[mapserver-dev] Allowing spaces in layer names (WMS/WFS)

[Rahkonen Jukka (MML)]

Hi,

The layer/featuretype/coverage name question pops up every now and then.

Summary:

- WMS and WCS 1.0 and 1.1 does not pose any limits to layer names which are strings
- WFS sets name to QName and does not allow spaces and adds some other rules as well
- WCS 2.0 defines layer name to be NCName which denies also colon

Nice to know detail is that the OGC schema of WFS 1.1.0 was accidentally written so that underscores are not allowed either. Schema validating software like Geoserver with POST requests are following the schema literally and do not accept underscores.

Here are some references from Geoserver mailing list:

http://sourceforge.net/p/geoserver/mailman/message/32808960/
http://sourceforge.net/p/geoserver/mailman/message/34029198/
http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/WFS-GetFeature-Post-Request-td5171303.html

You should read all references and probably some others as well because gathering the current understanding about valid names in OGC services has been an iterative process and individual mails can give partly wrong information. I wonder why OGC does not have an comprehensive document about the issue but because such does not exist it would be wonderful to have an OSGeo wiki and some best practices documents which would make Mapserver, Geoserver, deegree, QGIS server, rasdaman and other possible OGC implementations to behave similarly.

-Jukka Rahkonen-





-----Alkuperäinen viesti-----
Lähettäjä: mapserver-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:mapserver-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] Puolesta Even Rouault
Lähetetty: 3. heinäkuuta 2015 0:42
Vastaanottaja: Tamas Szekeres
Kopio: mapserver-dev at lists.osgeo.org
Aihe: Re: [mapserver-dev] Allowing spaces in layer names (WMS/WFS)

Le jeudi 02 juillet 2015 23:24:55, Tamas Szekeres a écrit :
> Hi All,
> 
> Thank you all for the comments. I would expect an option to provide an 
> (XML
> friendly) alias for the layer name which would be added to the 
> GetFeature response as the XML tag instead of the "real" layer name. Is that possible?
> The "title" metadata tag doesn't seem to do what we would like to achieve.

I'm not clear when you could use the "real" layer name with spaces, etc...?  I guess it would be invalid in both KVP and XML requests.

> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Tamas
> 
> 2015-07-02 15:55 GMT+02:00 Even Rouault <even.rouault at spatialys.com>:
> > Le jeudi 02 juillet 2015 14:16:10, Tamas Szekeres a écrit :
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > Could anyone explain the reason of limiting the layer names to 
> > > valid XML tag names (not containing spaces or any special 
> > > characters in that)? As
> > 
> > far
> > 
> > > as I know the layer names don't appear a XML tags in the OWS 
> > > requests
> > 
> > and I
> > 
> > > couldn't find such limitation in the WFS specs either.
> > > Many clients uses spaces in layer names and this is causing issues 
> > > for
> > 
> > us.
> > 
> > Tamas,
> > 
> > This is in fact a constraint of the WFS spec.
> > 
> > According to http://schemas.opengis.net/wfs/1.1.0/wfs.xsd,
> > 
> > <xsd:element name="Name" type="xsd:QName">
> > 
> >   <xsd:annotation><xsd:documentation>
> >   
> >                   Name of this feature type, including any namespace
> >                   prefix
> >   
> >   </xsd:documentation></xsd:annotation>
> > 
> > </xsd:element>
> > 
> > And xsd:QName, that builds upon xsd:NCName, doesn't allow spaces and 
> > many other characters.
> > 
> > Even
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > Spatialys - Geospatial professional services 
> > http://www.spatialys.com

--
Spatialys - Geospatial professional services http://www.spatialys.com _______________________________________________
mapserver-dev mailing list
mapserver-dev at lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-dev