7.3. Configuring the WFS¶

After deploying but before using the WFS service, you need to edit the config.xml file to make the service run properly. The config.xml file is located in the WEB-INF directory of the WFS web application. If you use Apache Tomcat, WEB-INF is a subfolder of the application folder, which is generally named after the WAR file and itself is a subfolder of the webapps folder in the Tomcat installation directory. This may be different if you use another servlet container.

For example, assume that the WFS web application was deployed under the context name citydb-wfs. Then the location of the WEB-INF folder and the config.xml file in a default Apache Tomcat installation is shown below.

../../_images/wfs_config_file_path_fig.png

Fig. 7.1 Location of the WEB-INF folder and the config.xml file.

Open the config.xml file with a text or XML editor of your choice and manually edit the settings. In the config.xml file, the WFS settings are organized into the main XML elements <capabilities>, <featureTypes>, <operations>, <filterCapabilities>, <constraints>, <postProcessing>, <database>, <server>, and <logging>. The discussion of the settings follows this organization in the subsequent clauses.

Table 7.6 Configuration settings of the WFS service¶
Settings	Description
Capabilities settings	Define service metadata that shall be used in the capabilities document of the WFS service.
Feature type settings	Control which feature types shall be advertised and served by the WFS service.
Operations settings	Define the operation-specific behaviour of the WFS.
Filter capabilities settings	Define the filter operations that shall be supported in queries.
Constraints settings	General constraints that influence the capabilities of the WFS service and of the advertised operations.
Postprocessing settings	Allow for specifying XSLT transformations to be applied to the CityGML data before sending the response to the client.
Database settings	Connection details to use for connecting to a 3D City Database instance.
Server settings	Server-specific options and parameters.
Logging settings	Logging-specific settings like the log level and output file to use.

Caution

An XML Schema for validating the contents of the config.xml file is provided as file config.xsd in the subfolder schemas. After every edit to the config.xml file, make sure that the it validates against this schema before reloading the WFS web application. Otherwise, the application might refuse to load, or unexpected behavior may occur.

Environment variables

In addition to the config.xml file, the WFS supports the following environment variables to configure further settings. The variables must have been set prior to starting the service. They always take precedence over corresponding settings in the config.xml file.

Table 7.7 Environment variables supported by the WFS service¶
Environment variable	Description
`CITYDB_TYPE`	Used to specify the database system of the 3DCityDB the WFS service shall connect to. Allowed values are postgresql for PostgreSQL/PostGIS databases (default) and oracle for Oracle Spatial databases.
`CITYDB_HOST`	Host name or IP address of the server on which the database is running.
`CITYDB_PORT`	Port of the database server to connect to. Default value is 5432 for PostgreSQL and 1521 for Oracle, depending on the setting for `CITYDB_TYPE`.
`CITYDB_NAME`	Used to specify the name of the 3DCityDB instance to connect to. When connecting to an Oracle database, provide the database SID or service name as value.
`CITYDB_SCHEMA`	Schema to use when connecting to the database. The defaults are citydb for PostgreSQL and the username specified through `CITYDB_USERNAME` for Oracle, depending on the setting for `CITYDB_TYPE`.
`CITYDB_USERNAME`	Connect to the database sever with this user.
`CITYDB_PASSWORD`	The password to use when connecting to the database server.
`WFS_CONFIG_FILE`	With this variable, you can specify a configuration file that shall be used instead of the default `config.xml` file in the `WB-INF` directory when starting the WFS service. The variable must provide the full path to the configuration file. The WFS service must have read access to this file.
`WFS_ADE_EXTENSIONS_PATH`	Allows for providing an alternative directory where the WFS service shall search for ADE extensions (default: `ade-extensions` folder in the `WEB-INF` directory). The WFS service must have read access to this directory.