UF3: Should you state explicitly in the documentation that the format of a resource needs to be wms to use bcdc_query_geodata?

[ateucher]

UF3: Should you state explicitly in the documentation that the format of a resource needs to be wms to use bcdc_query_geodata?

The help for bcdc_query_geodata says:

Queries features from the B.C. Web Service. The data must be available as a Web Service. ...

And the closest statement I have found is in the Querying Spatial Data with bcdata vignette:

This data is the boundary of each school district. The key information in this metadata is that the layer is a **WFS request (Spatial Data)**---which means it is available through a Web Service. From this we know we can make use of bcdc_query_geodata.

I am 95% sure this corresponds to the wms format based on the content of the Web Service link. If true, this could be made more explicit by changing that para to something like:

This data is the boundary of each school district. The key information in this metadata is that the available resource has format **wms**---which means it is available through a Web Maps Service. From this we know we can make use of bcdc_query_geodata.

Originally posted by @MilesMcBain in #239 (comment)

[ateucher]

@boshek @stephhazlitt - re the wms/wfs/web service/web map service. WFS (Web Feature Service) and WMS (Web Map Service) are both special cases of OWS (OGC Web Service). I think any catalogue record that has one of WFS of WMS will have both. The catalogue lists all of these records as WMS (which is why bcdc_tidy_resources() lists them as such and we use that language throughout) though bcdata pretty much only makes use of the WFS (except in bcdc_preview() which is only just functional).

So the cadillac fix would be to go through it all and use ows/wms/wfs consitently where they are appropriate, but as a stopgap it might be worth just updating the documentation as Miles suggested. Thoughts?

[stephhazlitt]

Could we just use Web Service throughout?

[ateucher]

I think "Web Map Service" might be better, since the catalogue is also a web service.

[ateucher]

That said, the way you use "Web Feature Service" in #266 is correct, and switching that to "Web Map Service" would be wrong - WMS is the image overlay service, WFS is the actual vector shapes + attributes.

[ateucher]

I say keep the article as you have it, and I'll try to align some of the documentation

[stephhazlitt]

TTW picking the proper noun was one of the hardest part of the writing.... 🤷‍♀️