WFS Server working with ArcGIS Data Interoperability Extensions
The ArcGIS Data Interoperability Extensions allow ArcMAP and ArcCatalog to connect to a mapserver WFS and WMS server. However the ESRI products are fussy, so mapserver needs to be configured just right to get it to work. Here are elements of the map file that seem important to have a general WMS and WFS service that works with a wide range of client programs including the ESRI Data Interoperability Extensions.
IF YOU HAVE MORE INFORMATION PLEASE UPDATE THIS WIKI PAGE. The initial version of this wiki page contains mapfile fragments cut-n-pasted from a mapfile known to work as both a WMS server and a WFS server in both QGIS and ArcMAP.
Map overview: The MAXSIZE should be large enough if your users might have large monitors. The Extent is very important otherwise ARCGIS will get confused. I'm not sure if UNITS should be meters when using a lat-long projection like epsg:4326, but it seems to work. Of course the projection should be specified. For example:
`
MAP
NAME "w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543"
# Map image size
SIZE 1000 800
MAXSIZE 4096
UNITS meters
EXTENT -117.596180469 32.5342726369 -116.08088026 33.5053791791
FONTSET 'F:\djangoProjects\web_output\fontset.txt'
PROJECTION
"init=epsg:4326"
END
`
For WMS I've been using the agg output format:
`
OUTPUTFORMAT
NAME agg
DRIVER AGG/PNG
IMAGEMODE RGB
END
`
In the WEB section I think IMAGEPATH and IMAGEURL are necessary:
`
# Set IMAGEPATH to the path where MapServer should
# write its output.
IMAGEPATH 'F:\djangoProjects\web_output\images/'
# Set IMAGEURL to the url that points to IMAGEPATH
# as defined in your web server configuration
IMAGEURL 'http://www.example.com/mapimages/'
`
The METADATA section within the web section is very important. The titles need to be specified, the online resource is important, and it should end with a & (or perhaps a ? if there isn't already a question mark earlier in the URL). I've found the abstract to be extremely useful so that I can read what's actually represented.
`
#WFSE WFS needs metadata
METADATA
'ows_title' 'w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543'
'wfs_title' 'w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543'
'wfs_onlineresource' 'http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?map=F:/path/to/mapfiles/luz_mapfile_scen1_130206_141543_.map&'
'wfs_srs' 'EPSG:4326'
'wfs_abstract' 'Map of price for commodity generated from all_exchange_results at 130206_141543.'
'wfs_enable_request' '*'
'wms_title' 'w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543'
'wms_onlineresource' 'http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?map=F:/path/to/mapfiles/luz_mapfile_scen1_130206_141543_.map&'
'wms_srs' 'EPSG:4326'
'wms_abstract' 'Map of price for commodity generated from all_exchange_results at 130206_141543.'
'wms_enable_request' '*'
END
`
(The wms_onlineresource and wfs_onlineresource can be trouble if you occasionally need access the server by IP address (e.g. if your VPN service doesn't support DNS through the VPN) or using "localhost", or if your computer has more than one name. The problem is that getCapabilities does work as long as the URL properly maps to the host, but ArcGIS then uses the specified onlineresource to try to get the individual layers, and that onlineresource may not be available through the VPN due to DNS-VPN issues. QGIS has the option to ignore these fields, but ArcGIS seems to require them.)
Outside of the METADATA but still inside the WEB section it's useful to have a TEMPLATE. Some users will look at your WMS/WFS URL and try to open it in the browser. The TEMPLATE html should show the resulting map and also explain to the users that this URL is to be used inside a GIS program (WMS client or WFS client), not inside a web browser.
`
TEMPLATE 'F:\djangoProjects\web_output\templates/mapit/mapserv_template.html'
`
Here is a layer definition that is known to work. Critical elements seem to be DUMP true, specifying the extent, specifying the ows and wfs titles and online resource, and specifying the types of the data columns (for WFS). Note that the "gml_fieldname_type" entries should specify "xsd:double", if you want ARCGIS to be able to actually plot the data. Any other description causes ARCGIS to interpret the values as strings, and you won't be able to do any thematic maps.
`
LAYER
NAME 'luz_wgs84'
TYPE POLYGON
DUMP true
EXTENT -117.596180469 32.5342726369 -116.08088026 33.5053791791
CONNECTIONTYPE postgis
CONNECTION "dbname='db_sandag' host=postgis.example.com port=5432 user='postgisuser' password='postgispassword'"
DATA 'the_geom FROM analysis."w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543_with_geom" USING UNIQUE gid USING srid=4326'
METADATA
'ows_title' 'luz_wgs84'
'wfs_title' 'luz_wgs84_data'
'wfs_onlineresource' 'http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?map=F:/path/to/mapfiles/SANDAG/luz_mapfile_scen1_130206_141543_.map&'
'wfs_src' 'EPSG:4326'
'wfs_abstract' 'Map of price for commodity generated from all_exchange_results at 130206_141543.'
"gml_delta10_5_type" "xsd:double"
"gml_per10_5_type" "xsd:double"
"gml_avg2005price_type" "xsd:double"
"gml_avg2006price_type" "xsd:double"
"gml_avg2007price_type" "xsd:double"
"gml_avg2008price_type" "xsd:double"
"gml_avg2009price_type" "xsd:double"
"gml_avg2010price_type" "xsd:double"
"gml_include_items" "delta10_5,per10_5,avg2005price,avg2006price,avg2007price,avg2008price,avg2009price,avg2010price"
'wfs_enable_request' '*'
'wms_title' 'luz_wgs84'
END
STATUS OFF
TRANSPARENCY 100
PROJECTION
"init=epsg:4326"
END
CLASS
NAME 'luz_wgs84'
STYLE
SYMBOL 0
SIZE 7.0
OUTLINECOLOR 0 0 0
COLOR -1 -1 -1
END
END
END
`
In a mapserver 5.6.3 driven install, the LAYER configuration parameter "GROUP" seems to cause the creation of 4 separate feature layers to be added to the ArcMap 10.x layers. When the GROUP parameter is present, the result of adding the layer looks as Figure 1. When commenting out or eliminating the GROUP parameter in the layer of interest, the correct result (only a point feature) is added, see Figure 2.
Figure 1: Result of using a GROUP parameter in the LAYER definition for a WFS layer in Mapserver 5.6.3 viewed in ArcMap 10.1.
Figure 2: Result of loading a Mapserver based WFS layer without a GROUP parameter in the LAYER definition using Mapserver 5.6.3 viewed in ArcMap 10.1.
Here is an example of the use of the GROUP parameter in a LAYER definition.
LAYER NAME vwuds_max GROUP vwuds_max METADATA "wfs_title" "Water Use Point Information" ## REQUIRED "wfs_srs" "EPSG:4326" ## REQUIRED "gml_featureid" "fid" ## REQUIRED "gml_include_items" "all" ## Optional (serves all attributes for layer) "wfs_enable_request" "*" END ...
