial index properties.

    Grid indexation, and memory and disk storage have been implemented.

    Caching has not yet been implemented inside uDig, though the proposed
    framework would make it feasible.

INSTALLATION and DEMONSTRATION

    Using Maven 2.0.5, type at the command prompt at the project root
    directory :

    $ mvn test

    Maven will compile the module and run unit tests.

    For more information on how to use Maven with GeoTools, see :

       http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOT/2.5+Using+Maven

    The source code includes a demo application named BenchMark you
    can run by typing at the command prompt :

    $ mvn java:exec -Dexec.mainClass="org.geotools.caching.BenchMark"

TODO

    (Aug 20th, 2007)

    . Extend cache capability from read-only to write-thru

    . Ensure implementation is thread safe

    . Modify cache so it can be disconnected (minor modifications is required)

    . Implement other (and likely more performant) types of spatial indices.

    . Adapt uDig code to use this caching framework

AUTHOR

    Christophe ROUSSON <christophe.rousson@gmail.com>

MENTOR

    Ian TURTON <ijturton@gmail.com>

LICENSE

    GeoTools - OpenSource mapping toolkit
    http://geotools.org
    (C) 2002-2007, GeoTools Project Managment Committee (PMC)

    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
    License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
    version 2.1 of the License.

    This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
    Lesser General Public License for more details.

ORIGINAl SOURCE CODE

    Latest development version can be obtained from GeoTools SVN repository :

    http://svn.geotools.org/geotools/trunk/gt/modules/unsupported/caching   

FURTHER INFORMATION

   http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOTOOLS/SoC+2007+Caching+data