OGC Seeks Input on Next Web Mapping Specification

Wayland, MA, USA, November 8, 2001 – The WWW Mapping Special Interest Group of the Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) today released a Request for Comments (RFC) on the OpenGIS Web Feature Server (WFS) Implementation Specification. OGC is considering adoption of this draft specification, which proposes open interfaces for communicating data manipulation operations on vector features using HTTP as the distributed computing platform. Comments are sought from industry through December 1, 2001.The RFC for the OpenGIS Web Feature Server Implementation Specification documents an interface specification for vector data access and transaction manipulation on geographic features. Feature transaction operations supported are:- Create a new feature instance – Delete a feature instance – Update a feature instance – Get or Query features based on spatial and non-spatial constraintsA WFS request consists of a description of a query and/or of a set of data transaction operations that are to be applied to one or more features in a spatial data repository. A request is generated by a client and is posted to a Web Feature Server using HTTP. The WFS then reads and executes the request. It is possible to implement just a read-only (query) Web Feature Service or one that supports transactions. A read-only web feature server would implement the interface capabilities provided by the existing OpenGIS Web Map Server Specification: GetCapabilities, DescribeFeatureType and GetFeature operations. A transaction web feature server would implement in addition the Transaction operation, and, optionally, the LockFeature operation.Through various Interoperability Initiatives, the OGC membership is defining a comprehensive Web Services suite of OpenGIS Specifications, including the existing Web Map Server (WMS), the pending Web Feature Server (WFS), and the future Web Coverage Server, Web Terrain Server, Geocoding, and Routing.The following companies submitted the WFS specification to OGC as a Request for Comment: CubeWerx Inc. (Quebec, Canada), Intergraph Corp. (US), IONIC Software (Belgium), Laser-Scan Ltd. (UK), and the US Army Research and Development Center.The RFC is available at http://www.opengeospatial.org/techno/rfc13info.htm . Organizations interested in learning more about the OGC Web Services Initiative should visit OGC's website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.OGC is an international industry consortium of over 220 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS Interface Specifications support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT, and empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Visit the OGC website at www.opengeospatial.org .– end –“