[mapserver-users] MapServer requires unnecessary SERVICE=WMS parameter in GetMap request

[John Maurer]

Dear MapServer users,
I recently discovered that MapServer (we are using 5.2.0) requires a 
SERVICE parameter (i.e. SERVICE=WMS) in a GetMap OGC request even though 
this parameter is not mentioned or required in the WMS 1.1.1 OGC 
specification for GetMap requests:

http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wms

It is strange that this is so since GetFeature and GetCoverage both 
require the SERVICE paramter, but for whatever reason the GetMap spec 
doesn't. Kind of an inconsistency in the OGC services, but MapServer 
needs to abide by it.

This cropped up when a user contacted me that our WMS services were not 
working in ArcGIS 9.2 after we upgraded MapServer from 4.9 to 5.2. After 
discussion with ESRI, they pointed out that MapServer was throwing an 
error about a missing SERVICE parameter because they do not include this 
parameter in their GetMap requests. However, the SERVICE parameter 
should not be required according to the spec.

I modified our CGI to fill this parameter in by default if not provided 
as a workaround, but a future release of MapServer should probably 
remove the requirement for this parameter in GetMap requests. Or am I 
missing something (always a possibility!)? Thanks!
Cheers,

-- 
John Maurer
Web/Database Applications Engineer
National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
University of Colorado at Boulder
http://cires.colorado.edu/~maurerj
+1-303-586-1677
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"Without geography, you're nowhere!"