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Home > How to serve a OneGeology WMS > Mapping 1GE data model to GSML-P > Considerations for converting a MapServer based OneGeology-Europe service
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Considerations for converting a MapServer based OneGeology-Europe service

Adding INSPIRE extended capabilities

When converting a MapServer (+ 1GE Connector) OneGeology-Europe service to an INSPIRE compliant GeoSciML-Portrayal WMS (without the 1GE Connector) the first thing you will need to do is upgrade your MapServer version to 6.2.0 (or above) to ensure you get the Extended Capabilities section.

To update/upgrade your MapServer (on Windows) installation you have several options. The current tested option for 64-bit Windows, Apache 2.4, and MapServer 6.4.1 is to use the GISInternals supplied binaries, see section 4.4.3 for details of how to install and configure such a service. The original method for installing a MapServer for Windows (MS4W) service for OneGeology services has recently been significantly updated but we have not yet had an opportunity to check that it installs and is configured it in the same way as described in the cookbook for earlier versions. See http://www.ms4w.com/ for further details. Another option is to install MapServer by using the OSGeo4W binary distribution, see http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/ for further details.

For example to add a scenario 1 INSPIRE extended capabilities section (where you have an external XML document or service that provides such a document containing metadata for your WMS service) you would use the following parameters in your SERVICE > WEB > METADATA:

            "WMS_LANGUAGES" "eng"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_CAPABILITIES" "URL"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_METADATAURL_FORMAT" "application/xml"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_METADATAURL_HREF" 
            "http://metadata.bgs.ac.uk/geonetwork/srv/en/csw?SERVICE=CSW&REQUEST=GetRecordById&
            ID=7822e848-822d-45a5-8584-56d352fd2170&elementSetName=full&OutputSchema=csw:IsoRecord&"

Which would create:

<inspire_vs:ExtendedCapabilities>
    <inspire_common:MetadataUrl xsi:type="inspire_common:resourceLocatorType">
        <inspire_common:URL>http://metadata.bgs.ac.uk/geonetwork/srv/en/csw?SERVICE=CSW
        &REQUEST=GetRecordById&ID=7822e848-822d-45a5-8584-56d352fd2170&elementSetName=full&OutputSchema=csw:IsoRecord&
        </inspire_common:URL>
        <inspire_common:MediaType>application/xml</inspire_common:MediaType>
    </inspire_common:MetadataUrl>
    <inspire_common:SupportedLanguages>
        <inspire_common:DefaultLanguage>
            <inspire_common:Language>eng</inspire_common:Language>
        </inspire_common:DefaultLanguage>
    </inspire_common:SupportedLanguages>
    <inspire_common:ResponseLanguage>
        <inspire_common:Language>eng</inspire_common:Language>
    </inspire_common:ResponseLanguage>
</inspire_vs:ExtendedCapabilities>

Or to add a scenario 2 INSPIRE extended capabilities section (where you have no external metadata document for your WMS service) you could add the following parameters:

#==================================================================================#
# INSPIRE extended capabilities
# Requires MapServer 6.2.0 and above, or the values are ignored
#==================================================================================#
            "WMS_LANGUAGES" "eng"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_CAPABILITIES" "embed"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_KEYWORD" "infoMapAccessService"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_MPOC_EMAIL" "enqiries@bgs.ac.uk"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_MPOC_NAME" "Mr Matthew Harrison"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_METADATADATE" "2014-03-28"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_RESOURCELOCATOR" "http://ogc.bgs.ac.uk/cgi-bin/TFL-PSI/ows?"
            "WMS_INSPIRE_TEMPORAL_REFERENCE" "2014-06-06"

Which would create:

<inspire_vs:ExtendedCapabilities>
    <inspire_common:ResourceLocator>
        <inspire_common:URL>http://ogc.bgs.ac.uk/cgi-bin/TFL-PSI/ows?</inspire_common:URL>
    </inspire_common:ResourceLocator>
    <inspire_common:ResourceType>service</inspire_common:ResourceType>
    <inspire_common:TemporalReference>
        <inspire_common:DateOfLastRevision>2014-06-06</inspire_common:DateOfLastRevision>
    </inspire_common:TemporalReference>
    <inspire_common:Conformity>
        <inspire_common:Specification>
            <inspire_common:Title>-</inspire_common:Title>
            <inspire_common:DateOfLastRevision>2014-06-06</inspire_common:DateOfLastRevision>
        </inspire_common:Specification>
        <inspire_common:Degree>notEvaluated</inspire_common:Degree>
    </inspire_common:Conformity>
    <inspire_common:MetadataPointOfContact>
        <inspire_common:OrganisationName>Mr Matthew Harrison</inspire_common:OrganisationName>
        <inspire_common:EmailAddress>enqiries@bgs.ac.uk</inspire_common:EmailAddress>
    </inspire_common:MetadataPointOfContact>
    <inspire_common:MetadataDate>2014-03-28</inspire_common:MetadataDate>
    <inspire_common:SpatialDataServiceType>view</inspire_common:SpatialDataServiceType>
    <inspire_common:MandatoryKeyword>
        <inspire_common:KeywordValue>infoMapAccessService</inspire_common:KeywordValue>
    </inspire_common:MandatoryKeyword>
    <inspire_common:SupportedLanguages>
        <inspire_common:DefaultLanguage>
            <inspire_common:Language>eng</inspire_common:Language>
        </inspire_common:DefaultLanguage>
    </inspire_common:SupportedLanguages>
    <inspire_common:ResponseLanguage>
        <inspire_common:Language>eng</inspire_common:Language>
    </inspire_common:ResponseLanguage>
</inspire_vs:ExtendedCapabilities>

Group layering

To conform to INSPIRE naming requirements for view services you will probably need to group your layers; for example if you have bedrock and surface geology layers in your 1GE service you will need to do this, or if you have different layers for surface age and surface lithology. See section 4.5 of this cookbook for details of how to configure group layering.

When giving a name to your layers one suggestion is prepending the INSPIRE MappedFeature group name to the individual layer names (which should follow the OneGeology WMS profile naming conventions), so for example if you have a number of layers for geologic units (e.g. layers representing bedrock age, bedrock lithology, surface age, and surface lithology) these would according to INSPIRE naming rules need to be part of a layer (e.g. within a grouped layer) called GE.GeologicUnit. The OneGeology naming conventions for a layer (see section 2.5 for details) would suggest a name for the surface age layer like GBR_BGS_EN_1M_Surface_Age, so combining these we would get an INSPIRE plus OneGeology layer name of GE.GeologicUnit_GBR_BGS_EN_1M_Surface_Age. This convention is OK if you are intending to publish a WMS only service, however if you also intend to publish a GeoSciML-Portrayal WFS using the same configuration, you will find that there is an issue with the Feature Identifiers that is, your identifier will have a structure like GE.GeologicUnit_GBR_BGS_EN_1M_Surface_Age.10, and such a structure (with two or more dots) causes an error when doing a GetFeature request by ID; as MapServer seems to regard everything after the first dot as the feature identifier.

For example a request like:

http://.../BGS_OGE_Bedrock_and_Surface_Geology/ows?service=WFS&request=GetFeature&version=1.1.0&FeatureID=GE.GeologicFault_BGS_EN_1M_Surface.10&

Results in the following error:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<ows:ExceptionReport xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ows="http://www.opengis.net/ows" version="1.1.0" 
language="en-US" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/ows http://schemas.opengis.net/ows/1.0.0/owsExceptionReport.xsd">
  <ows:Exception exceptionCode="InvalidParameterValue" locator="featureid">
    <ows:ExceptionText>msWFSGetFeature(): WFS server error. Invalid FeatureId in GetFeature. Expecting layername.value : (null)</ows:ExceptionText>
  </ows:Exception>
</ows:ExceptionReport>

If you are also publishing a GeoSciML-Portrayal WFS using the same configuration, then you must either substitute underscores for the dot in the INSPIRE name (GE.GeologicUnit becomes GE_GeologicUnit) or omit the INSPIRE component completely.

Updating the class files and data

If your OneGeology-Europe service was based on a database, then you will just need to use an INNER JOIN in the relevant database tables using the mapping tables supplied in Appendix L; that is you just need to add some new columns into the database, using the GeoSciML-Portrayal names as the field names. You can keep the original LAYER > CLASSes in your map file and be able to show both the original OneGeology symbology (the default style), and also be able to provide different portrayals through the application of an external SLD, such as through the OneGeology portal.

If your OneGeology-Europe service was based on a shapefile, you may need to create new classes (you can keep the old classes and have these serve a different (original) symbology if desired). You may need to create new classes for a service based on a shapefile because a shapefile can only have field names up to 10 characters long and GeoSciML-Portrayal requires some field names up to 28 chararaters, (and the standard SLD files such as those used by the portal expect the full GeoSciML-Portrayal names). It is possible that you can get around this restriction by using the GML aliasing ability (see the WFS considerations section below for examples), but we have not tested this for a GeoSciML-Portrayal WMS.

Handing fields for which you have no data

As GeoSciML-Portrayal requires data (or URIs pointing to null value reasons) for data that was not required in the OneGeology-Europe services, you have a few options with MapServer if you don't have the required data (for example a specification_uri for all features). Option 1 would be to create a column in the data source and populate the rows with null value URIs (such as for example with the value http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/codelist/VoidReasonValue/Unknown/). Option 2 would be to populate the missing values within the GetFetaureInfo request template, such as below:

<!-- MapServer Template -->
<dl>
    <dt>identifier</dt>
    <dd>[OBJECTID]</dd>
    <dt>name</dt>
    <dd>[Name]</dd>
    <dt>faultType_uri</dt>
    <dd>[faultType_uri]</dd>
    <dt>positionalAccuracy (m)</dt>
    <dd>[PositionalAccuracy]</dd>
    <dt>movementType_uri</dt>
    <!-- Here we provide an INSPIRE nil reason for the missing movementType_uri -->
    <dd>http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/codelist/VoidReasonValue/Unknown</dd>
    <dt>deformationStyle_uri</dt>
    <!-- Here we provide an INSPIRE nil reason for the missing deformationStyle_uri -->
    <dd>http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/codelist/VoidReasonValue/Unknown</dd>
    <dt>representativeOlderAge_uri</dt>
    <dd>[representativeOlderAge_uri]</dd>
    <dt>representativeYoungerAge_uri</dt>
    <dd>[representativeYoungerAge_uri]</dd>
    <dt>representativeAge_uri</dt>
    <dd>[representativeAge_uri]</dd>
    <dt>specification_uri</dt>
    <!-- Here we supply a link to our Feature (using our Simple Fetaure GeoSciML-Portrayal WFS).  
    This information isn't in the database and we can update to a full GeoSciML response when available 
    In the actual template we have this as a link -->
    <dd>http://ogc2.bgs.ac.uk/cgi-bin/BGS_OGE_Bedrock_and_Surface_Geology_in3/ows?service=WFS&
    request=GetFeature&version=1.1.0&&FeatureID=GBR_BGS_EN_1M_Surface_Fault.[OBJECTID]&</dt>
    <!-- Here we supply a link to some metadata for our datasource that isn't in the database 
    In the actual template we have this as a link -->
    <dd>http://metadata.bgs.ac.uk/geonetwork/srv/en/iso19139.xml?id=6075</dd>
</dl>

Another option would be to configure some GML constants, see the below section on WFS considerations for the configuration details.

GeoSciML-Portrayal (simple feature ~ GML SF-0) WFS considerations

Whilst configuring a WFS is outside of the scope of this WMS cookbook, the following section is included to help you migrate your OneGeology-Europe (WMS+WFS) service to a GeoSciML-Portrayal (WMS + WFS) service; it should be noted however that such a simple feature WFS would not meet the requirements for an INSPIRE compliant download service - a full GeoSciML 4.0 complex property WFS is required for INSPIRE.

In the MAP > WEB > METADATA section you can set the default WFS language, and also configure a namespace prefix and uri GeoSciML-Portrayal for like:

            "WFS_LANGUAGES" "eng"
            "WFS_NAMESPACE_PREFIX" "gmlsp"
            "WFS_NAMESPACE_URI" "http://xmlns.geosciml.org/geosciml-portrayal/4.0"

In any LAYER > METADATA section you can define any number of GML constants. You can use this mecahnism as a way to add nil values or other constant information that is missing from your data source but required by the GeoSciML-Portrayal schema, or simply because you wish to supply it.

In this example (below) we have used this mechanism to populate specification_uri and metadata_uri which were required with GeoSciML-Portrayal version 2; in the current version 4.0 these propreties are now optional.

            "GML_CONSTANTS" "specification_uri,metadata_uri"
            "GML_metadata_uri_TYPE" "string"
            "GML_metadata_uri_VALUE" "http://metadata.bgs.ac.uk/geonetwork/srv/en/iso19139.xml?id=6074"
            "GML_specification_uri_TYPE" "string"
            "GML_specification_uri_VALUE" "http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/codelist/VoidReasonValue/Unpopulated/"

Once a constant has been defined for a layer, the constant can be access in a template using the standard notation.

In any LAYER > METADATA section you can specify which items in your datasource to include (or exclude) in your Feature response, so in this below example we are saying effectively include everything (GML_INCLUDE_ITEMS) except (GML_EXCLUDE_ITEMS).

  
            "GML_INCLUDE_ITEMS" "all"
            "GML_EXCLUDE_ITEMS" "AgeMax,AgeMin,EventEnvironment,EventProcess,Lithology_1,ProportionTerms_1,GeologicUnitPartRole_1,Lithology_2,
            ProportionTerms_2,GeologicUnitPartRole_2,Lithology_3,ProportionTerms_3,GeologicUnitPartRole_3,Lithology_4,ProportionTerms_4,
            GeologicUnitPartRole_4,Lithology_5,ProportionTerms_5,GeologicUnitPartRole_5,MetamorphicGrade,NameIndex,BodyMorphology,
            SamplingFrame,GUObservationMethod,GUPurpose,SHAPE_Length,SHAPE_Area,RELEASED,gu_id,mf_id"

In any LAYER > METADATA section you can specify an alias to be used in your feature response, so for example if your feature identifier is called OBJECTID in your database you can alias it to the required identifier, or if you want to change the case of a field (or property) from Name to name you would use:

            "GML_OBJECTID_ALIAS" "identifier"
            "GML_Name_ALIAS" "name"

You can specify your own grouping of the properties (and the order in which they appear) within a feature and give this grouping a name like below. If you have used any aliases you must reference the original name and not the alias value in the grouping, though the alias will appear in the output.

            "GML_GROUPS" "ShearDisplacementStructureView"
            "GML_ShearDisplacementStructureView_GROUP" "OBJECTID,Name,faultType,observationMethod,positionalAccuracy,faultType_uri,
            movementType_uri,deformationStyle_uri,representativeAge_uri,representativeOlderAge_uri,representativeYoungerAge_uri,
            specification_uri,metadata_uri"

Section last modified: 10 December 2015

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