7.3.1. Capabilities settings

The capabilities settings define the contents of the capabilities document that is returned by the WFS service upon a GetCapabilities request.

The capabilities document is generated dynamically from the contents of the config.xml file at request time. Only mandatory and optional service metadata has to be explicitly specified with the <capabilities> element by the user in addition. All other sections of the capabilities document are populated automatically from the config.xml file. For example, the set of feature types advertised in the <wfs:FeatureTypeList> section is derived from the content of the <featureTypes> element (cf. Section 7.3.2).

The service metadata is provided using the <owsMetadata> child element (see the example listing below). It is copied to the capabilities document “as is” and thus should be consistent and valid.

<capabilities>
  <owsMetadata>
    <ows:ServiceIdentification>
      <ows:Title>3D City Database Web Feature Service</ows:Title>
      <ows:ServiceType>WFS</ows:ServiceType>
      <ows:ServiceTypeVersion>2.0.0</ows:ServiceTypeVersion>
    </ows:ServiceIdentification>
    <ows:ServiceProvider>
      <ows:ProviderName/>
      <ows:ServiceContact/>
    </ows:ServiceProvider>
  </owsMetadata>
</capabilities>

Service metadata comprises information about the service itself that might be useful in machine-to-machine communication or for display to a human. This information is announced through the <ows:ServiceIdentifikation> child element. Mandatory components are the service title (<ows:Title>), the service type (<ows:ServiceType>, which may only take the fixed value WFS), and the supported WFS protocol versions (<ows:ServiceTypeVersion>). The 3DCityDB WFS currently supports the protocol versions 2.0.2 and 2.0.0.

Note

If, for example, the service should only offer the protocol version 2.0.0 to clients, then only provide one <ows:ServiceTypeVersion> element for this version. This is recommended if the software accessing the WFS does only support version 2.0.0 (e.g., FME 2018/2019). Invalid values of the <ows:ServiceIdentifikation> element will be overridden with reasonable default values at startup of the WFS service.

The child element <ows:ServiceProvider> contains information about the service provider such as contact information. Please refer to the OGC Web Services Common Specification (OGC 06-121r3:2009) to get an overview of the supported metadata fields that may be included in the capabilities document and therefore can be specified in <owsMetadata>.