This document provides an overview of implementing an INSPIRE View Service using the open source MapServer platform. It describes activating INSPIRE support in MapServer, adding multi-language support, including INSPIRE specific metadata, and using named group layers. The implementation is available in MapServer 6.2 and has been tested against the INSPIRE WMS tester. It provides INSPIRE compliant metadata and capabilities documents and allows rendering INSPIRE compliant map layers and data.

1. INSPIRE View Service in
MapServer
FOSS4G-CEE 2012, Prague
Stefan Leopold
Stephan Meißl

2. Outline
• Overview INSPIRE View Service
• Overview MapServer
• Implementation & Configuration in MapServer
– Activation of INSPIRE support
– Multi-language support
– INSPIRE specific metadata
– Named group layers
• Conclusions & Outlook

3. Overview of INSPIRE View Service
• Infrastructure for Spatial Information
in Europe - initiative launched by
the European Commission for
solving interoperability issues for
geospatial data
http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu
• Directive as law
• Technical Guidance for View
Services based on WMS 1.1.1
& 1.3.0

5. Overview MapServer
• OSGeo Project – http://mapserver.org
• Widely used Open Source platform for
publishing spatial data to the web
• Fast, flexible, reliable, and highly integratable
• Support of various OGC standards: WMS, WFS,
WCS, SLD, SOS, etc.
• Current release: 6.0.3; 6.2 in preparation
• 16+ active developers; ~300k LoC;
~77 man‑years; IRC #mapserver 30+
• Latest highlights: MapCache, TinyOWS, Github

6. INSPIRE View Service in MapServer
• Available with MapServer 6.2 release
• WMS 1.3.0
• Based on Technical Guidance in version 3.0
• Documentation
http://mapserver.org/trunk/ogc/inspire.html
with 6.2 release http://mapserver.org/ogc/inspire.html
• Implementation tracked as RFC 75
http://mapserver.org/development/rfc/ms-rfc-75.html
• Validates against INSPIRE schemas
• Tested against WMS INSPIRE tester
http://inspire_tester.neogeo-online.net

7. Activation of INSPIRE support
• scenario 1: external metadata: "url"
• scenario 2: embedded metadata: "embed"
WEB
METADATA
"wms_inspire_capabilities" "url"
...
END
END

8. Multi-language support (1/3)
• Provisioning of all supported languages
• Values according to ISO 639-2/B
• First value is default language
WEB
METADATA
…
"wms_languages" "eng,ger,ita"
...
END
END

9. Multi-language support (2/3)
WEB
METADATA
"wms_title.eng" "Transport Network"
"wms_title.ger" "Verkehrsnetz"
"wms_abstract" "myabstract"
...
END
END
...&REQUEST=GetCapabilities&LANGUAGE=eng

10. Multi-language support (3/3)
• Run-time substitution (only CGI)
• DATA & CONNECTION metadata
LAYER
NAME TN.RoadTransportNetwork.RoadArea
DATA "road_%language%.shp"
...
END
...&REQUEST=GetMap&LANGUAGE=eng

11. INSPIRE specific metadata - Scenario 1
"wms_inspire_metadataurl_href" "http://..."
"wms_inspire_metadataurl_format"
"application/vnd.ogc.csw.capabilities.response_xml"
"wms_keywordlist_vocabulary" "ISO"
"wms_keywordlist_ISO_items" "infoMapAccessService"
"wms_fees" "conditions unknown"
"wms_accessconstraints" "None"
"wms_contactorganization" "MapServer"
"wms_contactposition" "owner"
...

12. INSPIRE specific metadata - Scenario 2
Additional metadata:
"wms_inspire_temporal_reference" "2012-05-22"
"wms_inspire_mpoc_name" "mympocname"
"wms_inspire_mpoc_email" "mympoc@e.mail"
"wms_inspire_metadatadate" "2012-05-22"
"wms_inspire_resourcelocator" "http://resource"
• Values are not validated
• Some metadata is hard-coded

13. Named group layers (1/2)
• Via wms_layer_group
• Arbitrary depth
• Named vs. Unnamed
• Supported in GetMap,
GetFeatureInfo, etc.
LAYER
NAME RoadArea
METADATA
"wms_layer_group" "/RoadTransportNetwork"
…

14. Named group layers (2/2)
MAP
NAME TN
…
LAYER unnamed
NAME RoadTransportNetwork
...
LAYER
NAME RoadArea
METADATA
"wms_layer_group" "/RoadTransportNetwork"
…
• Only TN and RoadArea can be requested
• RoadTransportNetwork only used for grouping

15. <inspire_vs:ExtendedCapabilities>
<inspire_common:MetadataUrl xsi:type="inspire_common:resourceLocatorType">
<inspire_common:URL>http://...</inspire_common:URL>
<inspire_common:MediaType>
application/vnd.ogc.csw.capabilities.response_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:SupportedLanguage>
<inspire_common:Language>ger</inspire_common:Language>
</inspire_common:SupportedLanguage>
</inspire_common:SupportedLanguages>
<inspire_common:ResponseLanguage>
<inspire_common:Language>eng</inspire_common:Language>
</inspire_common:ResponseLanguage>
</inspire_vs:ExtendedCapabilities>

16. Conclusions & Outlook (1/2)
• INSPIRE view service support based on
Technical Guidance (v3.0) available with
MapServer 6.2 release
• WMS 1.1.1 on the roadmap
• Bug reports, feature requests, etc. via Github
http://github.org/mapserver/
• General support via mailing lists and IRC
http://mapserver.org/community/index.html

17. Conclusions & Outlook (2/2)
• WCS possibly part of INSPIRE Download Service
– EOxServer: Presentation tomorrow 9:20
• Try it out!
– Check out the MapServer master/trunk and
build the source
http://github.org/mapserver/mapserver/
– Use our demo service and ask for special
support
– Thanks for your feedback

18. Credits
• Edward Nash and Martin Kofahl from DVZ M-V
for their extensive testing
• R3 GIS & EU for financial support
• The whole MapServer Team for their great
guidance and support

19. Stephan Meißl EOX IT Services GmbH
stephan.meissl@eox.at Thurngasse 8/4
1090 Wien
Österreich / Austria
eox.at
Stefan Leopold
stefan.leopold@reflex.at
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