The following steps need to be followed in order to publish new spatial data in your GeoServer installation.
Add new styles (SLD)
By default, GeoServer only supports styles through the use of SLD (Styled Layers Descriptor) standard files. Lots of examples and documentation can be found at http://docs.geoserver.org/2.8.3/user/styling/sld-cookbook/index.html
- Navigate to “Styles” and press the “Add new style” button
- Give your style a new name
- Paste your SLD into the text area or choose file to upload from your local computer
- Validate your style by pressing the “Validate” button
- Only submit your style if the validation retrieves no errors (like the next example)
- Publish a new layer
- Publish data imported into Union VMS Spatial database
- Publish data imported into a different spatial database
- Publish a shapefile