WFS: 4.6 and name of the geometry element (msGeometry)

[Bart van den Eijnden]

Hi list,

probably a question for Steve Lime.

Mapserver used to ignore the name of the geometry column. So the following request would work (using Geometry, but one could also use blabla as the name for the Geometry element):

<GetFeature maxfeatures="100" service="WFS" version="1.0.0" xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/wfs" xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml" xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://schemas.opengis.net/wfs/1.0.0 WFS-basic.xsd"><Query xmlns="" typename="bislocatie"><ogc:Filter><ogc:DWithin><ogc:PropertyName>Geometry</ogc:PropertyName><gml:Polygon srsName="EPSG:28992"><gml:outerBoundaryIs><gml:LinearRing><gml:coordinates>104030.047950,498012.127900 104030.263050,498036.333900 104055.456000,498041.950000 104056.623000,498042.210050 104056.669950,498041.993050 104059.873950,498027.176150 104061.607050,498019.162900 104030.047950,498012.127900 </gml:coordinates></gml:LinearRing></gml:outerBoundaryIs></gml:Polygon><ogc:Distance units="m">0.01</ogc:Distance></ogc:DWithin></ogc:Filter></Query></GetFeature>


Now Mapserver 4.6 crashed on this request (internal server error), it used to work a few months ago with one of the beta versions, it took me a while to find out why.

I found out this is caused by using Geometry instead of msGeometry. Apparently msGeometry is now the default name expected by Mapserver WFS for the Geometry column.

Anyway, good to know for people who want to port their Mapserver WFS requests to 4.6.

Btw, the error handling of Mapserver WFS could use some improving, I run into internal server errors all the time :-)

I have opened up 2 bug reports to hopefully improve error reporting :-)

http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=1423

http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=1422

Best regards,
Bart

Bart van den Eijnden
Syncera IT Solutions
Postbus 270
2600 AG  DELFT

tel.nr.: 015-7512436
email: BEN at Syncera-ITSolutions.nl