Considerations for Implementing OGC WMS and WFS Specifications in a Desktop GIS

Abstract

An implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium Web Feature Service (WFS) and Web Map Service (WMS) specifications in an open source desktop GIS is presented together with a discussion of considerations for improving the use of web services data in desktop applications. In our implementation, WFS and WMS services are consumed by a plug-in to MapWindow GIS [1], allowing the end user to view WFS, WMS and ArcIMS data, including data from the ESRI Geography Network, in a transparent manner that can be configured for either data analysis and modeling, or data visualization. This implementation in an open source GIS allows for others to view and use the code, improve it, and otherwise implement the suggested considerations in other GIS platforms. Specific considerations proposed here include: pre-fetching through envelope optimization, tile display, and feature complexity reduction. These strategies improve the speed and responsiveness with which data can be viewed and analyzed. Comparisons made with other web-based data access implementations are used to evaluate whether these techniques provide performance benefits, and under which circumstances.