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INSPIRE View Service

Author:Stephan Meissl
Contact:stephan.meissl at eox.at
Last Updated:2012-03-19

Introduction

INSPIRE is the name of an European directive, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support Community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.

The INSPIRE View Service is an implementation of the INSPIRE Technical Guidance document on top of the WMS Server implementation explained in the previous chapter.

In order to achieve INSPIRE View Service compliance, the following enhancements have been implemented in MapServer:

  • Activation of INSPIRE support (two scenarios)
  • Multi-language support for certain capabilities fields
  • Provision of INSPIRE specific metadata
  • Named group layers
  • Style section for root layer and possibly existing group layers

Activation of INSPIRE support

INSPIRE specific metadata can either be referenced in an external INSPIRE service metadata document (scenario 1) or can be directly embedded in the capabilities document (scenario 2). MapServer supports both scenarios.

Activation of the corresponding scenario for INSPIRE support takes place in the WEB.METADATA section of the mapfile through wms_inspire_capabilities. If activated, the corresponding INSPIRE namespace as well as appropriate validation warnings are generated in the capabilities document.

Scenario 1 - activate INSPIRE support using a reference to external service metadata:

WEB
 METADATA
  "wms_inspire_capabilities" "url"
  ...
 END
END

Scenario 2 - activate INSPIRE support using embedded service metadata:

WEB
 METADATA
  "wms_inspire_capabilities" "embed"
  ...
 END
END

Multi-language support for certain capabilities fields

INSPIRE requires multi-language support and requests a list of all supported languages as well as the default language in the capabilities document. Based on the language parameter in the GetCapabilites request, certain specific metadata values, namely

  • wms_title
  • wms_abstract
  • wms_rootlayer_title
  • wms_rootlayer_abstract
  • wms_group_title
  • wms_group_abstract
  • wms_style_title
  • wms_style_<name>_title

as well as language dependent reference data like

  • DATA "road_eng"
  • CONNECTION "db_ger"

need to be provided in the requested language. If the language is not supported (or no language parameter is present), the default language has to be used.

All supported languages have to be specified as comma separated list (first language is default) through wms_languages in the WEB.METADATA section of the mapfile. This language parameter is also added to the OnlineResource in the GetCapabilites output:

WEB
 METADATA
  ...
  "wms_languages" "eng,ger"       #first default, values according ISO 639-2/B
  ...
 END
END

For language specific metadata values, a key extension method is applied:

WEB
 METADATA
  ...
  "wms_title.eng" "myservicetitle"
  "wms_title.ger" "myservicetitleger"
  "wms_abstract" "mylayerabstract"        #fallback
  "wms_abstract.ger" "mylayerabstractger"
  ...
 END
END

For language dependent reference data, a similar approach like the run-time substitution feature of MapServer has been followed (only DATA and CONNECTION values with %language% are substituted):

...
  LAYER
   NAME TN.RoadTransportNetwork.RoadLink
   DATA "road_%language%"
   ...
  END
...

If the language is not supported (or no language parameter is present), the default language is substituted.

Provision of INSPIRE specific metadata

Depending on the scenario, additional metadata information is required to support the specification. The INSPIRE related fields are provided below.

Scenario 1 - INSPIRE related fields using referenced external service metadata:

WEB
 METADATA
  "wms_inspire_capabilities" "url"
  "wms_languages" "eng,ger"               #first default, values according ISO 639-2/B
  "wms_inspire_metadataurl_href" "http://INSPIRE.service/metadata"
  "wms_inspire_metadataurl_format" "application/vnd.ogc.csw.capabilities.response_xml"
  "wms_keywordlist_ISO_items" "infoMapAccessService" #value according "classification of spatial data services"
  "wms_keywordlist_vocabulary" "ISO"
  "wms_title" "myservicetitle"
  "wms_abstract" "myabstract"
  "wms_fees" "conditions unknown"         #value either "no conditions apply"|default "conditions unknown"|<specific conditions>
  "wms_accessconstraints" "None"          #value according ISO 19115 (MD_RestrictionCode codelist) or default "None"
  "wms_contactorganization" "MapServer"   #responsible organization
  "wms_contactposition" "owner"           #responsible organization, value according "INSPIRE Metadata Regulation" (part D6)
  ...
 END
END

Scenario 2 - INSPIRE related fields using embedded service metadata:

WEB
 METADATA
  "wms_inspire_capabilities" "embed"
  "wms_languages" "eng,ger"               #first default, values according ISO 639-2/B
  "wms_inspire_temporal_reference" "2011-09-19" #date of last revision, value according YYYY-MM-DD
  "wms_inspire_mpoc_name" "mympocname"    #point of contact
  "wms_inspire_mpoc_email" "mympoc@e.mail" #point of contact
  "wms_inspire_metadatadate" "2011-09-19" #value according YYYY-MM-DD
  "wms_inspire_resourcelocator" "http://myinspireresource" #URL for ResourceLocator
  "wms_inspire_keyword" "infoMapAccessService" #value according "classification of spatial data services"
  "wms_keywordlist_ISO_items" "infoMapAccessService"
  "wms_keywordlist_vocabulary" "ISO"
  "wms_title" "myservicetitle"
  "wms_abstract" "myabstract"
  "wms_fees" "conditions unknown"         #value either "no conditions apply"|default "conditions unknown"|<specific conditions>
  "wms_accessconstraints" "None"          #value according ISO 19115 (MD_RestrictionCode codelist) or default "None"
  "wms_contactorganization" "MapServer"   #responsible organization
  "wms_contactposition" "owner"           #responsible organization, value according "INSPIRE Metadata Regulation" (part D6)
  ...
 END
END

Notes:

  • several fields require certain values, these values are not validated by MapServer itself, instead a manual validation against the INSPIRE schemas and the WMS INSPIRE tester is recommended
  • as suggested in this document regarding scenario 2, <inspire_common:ResourceType> is always set to service and <inspire_common:SpatialDataServiceType> is always set to view, both values can’t be altered through the mapfile
  • conformity is always set to not evaluated, based on the latest INSPIRE Metadata Implementing Rules (page 7), a specification document, the specification date and a specification URI or URL need to be provided for degree conformant/not conformant, which is currently not implemented

Named group layers

INSPIRE mandates usage of named group layers. Thus the functionality of wms_layer_group is extended to support named group layers. If a layer with the same name as used in wms_layer_group is found it is treated as named group and if no layer with this name is found as unnamed group as before.

Provided that ability, a hierarchy of any level can be achieved. See for example the grouping used in the wms_inspire.map mapfile in msautotest:

TN
+--- TN.CommonTransportElements
     +--- TN.CommonTransportElements.TransportArea
     +--- TN.CommonTransportElements.TransportLink
     +--- TN.CommonTransportElements.TransportNode
+--- TN.RoadTransportNetwork
     +--- TN.RoadTransportNetwork
     +--- TN.RoadTransportNetwork.VehicleTrafficArea
     +--- TN.RoadTransportNetwork.RoadServiceArea
     +--- TN.RoadTransportNetwork.RoadArea
+--- TN.RailTransportNetwork
     +--- TN.RailTransportNetwork.RailwayLink
     +--- TN.RailTransportNetwork.RailwayStationArea
     +--- TN.RailTransportNetwork.RailwayYardArea
     +--- TN.RailTransportNetwork.RailwayArea

Style section for root layer and possibly existing group layers

For regular layers, the concept of GROUP and CLASSGROUP can be used to set the layer style name to the according value. Additionally the layer style titles can be overwritten through wms_style_<stylename>_title and the layer style legendURLs through wms_style_<stylename>_legendurl_* (width, height, format, and href need to be provided):

...
  LAYER
   NAME TN.RoadTransportNetwork.RoadLink
   DATA "road"
   METADATA
    "wms_title.eng" "Transport networks: Road Link"
    "wms_title.ger" "Verkehrsnetze: Strassensegment"
    ...
    "wms_style_inspire_common:DEFAULT_title" "mylayerstyletitle"     #style title
    "wms_style_inspire_common:DEFAULT_legendurl_width" "85"          #override style legendurl (mandatory: width, height, format, href)
    "wms_style_inspire_common:DEFAULT_legendurl_height" "40"
    "wms_style_inspire_common:DEFAULT_legendurl_format" "image/png"
    "wms_style_inspire_common:DEFAULT_legendurl_href" "http://path/to/onlineresource...roadlink"
   END
   ...
  END
  ...
  CLASSGROUP "inspire_common:DEFAULT"
  CLASSITEM "NAME_E"

  CLASS
   NAME "myclass1"
   GROUP "inspire_common:DEFAULT"
   EXPRESSION "Trans-Canada Highway"
   COLOR 255 0 0
  END

  CLASS
   NAME "myclass2"
   GROUP "inspire_common:DEFAULT"
   COLOR 0 255 0
  END
...

The following method is implemented to support (customizable) style sections in the root layer:

  • use wms_style_name in the WEB.METADATA section to add a style section to the root layer
  • use wms_style_title to override the style title (optional)
  • use wms_style_legendurl_* to override width, heigth, format and href of the legendURL (optional)

and possibly existing group layers:

  • use wms_group_style_name in the first corresponding LAYER.METADATA section to add a style section to the group layer
  • use wms_group_style_title to override the style title (optional)
  • use wms_group_style_legendurl_* to override width, heigth, format and href of the legendURL (optional)
...
  WEB
   METADATA
    ...
    "wms_style_name" "inspire_common:DEFAULT"      #style name
    "wms_style_title" "myroadarealayerstyletitle"  #style title
    "wms_style_legendurl_width" "85"               #override style legendurl (mandatory: width, height, format, href)
    "wms_style_legendurl_height" "40"
    "wms_style_legendurl_format" "image/png"
    "wms_style_legendurl_href" "http://path/to/onlineresource...roadarea"
   END
  END

  LAYER
   NAME TN.RailTransportNetwork.RailwayLink
   GROUP TN.CommonTransportElements.TransportLink
    DATA "road"
    METADATA
     "wms_group_title.eng" "Transport networks: Generic Transport Link"
     "wms_group_title.ger" "Verkehrsnetze: Generisches Verkehrssegment"
     "wms_group_abstract" "mygenerictransportlinklayerabstract" #fallback
     "wms_group_abstract.ger" "mygenerictransportlinklayerabstract"
     "wms_group_style_name" "inspire_common:DEFAULT" #style name
     "wms_group_style_title" "mygenerictransportlinklayerstyletitle" #style title
     "wms_group_style_legendurl_width" "85"        #override style legendurl (mandatory: width, height, format, href)
     "wms_group_style_legendurl_height" "40"
     "wms_group_style_legendurl_format" "image/png"
     "wms_group_style_legendurl_href" "http://path/to/onlineresource...generictransportlink"
     "wms_title.eng" "Transport networks: Railway Link"
     "wms_title.ger" "Verkehrsnetze: Eisenbahnverbindung"
     "wms_abstract" "myrailwaylinklayerabstract"   #fallback
     "wms_abstract.ger" "myrailwaylinklayerabstractger"
     ...
    END
   ...
  END
...

Provided that ability, 3 levels of hierarchy can be achieved as done in the example mapfiles wms_inspire_scenario1.map and wms_inspire_scenario2.map in msautotest:

TN.RoadTransportNetwork.RoadArea
+--- TN.RoadTransportNetwork.RoadLink
+--- TN.CommonTransportElements.TransportLink
     +--- TN.RailTransportNetwork.RailwayLink
     +--- TN.AirTransportNetwork.AirLink

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