OGC Web Services

Allan Mazimwe

MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT)
1
School of The Built Environment
P.O Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
Web Services Interoperability

• Distribute Information via well defined service interfaces

• for effective organization of geodata

• to consume not to store

• reduction of redundant data storage

• presentation using well defined structures

• transparent provision

2
Web Services
Interoperability – How to gain
• Based on open architectural definitions
• W3C, OGC
• Normalization gained through independence of ;
• Operating system
• Programming languages
• Development environments

3
Definition of Web Services

• Web Service = every piece of software, which utilizes itself over the
internet and is using XML as message transport system
• Standardized XML format facilitate interoperability in information
exchange
• Allow to control which information is presented in which format
(compare. Raw data vs. product)
• Web services can also be used to implement an architecture according to
service-oriented architecture (SOA) concepts,
where the basic unit of communication
is a message, rather than an operation. This is often
referred to as "message-oriented" services.

4
Web Services Architecture

5
OGC Specifications for Web-Services
• WMS (Web Map Service)
• WFS (Web Feature Service)
• GML (Geographic Markup Language)
• SLD (Styled Layer descriptor)
• Filter encoding
• WCS (Web Coverage Service)
• WPS (Web Processing services)
• CSW, SOS, SAS,

6
Web Map Services-WMS

MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT)
7
School of The Built Environment
P.O Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
Web Map services--WMS

• specifies the behaviour of a service that produces spatially referenced

maps dynamically from geographic information.
• It specifies operations to retrieve a description of the maps offered by a
server
• to retrieve a map
• to query a server about features displayed on a map
• is applicable to pictorial renderings of maps in a graphical format
• it is not applicable to retrieval of actual feature data or coverage data
values.

8
Web Map services (WMS)-Operations

• HTTP based (GET or POST)

• Current version 1.3.0
Illustration link
http://maps.rcmrd.org:8080/geoserver/malawi_vulnerabilitytool/wms?
Operations
• GetCapabilities
• DescribeLayer
• GetMap- renders an image of geographic data based on parameters specified.
• GetFeatureInfo

• Operation keywords are CaSe-InSeNsItIvE

• Operation values are case-sensitive

9
GetCapabilities
• GetCapabilities -allows the server to advertise what it can do (available layers, supported output projections
and formats extent of Data) in XML format
• describes the service functionality, the metadata and the layer metadata with XML

ttp://maps.rcmrd.org:8080/geoserver/malawi_vulnerabilitytool/wms?Service=W
MS&Request=GetCapabilities
10
GetMap
• GetMap- renders an image of geographic data based on
• Area of interest, data, etc.
• Result is an image, no features or attributes
using parameters with values
• version: 1.3.0 (version of WMS specification)
• service-type: WMS
• request-type: GetMap
• format: image/png (derived out of Capabilities Information)
http://maps.rcmrd.org:8080/geoserver/malawi_vulnerabilitytool/wms?service=W
MS&version=1.1.0&request=GetMap&layers=malawi_vulnerabilitytool%3Amalawi
_national_exposure&bbox=32.67668701171875%2C-
17.124999999999996%2C35.92668701171875%2C-
9.364999999999997&width=330&height=768&srs=EPSG%3A4326&format=applic
ation/openlayers
11
• Parameters continued
• bbox (spatial area of interest, e.g. minx,miny,maxx,maxy)
• srs (reference system / projection of bounding box coordinates)
• EPSG (http://www.epsg.org/)
• Get supported SRSs from GetCapabilities
• Most widely used SRSs are EPSG:4326, EPSG:900113
• Lat/long geographic (WGS84)
• width (output image width)
• height (output image height)
• layers (geographic information layers)
• extracted out of GetCapabilities info
• comma-separated list –
• e.g. Layers=elevation, roads, railways,…
• – first element is most bottom output layer

12
GetMap parameters

13
GetFeature info

• allows the retrieval of simple feature attributes-based point queries

• user supplies an x,y coordinate pair and a layer of interest
• server responds with attribute information in HTML, GML or arbitrary
ASCII format
• Does not allow complex queries as ‘like’ (this is supported via OGC WFS

14
GetFeatureInfo

15
Describe layer

• OPTIONAL operation for the provision of more detailed information on

WMS layer (see WFS)
• Parameters
• VERSION
• SERVICE
• REQUEST
• LAYERS
http://127.0.0.1/cgibin/mapserv.exe?map=/ms4w/apps/ms_ogc_works
hop/service/config.map&version=1.1.1&service=WMS&request=Descr
ibeLayer&layers=rivers

16
Classroom activity

• https://maps.rcmrd.org/ArcGIS/rest/services
• https://maps.rcmrd.org/geoserver/web/
• http://apps.rcmrd.org:8081/geoserver/web/
• http://maps.rcmrd.org:8080/geoserver/malawi_vulnerabilitytool/wms?
• Catalogue
• https://data.apps.fao.org/map/catalog/srv/eng/catalog.search#/home
• http://metacatalog.rcmrd.org:8081/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/search

17
Web Feature Services (WFS)

MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT)
18
School of The Built Environment
P.O Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
Web Feature services (WFS)
• Web Feature Service Interface Standard (WFS) provides an interface
allowing requests for geographical features across the web using platform-
independent calls.
• One can think of geographical features as the "source code“ behind a map,
which end-users can
• query
• edit or
• spatially analyze.
• XML-based GML is used by default for transporting the geographic
features. As base profile the OpenGIS GML Simple Features Profile is used
to increase interoperability between WFS servers and to improve the ease
of implementation of the WFS standard.

19
Web Feature services (WFS)

• Web Feature Service defines protocols for requesting as well as (optionally,

WFS-T) inserting and modifying GML Features (Geospatial objects) through
HTTP requests.

• GML Features are geospatial objects semantically describing real-world

entities, like Meteorological objects (fronts, precipitation areas), weather
observation readings, observation stations or roads.
• WFS can be used as a client-server data retrieval, server-to-server data
synchronization or as a common access interface on top of heterogenous
geospatial data stores.

20
OGC Web Feature Service - WFS
Service for
• Feature level access to spatial data (vectors)
• Rich query interface
• Returns GML
• Transactional capability
• Security considerations for OGC:WFST-T
• Typical call sequence in WFS client requests
(WFTS-T) enable
• Inserting
• Updating
• Deleting
• Locking GML features

21
OGC Web Feature Service - WFS Example

22
OGC Web Feature Service - WFS 1.1
Two classes of WFS

• Basic WFS
• A basic WFS would implement the GetCapabilities, DescribeFeatureType and
GetFeature operations. This would be considered a READ-ONLY web feature service.
• Transaction WFS
• A transaction web feature service would support all the operations of a basic web
feature service and in addition it would implement the Transaction operation.
Optionally, a transaction WFS could implement the LockFeature operation.

23
OGC Web Feature Service - WFS 1.1
Basic WFS
• GetCapabilities
• A web feature service must be able to describe its capabilities. Specifically, it must
indicate which feature types it can service and what operations are supported on
each feature type.
• DescribeFeatureType
• A web feature service must be able, upon request, to describe the structure of any
feature type it can service.
• GetFeature
• A web feature service must be able to service a request to retrieve feature
instances..

24
OGC Web Feature Service - WFS 1.1
Transaction WFS
• Transaction
• A web feature service may be able to service transaction requests. A transaction
request is composed of operations that modify features;that is create, update, and
delete operations on geographic features.
• LockFeature/GetFeatureWithLock
• A web feature service may be able to process a lock request on one or more
instances of a feature type for the duration of a transaction.

25
GetCapabilities

• it must indicate which feature types it can service and e.g.

• what operations are supported on each feature type using parameters:

• Version (specification version)

• Service-Typ (multiple services may exist from this service, e.g. WMS, WFS, WCS)
• Request-Typ: GetCapabilities

• http://maps.rcmrd.org:8080/geoserver/malawi_vulnerabilitytool/wms?Service=WF
S&Request=GetCapabilities

26
OGC:WFS 1.1 DescribeFeatureType
A web feature service must be able, upon request, to describe the
structure of any feature type it can service

Therefore it provides an outline of the structure of a feature type

(fields, etc.)

Similar to SQL describe <table> command

27
DescribeFeatureType

• generate a schema description for feature types serviced by a WFS

implementation. The schema descriptions define how a WFS
implementation expects feature instances to be encoded on input and how
feature instances will be generated on output

http://maps.rcmrd.org:8080/geoserver/malawi_vulnerabilitytool/wms?service=WFS&version=1.1.0&request=Desc
ribefeaturetype

28
GetFeature
• The GetFeature operation allows retrieval of features from a web feature
service.
• The request contains queries which may unconstrained or constrained by a Filter
• Filter is described in described in the Filter Encoding Specification
• The output format is GML by default but the specification allows other formats
• Parameters
• VERSION
• SERVICE
• REQUEST
• TYPENAME
• FILTER (optional)
• BBOX (can also be done through FILTER)

29
GetFeature

• The GetFeature operation allows retrieval of features from a Web Feature

Service. An XML document containing the result set is returned to the clien

30
Web Coverage Services

MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT)
31
School of The Built Environment
P.O Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
Web Coverage Services

• The OpenGIS® Web Coverage Service Interface Standard (WCS) defines a

standard interface and operations that enables interoperable access to
geospatial "coverages"
• The term "grid coverages" typically refers to content such as satellite
images, digital aerial photos, digital elevation data, and other phenomena
represented by values at each measurement point.

32
OGC Web Coverage Service - WCS
GetCapabilities
• The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) Web Coverage Service (WCS)
provides an open specification for sharing raster datasets on the Web. The
raster datasets made available through WCS services are coverages
• Defines the standardized access on raster data
• Parameter
• VERSION
• SERVICE
• REQUEST

http://maps.rcmrd.org:8080/geoserver/malawi_vulnerabilitytool/wms?Service=WCS
&Request=GetCapabilities

33
GetCapabilities

34
GetCoverage

• This operation allows a client to request a coverage comprised of selected

range properties at a selected set of geographic locations. The server
extracts the response data from the selected coverage, and encodes it in a
known coverage format.

35
GetCoverage-KVP

36
OGC Web Coverage Service –
WCS GetCoverage Example

37
Supported Formats and interpolation methods

• Supported formats
• GeoTiff
• HDF-EOS
• NITF
Interpolation method Descriptions
• CF-NetCDF
Nearest neighbor (default) These are defined in the ISO 19123
Bilinear (Schema for coverage Geometry and
Functions) Annex B
Bicubic
Lost area
Barycentric
none No interpolation is available-requests
must be for locations that are among the
original domain locations

38
Software implementations
Commercial products
• ArcGIS Server (www.esri.com)
• Intergraph Geomedia Web-Map Professional 6.1 (www.intergraph.com)
• Erdas Appollo Suite (www.erdas.com)
…

Open-Source Solutions
• UMN Mapserver 6.0.x+ (http://mapserver.org/)
• GeoServer 2.1.x+ (http://geoserver.org)
• deegree WMS (http://www.deegree.org/)
• THREDDS Data Server (http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/tds/)

39
Web Processing Services-WPS

MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT)
40
School of The Built Environment
P.O Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
OGC Web processing Service - WPS
• "The WPS standard defines an interface that facilitates the publishing of geospatial
processes and makes it easier to write software clients that can discover and bind to
those processes.
• Processes include any algorithm, calculation or model that operates on spatially
referenced raster or vector data.
• Publishing means making available machine-readable binding information as well as
human-readable metadata that allows service discovery and use.
• A WPS can be used to define calculations as simple as subtracting one set of spatially
referenced data from another (e.g., determining the difference in influenza cases
between two different seasons), or as complicated as a hydrological model. The data
required by the WPS can be delivered across a network or it can be made available at
the server. This interface specification provides mechanisms to identify the spatially
referenced data required by the calculation, initiate the calculation, and manage the
output from the calculation so that the client can access it.

41
• WPS is a Web Service Interface Specification that standardize a number of
requests/response messages that GIS Client applications can use to
• discover and
• execute processes that are offered by WPS Services.

Generic Interface Specification

• This interface specification provides mechanisms to identify the spatially
referenced data required by the calculation, initiate the calculation, and
manage the output from the calculation so that the client can access it.

42
• HTTP based (GET or POST), SOAP
• OGC WPS defines three operations
• GetCapabilities ... service-level metadata
• DescribeProcess describes the process
• Execute responds the result of a process

43
OGC Web Map Service - WPS

44
OGC Web processing Service - WPS

• the OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) Interface Standard provides rules
for standardizing how inputs and outputs (requests and responses) for
invoking geospatial processing services, such as polygon overlay, as a Web
service.

45
Software

• Commercial products
• ArcGIS Server (www.esri.com) beginning 10.1
• Erdas Appollo Suite (www.erdas.com)
• ...
• Open-Source Solutions
• 52°N WPS+ (http://52north.org/communities/geoprocessing/)
• pyQGIS-WPS (https://github.com/3liz/lizmap-wps-web-client-module)
• deegree WPS (http://www.deegree.org/)
• Zoo project WPS http://www.zoo-project.org/)

46