[OpenLayers-Users] Trouble with accessing vector/WFS layer features

[cgp]

When I start up my application, I add all the WFS layers and do
setVisibility(false). Right after start up I attempt to access the WFS layer
features with wfs_layer.features but it returns null. However, when I run
setVisibility(true) and then setVisibility(false) right away,
wfs_layer.features now returns all the features.

I don't completely understand how OpenLayers works, but does this mean that
the WFS layers are not actually loaded onto the map if onstartup I call
setVisibility(false)?

My goal is to access the features without having to display the WFS layer.
On my previous post 
http://n2.nabble.com/Is-there-a-way-to-dynamically-get-the-feature-id-of-a-feature-from-a-WMS-layer-td4183834.html#a4183834
here , I am doing this because I need to get the ID of a particular feature.
(Unless someone else has a more efficient way of doing this, please let me
know).

Thanks for your help.
-- 
View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/Trouble-with-accessing-vector-WFS-layer-features-tp4189252p4189252.html
Sent from the OpenLayers Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.