Open GIS Consortium's Web Map Service Cookbook
OGC Releases Web Map Service Cookbook
Wayland, MA, USA. May 28, 2003.
The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) today announced the availability of the Web Map Service (WMS) Cookbook version 1.0, the first in a planned series of books detailing the implementation and use of OpenGIS Specifications. WMS defines interfaces for Web-based software to learn about, retrieve, merge and query maps. The Cookbook provides the basic understanding and steps needed for implementing and exploiting the WMS interface and related technologies. The document is available for download in Portable Document Format (PDF) at visit http://www.ogcnetwork.org.
Cookbook contributors include software vendors, universities, and local government users of the WMS interface from around the world. The variety of contributions highlights the different software being used and insures widespread applicability.
The book is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 establishes the background and context of the WMS interface implementation specification including a discussion of WMS client and server development technologies (XML, XSL/XSLT, ASP/JSP, etc.). This introductory chapter provides a general orientation for all readers but is targeted for managers and end-users.
Chapter 2 addresses the design architecture of software systems that implement the WMS interface through use-case scenarios, WMS request examples, and illustrations. DTD/XML documents and XSL/XSLT style sheet examples highlight the role these technologies can play in WMS client and server implementations.
Chapter 3 explores implementations of WMS in existing software on both the server and client side. Detailed "recipes" for implementing WMS in popular commercial, open source and freeware products are provided. Technical personnel deploying existing systems and developers implementing new systems will find this chapter particularly useful.
Stephan Winter, Associate Professor at the Institute for Geoinformation, Technical University Vienna, Austria shared his students' experience with the Cookbook. "The students were able to implement a WMS service (with no prior knowledge of server installation) within 4 weeks of part-time effort. The result is currently running on an intranet. The students reported that it was possible to do such a project with only the cookbook in hand. I'm confident the Cookbook will be valuable to a wide range of users."
OGC is an international industry consortium of more than 250 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS Specifications support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengis.org.
Contact
Mark E. Reichardt
Executive Director, Outreach and Community Adoption
Open GIS Consortium, Inc.
Tel: +1-301-840-1361
Email: mreichardt@opengis.org
Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See details in the news story "OpenGIS Consortium Publishes Web Map Server Cookbook." Related: (1) "OGC Releases OpenGIS Location Services (OpenLS) Implementation Specification"; (2) "OGC Announces OpenGIS Geography Markup Language Implementation Specification (GML 3)." General references in "Geography Markup Language (GML)."