This GitHub repository contains the new revision of the OGC's Web Feature Service standard for querying geospatial information on the web. It is a complete rewrite of previous versions, focusing on a simple RESTful core specified as reusable OpenAPI components with responses in JSON and HTML.
Alternate rederings of this standard are available for HTML and PDF
A Web Feature Service is a standard API that represents collections of geospatial data.
GET /collections
Lists the collections of data on the server that can be queried (7.11), and each describes basic information about the geospatial data collection, like its id and description, as well as the spatial and temporal extents of all the data contained
GET /collections/{collectionId}/items?bbox=160.6,-55.95,-170,-25.89
Requests all the data in the collection that is in the New Zealand economic zone. The response format (typically HTML or a GeoJSON feature collection, but GML is supported, too, and extensions can easily supply others) is determined using HTTP content negotiation.
Data is returned in pageable chunks, with each response containing a next link
as many collections are quite large. The core specification supports a few basic filters, in
addition to the bbox filter above, with extensions providing more advanced options.
(7.13)
GET /collections/{collectionId}/items/{featureId}
Returns a single geographic 'feature' - something in the real-world (a building, a stream, a county, etc.) that typically is described by a geometry plus other properties. This provides a stable, canonical URL to link to the 'thing'.
A draft of WFS 3.0 is available:
A PDF version is available, too.
Those who want to just see the endpoints and responses can explore the generic OpenAPI definition on SwaggerHub:
There have been several implementations of the draft standard, though they are still getting up to compliance with the first draft release:
Join the mailing list or
Most all work on the specification takes place in GitHub issues, so browse there to get a good idea of what is happening, as well as past decisions.
Also a non-normative document, the "WFS 3.0 Users Guide", is being developed.
In addition to feedback from the initial implementations as well as discussions on GitHub and in the OGC/ISO working group, the current draft standard has been tested in a WFS 3.0 Hackathon, the OGC Testbed-14, the OGC Vector Tiles Pilot and other activities.
Feedback for the Core is collected and discussed in the GitHub issues for Part 1, Core. The current expectation is to have a stable version of the Core specification around mid-2019. This version would then be the input for the next steps in the standardization process in OGC and ISO/TC 211.
- Background of this activity
- The next version of WFS - an overview
- OGC Web Feature Service 3.0 - Part 1: Core, Editor's Draft
The contributor understands that any contributions, if accepted by the OGC Membership and ISO/TC 211, shall be incorporated into OGC and ISO/TC 211 Web Feature Service standards documents and that all copyright and intellectual property shall be vested to the OGC.
The WFS/FES Standards Working Group (SWG) is the group at OGC responsible for the stewardship of the standard, but is working to do as much work in public as possible.