OpenGIS Web Processing Service (WPS) Interface Standard

OGC Approves Web Processing Service Standard

Wayland, MA, USA. February 22, 2008.

The members of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) have approved version 1.0 of the OpenGIS Web Processing Service (WPS) Interface Standard.

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.

The OGC's WPS standard will play an important role in automating workflows that involve geospatial data and geoprocessing services.

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 345 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at:

http://www.opengeospatial.org/

Contact

Sam Bacharach
Executive Director, Outreach and Community Adoption
Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
35 Main Street, Suite 5, Wayland, MA 01778 USA
Tel: +1-703-352-3938
Email: sbacharach@opengeospatial.org

Additional References

OpenGIS Web Processing Service. Edited by Peter Schut. From the Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. Submitting Organizations: GeoConnections/Natural Resources Canada, and PCI Geomatics. Date: 2007-06-08. Reference number: OGC 05-007r7. Version: 1.0.0. Category: OpenGIS Standard. Document type: OGC Publicly Available Standard. 86 pages. [source]

This document specifies the interface to a Web Processing Service (WPS). This document is the result of work undertaken to support the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI), and in particular the National Land and Water Information Service (NLWIS), and the National Forest Information Service (NFIS). The specification was first implemented as a prototype in 2004 by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). In the first half of 2005, it was the subject of a successful OGC Interoperability Experiment.

WPS defines a standardized interface that facilitates the publishing of geospatial processes, and the discovery of and binding to those processes by clients. Processes include any algorithm, calculation or model that operates on spatially referenced 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 configured to offer any sort of GIS functionality to clients across a network, including access to pre-programmed calculations and/or computation models that operate on spatially referenced data. A WPS may offer calculations as simple as subtracting one set of spatially referenced numbers from another (e.g., determining the difference in influenza cases between two different seasons), or as complicated as a global climate change model. The data required by the WPS can be delivered across a network, or 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. This Web Processing Service is targeted at processing both vector and raster data.

The WPS specification is designed to allow a service provider to expose a web accessible process, such as polygon intersection, in a way that allows clients to input data and execute the process with no specialized knowledge of the underlying physical process interface or API. The WPS interface standardizes the way processes and their inputs/outputs are described, how a client can request the execution of a process, and how the output from a process is handled.

Because WPS offers a generic interface, it can be used to wrap other existing and planned OGC services that focus on providing geospatial processing services.

This document does not specify any specific data required or output by the WPS. Instead, it identifies a generic mechanism to describe the data inputs required and produced by a process. This data can be delivered across the network, or available at the server. This data can include image data formats such as GeoTIFF, or data exchange standards such as Geography Markup Language (GML). Data inputs can be legitimate calls to OGC web services. For example, a data input for an intersection operation could be a polygon delivered in response to a WFS request, in which case the WPS data input would be the WFS query string...

In addition to this document, this specification includes several normative XML Schema Document files as listed in Annex B and referenced throughout the text. These XML Schema Documents include complete documentation of the meaning of each element, attribute, and type. These XML Schema Documents and the documentation contained therein shall be considered normative as specified in Subclause 11.6.3 of OGC 06-121r3...
Web Processing Service - OGC Reference document.
Web Processing Service XML Schemas. See also All Official OGC Schemas, downloadable as a single ZIP file

[Press release source]

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See also "Geography Markup Language (GML)."

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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. The OGC's WPS standard will play an important role in automating workflows that involve geospatial data and geoprocessing services. The OGC is an international consortium of more than 345 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at: http://www.opengeospatial.org/ Contact Sam Bacharach Executive Director, Outreach and Community Adoption Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. 35 Main Street, Suite 5, Wayland, MA 01778 USA Tel: +1-703-352-3938 Email: sbacharach@opengeospatial.org Additional References OpenGIS Web Processing Service. Edited by Peter Schut. From the Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. Submitting Organizations: GeoConnections/Natural Resources Canada, and PCI Geomatics. Date: 2007-06-08. Reference number: OGC 05-007r7. Version: 1.0.0. Category: OpenGIS Standard. Document type: OGC Publicly Available Standard. 86 pages. [source] This document specifies the interface to a Web Processing Service (WPS). This document is the result of work undertaken to support the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI), and in particular the National Land and Water Information Service (NLWIS), and the National Forest Information Service (NFIS). The specification was first implemented as a prototype in 2004 by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). In the first half of 2005, it was the subject of a successful OGC Interoperability Experiment. WPS defines a standardized interface that facilitates the publishing of geospatial processes, and the discovery of and binding to those processes by clients. Processes include any algorithm, calculation or model that operates on spatially referenced 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 configured to offer any sort of GIS functionality to clients across a network, including access to pre-programmed calculations and/or computation models that operate on spatially referenced data. A WPS may offer calculations as simple as subtracting one set of spatially referenced numbers from another (e.g., determining the difference in influenza cases between two different seasons), or as complicated as a global climate change model. The data required by the WPS can be delivered across a network, or 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. This Web Processing Service is targeted at processing both vector and raster data. The WPS specification is designed to allow a service provider to expose a web accessible process, such as polygon intersection, in a way that allows clients to input data and execute the process with no specialized knowledge of the underlying physical process interface or API. The WPS interface standardizes the way processes and their inputs/outputs are described, how a client can request the execution of a process, and how the output from a process is handled. Because WPS offers a generic interface, it can be used to wrap other existing and planned OGC services that focus on providing geospatial processing services. This document does not specify any specific data required or output by the WPS. Instead, it identifies a generic mechanism to describe the data inputs required and produced by a process. This data can be delivered across the network, or available at the server. This data can include image data formats such as GeoTIFF, or data exchange standards such as Geography Markup Language (GML). Data inputs can be legitimate calls to OGC web services. For example, a data input for an intersection operation could be a polygon delivered in response to a WFS request, in which case the WPS data input would be the WFS query string... In addition to this document, this specification includes several normative XML Schema Document files as listed in Annex B and referenced throughout the text. These XML Schema Documents include complete documentation of the meaning of each element, attribute, and type. These XML Schema Documents and the documentation contained therein shall be considered normative as specified in Subclause 11.6.3 of OGC 06-121r3... Web Processing Service - OGC Reference document. Web Processing Service XML Schemas. See also All Official OGC Schemas, downloadable as a single ZIP file [Press release source] Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See also "Geography Markup Language (GML)."