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WPS Server and Geoprocessing Over the Web
posted by Satri
on Thursday October 11, @01:56PM
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from the look-how-great-things-can-be-done-easily dept.
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Several recent entries have discussed the newly available demo of WPServer, a web processing server which allow geoprocessing over an Internet connexion. Here's the must-read followup entry: "Want your shapefiles on a map? Use FeatureServer. Want to buffer each of the points in your FeatureServer-served data? Serialize them, and pass them up to WPServer, then display the data that comes back. Want to mix in KML data, to see the intersections? Add a KML layer to OpenLayers, and use WPServer to do the intersections. Crap. I think what OpenLayers can do now might actually be something people would refer to as GIS." Spatially Adjusted discuss this demo and is impressed. Random Nodes also shares his thoughts on this web-based GIS solution. import cartography even claim this open source approach may beat ArcGIS Server directly, this tells you how important the matter is. See also the two previous stories on WPS in the related stories below. Related, there's the release of PyWPS 2.0.
Related Stories
Reviews: OGC's Web Processing Service (WPS) for Use in a Client-Side GIS
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The OSGeo Journal offers a nice article named "Evaluation of the OGC Web Processing Service for Use in a Client-Side GIS" by Christopher Michael and Daniel P. Ames [pdf, 330k]. The abstract: "The Open Geospatial Consortium Web Processing
Service proposed specification is intended as a solution
for developing web-based geoprocessing plugins,
and for easily sharing algorithms and geoprocessing
functionality. This paper seeks to evaluate
the WPS proposal with respect to feasibility and potential
utility, and to identify areas for improvement.
Challenges with the WPS proposal are discussed together
with potential solutions. Several potential
enhancements to the WPS proposal are introduced
and considered, including a mechanism to guide
client applications in prompting for correct data and
a means to list the data available on a server."
Web Processing Service (WPS) Demos 1 comment
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Anonymous Voxel writes "An old (but still interesting) news from geoserver blog: Theodor Foerster, of 52North and ITC, has been leveraging GeoServer in his work on generalization of geospatial data using the new Web Processing Service specification. He recently posted some nice new work, including updates to the Web Processing Service web app, as well as a new WPS client written as a plug-in to uDig. Awhile ago he also did some prototypes of integrating the WPS with GeoServer, making the WPS a datastore that could be served out as WMS and WFS. It’s great to see new open source tools being built that can use and leverage the work we’ve done with GeoServer. You can see his work in action, with GeoServer, in the screencast that he’s also posted.
Eventually we’re hoping to be able to offer some integration between GeoServer and his WPS work, possibly as a plug-in to GeoServer that makes it really easy to install both, and to do common data configuration through our web gui. In the past we’ve also talked to the FROGS WPS community about possible integrations as well. Since we’re evolving GeoServer to be a platform it makes a lot of natural sense to be able to bring WPS in to the mix, in some form. It looks like the FROGS people are also leveraging Spring, which may help compatibility as well (we haven’t talked to them for awhile so I suppose we can just cross our fingers that they’re looking at what we’ve done). So if anyone has the time or the money to get a WPS integrated with GeoServer, let us know, as we’ve got some great pieces to work with."
Eventually we’re hoping to be able to offer some integration between GeoServer and his WPS work, possibly as a plug-in to GeoServer that makes it really easy to install both, and to do common data configuration through our web gui. In the past we’ve also talked to the FROGS WPS community about possible integrations as well. Since we’re evolving GeoServer to be a platform it makes a lot of natural sense to be able to bring WPS in to the mix, in some form. It looks like the FROGS people are also leveraging Spring, which may help compatibility as well (we haven’t talked to them for awhile so I suppose we can just cross our fingers that they’re looking at what we’ve done). So if anyone has the time or the money to get a WPS integrated with GeoServer, let us know, as we’ve got some great pieces to work with."
Technology: Open Source Browser-Based AtomPub GIS Client
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The MetaCarta Labs demonstrate the world’s first Open Source Browser-Based AtomPub GIS Client. Try AtomPub in action via OpenLayers and FeatureServer right here, try it, it's surprising how easy it is to modify vector data. The CFIS blog adds more info on AtomPub and GIS interoperability, as well as this older entry from import cartography on AtomPub, KML and Google Earth. This is perfect timing considering RESTful knowledge amongst us. From the MetaCarta lab: " MetaCarta Labs is strongly in support of RESTful technology around GIS. FeatureServer is a REST-based geographic feature storage engine, which includes relatively complete Atom Publishing Protocol support.
Using FeatureServer and OpenLayers, it is possible to create an AtomPub client, which uses input from the user to create geometries, and allows users to modify and save their changes, all via Atom + GeoRSS."
Technology: GeoJSON Introduced
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The import cartography and EarthBrowser blogs have been discussing GeoJSON lately. Probably the best starting point is Direction Mag's excellent recent article on GeoJSON, a peak to Wikipedia JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) article can be useful. From the DM article: "One emerging geospatial technology standard that bears monitoring, GeoJSON (pronounced jee-oh-jay-son, sometimes with emphasis on the last syllable), may result in a viable software messaging language (e.g. a computer software system to computer software system messaging language) that can be simultaneously more compact than XML and more readable by a human. Compactness increases in importance when considering the large amount of geospatial data that must be shared in some system integrations. (Insistence that languages for computer-to-computer communication should be "human readable" is a pervasive theme for many IT standards bodies, and that likely says more about software developers' reluctance to release control than it does the necessity that the information actually ever be readable.) "
Technology: MetaCarta Announces Geographic Search and Referencing Platform (GSRP)
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APB discuss a press release about MetaCarta's announcement of their Geographic Search and Referencing Platform (GSRP).
MetaCarta are behind the open source OpenLayers, TileCache, FeatureServer and more.
From APB's analysis: "In other words, you can separately license their API's but still have access to their geo-referencing engine. So, if you only want to use their geotagging or query parsings applications in conjunction with the underlying geo-referencing engine software developers will now be able to license them as they need them. In the past, the six modules (geotagging, query parsing, geosearch, location finder, save-search-notification, and document density) that comprised the MetaCarta platform were highly inter-related and did not work independently."
See related stories below.
Technology: The GeoCloud and GIS As We Know It Disappearing
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VectorOne runs two perspectives wondering if you think GIS as we know it will “disappear” into the cloud?
From Jeff: "The Cloud is fertile ground for a GIS. A GIS is about much more than location alone. Its truest value and highest potential are exposed through the capability to perform spatial analysis, model and simulate. In a sense GIS is a 5-speed F1 racer that has been operating in second gear. The cloud has enormous potential to change that, shifting spatial gears and accelerating the wider use of GIS functionality. Buckle up - the ride is about to begin."
From Matt: "Predominantly geospatial capabilities are purchased by organizations, and by companies of such a size and complexity that they feel they must control these systems, particularly when they’re of a critical nature to operations and/or contain proprietary information that must be kept from competitors. I also wonder how long performance, security and reliable accessibility issues will exist for Internet-based applications."
In my numerous emails to catch up, I had the OGC newsletter with an article on the GeoCloud: "Given that the cloud computing platform and SaaS together are very similar (identical?) in their requirements for access to services and geospatial content, my belief is that OGC standards have the same value and provide the same benefits for the cloud as they do for the Grid community. It is only a matter of time before OGC standards are an integral component of the cloud." The ENTCHEV blog also offers several links to software that now supports cloud for geospatial applications. Spatially Adjusted also adds information. See also pertinent related stories below.
In my numerous emails to catch up, I had the OGC newsletter with an article on the GeoCloud: "Given that the cloud computing platform and SaaS together are very similar (identical?) in their requirements for access to services and geospatial content, my belief is that OGC standards have the same value and provide the same benefits for the cloud as they do for the Grid community. It is only a matter of time before OGC standards are an integral component of the cloud." The ENTCHEV blog also offers several links to software that now supports cloud for geospatial applications. Spatially Adjusted also adds information. See also pertinent related stories below.
The OGC Approves Web Processing Service (WPS) Standard 1.0
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The Open Geospatial Consortium announced that the Web Processing Service (WPS) is now an approved standard with its version 1.0. From the PR: "A WPS can be used to define calculations as simple as subtracting one set of spatially referenced data from another (e.g., determining the difference in influenza cases between two different seasons), or as complicated as a hydrological model. The data required by the WPS can be delivered across a network or it can be made available at the server. This interface specification provides mechanisms to identify the spatially referenced data required by the calculation, initiate the calculation, and manage the output from the calculation so that the client can access it." See also related stories below.
OpenLayers Now Fully an OSGeo Project
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The OSGeo mailing list tells us the OpenLayers project graduated from the OSGeo incubation process: "Graduating incubation includes requirements for open community operation,
a responsible project governance model, code provenance and license
verification and general good project operation. Graduating incubation
is the OSGeo seal of approval for a project and gives potential users of
the project added confidence in the viability and safety of the project." Here's the OpenLayers website, see also related stories below.
Technology: OGR GeoJSON Driver Developed
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The wonderful GDAL/OGR now has a new addition, Mateusz Loskot developed a GeoJSON driver for OGR. To refresh our minds, GeoJSON was introduced last month. From the blog entry: "The GeoJSON format fits very well the same niches as GML, like geospatial data interchange over network. Currently, GeoJSON is supported as output format of services implemented by FeatureServer, GeoServer and CartoWeb. [...] The OGR GeoJSON driver provides implementation of functions transforming GeoJSON encoded data to objects of OGR Simple Features model: Datasource, Layer, Feature, Geometry." With the new GDAL/OGR 1.4.3 now including WMS support, one can wonder what GDAL/OGR will not be able to do in the future! ;-)
Grid Computing for OGC's Web Procesing Service and More
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All Points Blog informs us the Open Geospatial Consortium as signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Open Grid Forum: "The initial goals of the collaboration include:
* Integrate OGC's OpenGIS Web Processing Service (WPS) Specification with a range of "back-end" processing environments to enable large-scale processing. [...] * Integration of WPS with workflow management tools. [...] * Integration of OGC federated catalogs/data repositories with grid data movement tools. OGF’s GridFTP is one possibility that supports secure, third-party transfers that are useful when moving data from a repository to a remote service." Here's the Open Grid Forum website.
See also this previous story on a geospatial grid project in Germany.
OpenLayers 2.5 Released
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The official OpenLayers blog informs us OpenLayers 2.5 has been released. From the blog: "As of this final release, the OpenLayers 2.5 release closes 190 outstanding tickets, more than any other OpenLayers release to date! [...] Now on to new features! SLD, client side reprojection, improved documentation and examples, tile transitions… so many neat things that 2.6 will hopefully bring." See this previous post on what's new in OpenLayers 2.5. The Earth is Square adds a post on OpenLayers working on the iPod Touch. See related stories below, OpenLayers has been covered regularly.
Technology: PyWPS 3.0.0 Released
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The Les-ejk blog informs us that the Python Web Processing Service software named PyWPS 3.0.0 has been released yesterday.
From the official page: "PyWPS (Python Web Processing Service) is implementation of Web Processing Service standard from Open Geospatial Consortium.
It has been started on Mai 2006 as project supported by DBU. It offers environment for programming own process (geofunctions or models) which can be accessed from the public. The main advantage of PyWPS is, that it has been written with native support for GRASS. Access GRASS modules via web interace should be as easy as possible."
And from the 3.0.0 announcement: "Features of this version:
- Support for OGC(R) WPS 1.0.0
- New simple configuration files
- New methods for custom process definition
- Support for multiple WPS servers with one PyWPS Installation
- Support for internationalization
- Simple code structure
- Python-htmltmpl templating system
- New examples of processes"
We mentioned PyWPS before, see below for several related WPS stories.
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