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# WCS Server

Author

  Jeff McKenna

Contact

  jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com

Author

  Stephan Meissl

Contact

  stephan.meissl at eox.at

Author

  Fabian Schindler

Contact

  fabian.schindler at eox.at

Last Updated

  2017-12-05

Table of Contents

- WCS Server

  - Introduction

  - Configuring Your Mapfile to Serve WCS Layers

  - Test Your WCS 1.0 Server

  - WCS 1.1.0+ Issues

  - WCS 2.0

  - HTTP-POST support

  - INSPIRE download service support

  - Reference Section

  - Rules for handling SRS in a MapServer WCS

  - Spatio/Temporal Indexes

  - WCS 2.0 Application Profile - Earth Observation (EO-WCS)

  - To-do Items and Known Limitations

  - Credits

## Introduction

A WCS (or Web Coverage Service) allows for the publication of “coverages”- digital geospatial information representing space-varying phenomena. In the MapServer world it allows for unfiltered access to raster data. Conceptually it is easy think of WCS as a raster equivalent of WFS. The following documentation is based on the Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC) Web Coverage Service Interfaces Implementation Specification version 1.0.0.

### Links to WCS-Related Information

- OGC’c WCS Standard page

- WCS 1.0.0 specification

- WCS 1.1.1c1 specification

- WCS 2.0

  - GML 3.2.1 Application Schema Coverages

  - WCS 2.0 Specification - Core

  - WCS 2.0 Specification - KVP Protocol Binding Extension

  - WCS 2.0 Specification - XML/POST Protocol Binding Extension

- WMS Server HowTo

### Software Requirements

In order to enable MapServer to serve WCS data, it MUST be compiled against certain libraries:

- PROJ.4: The reprojection library. Version 4.4.3 or greater is required.

- GDAL: raster support library.

- MapServer: version >= 4.4 (tested with 5.0.2 while updating this document)

For WCS 1.1.x (MapServer 5.2) and WCS 2.0 (MapServer 6.0) support there is an additional requirement:

- libxml2: An xml parser and generation library.

Please see the MapServer UNIX Compilation and Installation HowTo for detailed instructions on compiling MapServer with support for these libraries and features. For Windows users, MapServer for Windows (MS4W) comes with WCS Server support.

## Configuring Your Mapfile to Serve WCS Layers

Much as in the WMS and WFS support, WCS publishing is enabled by adding certain magic METADATA keyword/value pairs to a .map file.

MapServer will serve and include in its WCS capabilities only the layers that meet the following conditions:

- Data source is a raster, which is processed using GDAL (e.g GeoTIFF, Erdas Imagine, …)

- LAYER NAME must be set

- LAYER TYPE is set to RASTER

- WEB metadata or LAYER metadata “wcs_enable_request” must be set

- WEB metadata “wcs_label” must be set

- LAYER metadata “wcs_label” must be set

- LAYER metadata “wcs_rangeset_name” must be set

- LAYER metadata “wcs_rangeset_label” must be set

- LAYER is enabled to be served via WCS (see MS RFC 67)

- LAYER PROJECTION must be set, even if PROJECTION is set at the MAP level (a bug?)

### Example WCS Server Mapfile

The following is an example of a simple WCS Server mapfile. Note the comments for the required parameters.

    MAP
      NAME WCS_server
      STATUS ON
      SIZE 400 300
      SYMBOLSET "../etc/symbols.txt"
      EXTENT -2200000 -712631 3072800 3840000
      UNITS METERS
      SHAPEPATH "../data"
      IMAGECOLOR 255 255 255
      FONTSET "../etc/fonts.txt"

      #
      # Start of web interface definition
      #
      WEB
        IMAGEPATH "/ms4w/tmp/ms_tmp/"
        IMAGEURL "/ms_tmp/"
        METADATA
          "wcs_label"           "GMap WCS Demo Server" ### required
          "wcs_description"     "Some text description of the service"
          "wcs_onlineresource"  "http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?" ### recommended
          "wcs_fees"            "none"
          "wcs_accessconstraints"    "none"
          "wcs_keywordlist"          "wcs,test"
          "wcs_metadatalink_type"    "TC211"
          "wcs_metadatalink_format"  "text/plain"
          "wcs_metadatalink_href"    "http://someurl.com"
          "wcs_address"              "124 Gilmour Street"
          "wcs_city"                 "Ottawa"
          "wcs_stateorprovince"      "ON"
          "wcs_postcode"             "90210"
          "wcs_country"              "Canada"
          "wcs_contactelectronicmailaddress" "blah@blah"
          "wcs_contactperson"            "me"
          "wcs_contactorganization"      "unemployed"
          "wcs_contactposition"          "manager"
          "wcs_contactvoicetelephone"    "613-555-1234"
          "wcs_contactfacimiletelephone" "613-555-1235"
          "wcs_service_onlineresource"   "http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?"
          "wcs_enable_request"           "*"
        END
      END

      PROJECTION
        "init=epsg:42304"
      END

      LAYER
        NAME bathymetry
        METADATA
          "wcs_label"           "Elevation/Bathymetry"  ### required
          "wcs_rangeset_name"   "Range 1"  ### required to support DescribeCoverage request
          "wcs_rangeset_label"  "My Label" ### required to support DescribeCoverage request
        END
        TYPE RASTER ### required
        STATUS ON
        DATA bath_mapserver.tif
        PROJECTION
          "init=epsg:42304"
        END
      END
    END # Map File

### Output Formats

The raster formats supported by MapServer WCS are determined by the wcs_formats metadata item on the LAYER. This should contain a space separated list of OUTPUTFORMAT driver names separated by spaces. If absent, all raster OUTPUTFORMATs are allowed.

WCS is a “raw data” oriented format. So it often most suitable to use it with format using the BYTE, INT16 and FLOAT32 IMAGEMODEs with GDAL related output formats rather than the built in “rendering oriented” output formats. By default the only GDAL format driver defined is the GTiff driver. The following are example output format declarations utilizing the raw image modes:

    OUTPUTFORMAT
      NAME GEOTIFF_16
      DRIVER "GDAL/GTiff"
      MIMETYPE "image/tiff"
      IMAGEMODE FLOAT32
      EXTENSION "tif"
    END

    OUTPUTFORMAT
      NAME AAIGRID
      DRIVER "GDAL/AAIGRID"
      MIMETYPE "image/x-aaigrid"
      IMAGEMODE INT16
      EXTENSION "grd"
      FORMATOPTION "FILENAME=result.grd"
    END

The FORMATOPTION FILENAME defines the preferred name of the result file when returned WCS GetCoverage results.

## Test Your WCS 1.0 Server

### Validate the Capabilities Metadata

OK, now that we’ve got a mapfile, we have to check the XML capabilities returned by our server to make sure nothing is missing.

Using a web browser, access your server’s online resource URL to which you add the parameters “SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GetCapabilities” to the end, e.g.

    http://my.host.com/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=mywcs.map&SERVICE=WCS
      &VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GetCapabilities

If you get an error message in the XML output then take necessary actions. Common problems and solutions are listed in the FAQ at the end of this document.

If everything went well, you should have a complete XML capabilities document. Search it for the word “WARNING”… MapServer inserts XML comments starting with “<!–WARNING: ” in the XML output if it detects missing mapfile parameters or metadata items.

Note that when a request happens, it is passed through WMS, WFS, and WCS in MapServer (in that order) until one of the services respond to it.

Here is a working example of a GetCapabilities request:

WCS GetCapabilities live example

### Test With a DescribeCoverage Request

OK, now that we know that our server can produce a valid XML GetCapabilities response we should test the DescribeCoverage request. The DescribeCoverage request lists more information about specific coverage offerings.

Using a web browser, access your server’s online resource URL to which you add the parameters “SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=DescribeCoverage&COVERAGE=layername” to the end, e.g.

    http://my.host.com/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=mywcs.map&SERVICE=WCS
      &VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=DescribeCoverage&COVERAGE=bathymetry

Here is a working example of a DescribeCoverage request:

WCS DescribeCoverage live example

### Test With a GetCoverage Request

The GetCoverage request allows for the retrieval of coverages in a specified output format to the client.

The following is a list of the required GetCoverage parameters according to the WCS spec:

> VERSION=version: Request version

> REQUEST=GetCoverage: Request name

> COVERAGE=coverage_name: Name of an available coverage, as stated in the GetCapabilities

> CRS=epsg_code: Coordinate Reference System in which the request is expressed.

> BBOX=minx,miny,maxx,maxy: Bounding box corners (lower left, upper right) in CRS units. One of BBOX or TIME is required.

> TIME=time1,time2: Request a subset corresponding to a time. One of BBOX or TIME is required..

> WIDTH=output_width: Width in pixels of map picture. One of WIDTH/HEIGHT or RESX/Y is required.

> HEIGHT=output_height: Height in pixels of map picture. One of WIDTH/HEIGHT or RESX/Y is required.

> RESX=x: When requesting a georectified grid coverage, this requests a subset with a specific spatial resolution. One of WIDTH/HEIGHT or RESX/Y is required.

> RESY=y: When requesting a georectified grid coverage, this requests a subset with a specific spatial resolution. One of WIDTH/HEIGHT or RESX/Y is required.

> FORMAT=output_format: Output format of map, as stated in the DescribeCoverage response.

The following are optional GetCoverage parameters according to the WCS spec:

> RESPONSE_CRS=epsg_code: Coordinate Reference System in which to express coverage responses.

So to follow our above examples, a valid DescribeCoverage request would look like:

    http://my.host.com/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=mywcs.map&SERVICE=WCS
      &VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GetCoverage&coverage=bathymetry
      &CRS=EPSG:42304&BBOX=-2200000,-712631,3072800,3840000&WIDTH=3199
      &HEIGHT=2833&FORMAT=GTiff

Here is a working example of a GetCoverage request (note that a 350KB tif is being requested, so this may take a second):

WCS GetCoverage live example

## WCS 1.1.0+ Issues

WCS 1.1.0 and later versions of the WCS protocol are supported by MapServer 5.2. For the most part the map file setup for WCS 1.1.0 is similar to WCS 1.0.0, but the actual protocol is substantially changed.

### GetCapabilities

The GetCapabilities request is the same as WCS 1.0 but with a different VERSION value:

    SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.1.0&REQUEST=GetCapabilities

The format of the returned capabilities document is substantially altered from WCS 1.0, and makes use of OWS Common for service descriptions.

### DescribeCoverage

The DescribeCoverage request is similar to WCS 1.0, but the IDENTIFIERS keyword is used instead of COVERAGE to name the coverage(s) being requested:

    SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.1.0&REQUEST=DescribeCoverage&IDENTIFIERS=spaceimaging

### GetCoverage

The format for GetCoverage is substantially changed from 1.0. The following is a list of GetCoverage required parameters:

> VERSION=version: Request version

> REQUEST=GetCoverage: Request name

> IDENTIFIER=coverage_name: Name of an available coverage, as stated in the GetCapabilities

> BOUNDINGBOX=minx,miny,maxx,maxy,crs: Bounding box corners (lower left, upper right), and the CRS they are in. The CRS is described using a URN.

> FORMAT=output_format: Output format (mime type) of grid product, as stated in the GetCapabilities.

If an alternate spatial resolution is desired, then the following set of keywords must be used to specify the sample origin and step size of the output grid to be produced. The produced grid will be of a number of pixels and lines as can be fit in the BOUNDINGBOX starting at GridOrigin, at GridOffsets resolution.

> GRIDBASECRS=crs: The grid base CRS (URN).

> GRIDCS=crs: The grid CRS (URN).

> GridType=urn:ogc:def:method:WCS:1.1:2dGridIn2dCrs: This is the only supported value for MapServer.

> GridOrigin=x_origin,y_origin: The sample point for the top left pixel.

> GridOffsets=xstep,ystep: The x and y step size for grid sampling (resolution). Both are positive.

As well, the following optional parameters are available.

> RangeSubset=selection: Selects a range subset, and interpolation method. Currently only subsetting on bands are allowed. Depending on rangeset names, this might take the form “BandsName[bands[1]]” to select band 1, or “BandsName:bilinear[bands[1]]” to select band 1 with bilinear interpolation.

So a simple GetCoverage might look like:

    SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.1.0&REQUEST=GetCoverage&IDENTIFIER=dem&FORMAT=image/tiff
      &BOUNDINGBOX=43,33,44,34,urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326

A more complex request might look like:

    SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.1.0&REQUEST=GetCoverage&IDENTIFIER=dem&FORMAT=image/tiff
      &BOUNDINGBOX=33,43,34,44,urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
      &GridBaseCRS=urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326&GridCS=urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
      &GridType=urn:ogc:def:method:WCS:1.1:2dGridIn2dCrs
      &GridOrigin=33,44&GridOffsets=0.01,0.01
      &RangeSubset=BandsName:bilinear[bands[1]]

It should also be noted that return results from WCS 1.1 GetCoverage requests are in multi-part mime format. Typically this consists of a first part with an xml document referencing the other parts of the message, and an image file part. However, for output formats that return multiple files, each will be a separate part. For instance, this means it is possible to return a jpeg file with a world file, the OUTPUTFORMAT is appropriately configured.

### URNs

In WCS 1.1 protocol coordinate systems are referenced by URN. Some typical URNs are:

    urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
    urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG:27700
    urn:ogc:def:crs:OGC::CRS84

The first two are roughly equivalent to EPSG:4326, and EPSG:27700 while the third is a CRS defined by OGC (essentially WGS84). One critical thing to note is that WCS 1.1 follows EPSG defined axis/tuple ordering for geographic coordinate systems. This means that coordinates reported, or provided in urn:ogc:def:EPSG::4326 (WGS84) are actually handled as lat, long, not long,lat. So, for instance the BOUNDINGBOX for an area in California might look like:

    BOUNDINGBOX=34,-117,35,-116,urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326

And, likewise the bounds reported by GetCapabilities, and DescribeCoverage will be in this ordering as appropriate.

## WCS 2.0

### Overview

Version 6.0 introduces support for the new version 2.0 of the WCS specification. This section documents the usage of the new WCS version.

#### Web Coverage Service (WCS) 2.0 Interface Standard

This specification adopts the new OGC Core and Extension model and at the moment the following documents are available from the OGC’c WCS Standard page:

- GML 3.2.1 Application Schema Coverages

- WCS 2.0 Specification - Core

- WCS 2.0 Specification - KVP Protocol Binding Extension

- WCS 2.0 Specification - XML/POST Protocol Binding Extension

- WCS 2.0 Specification - Interpolation Extension

- WCS 2.0 Specification - Range Subsetting Extension

- WCS 2.0 Specification - GeoTIFF Coverage Encoding Profile

- WCS 2.0 Specification - CRS Extension

- WCS 2.0 Specification - Scaling Extension

Technical changes from WCS version 1.1.2 include entirely building on the GML 3.2.1 Application Schema Coverages and adoption of OWS Common 2.0. Another major change is the introduction of trim and slice concepts which is explained in more detail below.

There are WCS 2.0 Schemas defined against which all requests and responses should validate.

#### WCS 2.0 KVP request parameters

The following KVP request parameters are available in WCS 2.0:

> COVERAGEID=id: This parameter is technically the same as the COVERAGE parameter for WCS 1.0 or the IDENTIFIER parameter for WCS 1.1. In DescribeCoverage requests, multiple IDs can be requested by concatenating them with commas.

> SUBSET=axis[,crs](low,high): This parameter subsets the coverage on the given axis. This parameter can be given multiple times, but only once for each axis. The optional sub-parameter crs can either be an EPSG definition (like EPSG:4326), an URN or an URI or ‘imageCRS’ (which is the default). All crs sub-parameters from all SUBSET parameters must be equal. (e.g: you cannot subset one axis in imageCRS and another in EPSG:4326).

> Note

> The syntax of the crs sub-parameter is non-standard and deprecated. Please use the SUBSETTINGCRS parameter instead.

> Note

> Recognized values for the axis sub-parameter are: “x”, “xaxis”, “x-axis”, “x_axis”, “long”, “long_axis”, “long-axis”, “lon”, “lon_axis”, “lon-axis”, “y”, “yaxis”, “y-axis”, “y_axis”, “lat”, “lat_axis” and “lat-axis”.

> SUBSETTINGCRS=crs: This parameter defines the crs subsetting all SUBSETs are expressed in, and also the output CRS if no OUTPUTCRS is specified. By default all subsets are interpreted to be relative to the coverages CRS.

> OUTPUTCRS=crs: This parameter defines in which crs the output image should be expressed in.

> MEDIATYPE=mediatype: This parameter is relevant to GetCoverage requests, when multipart XML/image output is desired. It should be set to ‘multipart/related’ (which is currently the only possible value for this parameter).

> SCALEFACTOR=factor: With this parameter (a positive float) the size of the output image can be adjusted. All axes are scaled equally.

> SCALEAXES=axis(value)[,axis(value)]: With this parameter, an axis specific scaling can be applied. Any axis not mentioned

> SCALESIZE=axis(size)[,axis(size)]: This is similar to the SCALEAXES parameter, but allows an axis specific setting of the absolute pixel size of the returned coverage.

> SCALEEXTENT=axis(min:max)[,axis(min:max)]: This parameter is treated like a SCALESIZE parameter with “axis(max-min)”.

> INTERPOLATION=intperolation_method: This defines the interpolation method used, for rescaled images. Possible values are “NEAREST”, “BILINEAR” and “AVERAGE”.

> RANGESUBSET=band1[,band2[,…]]: With this parameter, a selection of bands can be made. Also the bands can be reordered. The bands can be referred to either by name (which can be retrieved using the DescribeCoverage request) or by index (starting with ‘1’ for the first band). Also a range of bands can be given: bandX:bandY. This also includes the lower and upper bounds. As the name implies, the lower bound must reference the band with the lower index. You can mix direct references to the bands with intervals. E.g: RANGESUBSET=band1,band3:band:5,band7

The following parameters are part of the WCS 2.0 Specification - GeoTIFF Coverage Encoding Profile and are only available for the GeoTIFF outputformat:

> GEOTIFF:COMPRESSION=compression: The compression method used for the returned image. Valid options are: None, PackBits, Deflate, Huffman, LZW and JPEG.

> GEOTIFF:JPEG_QUALITY=1-100: When the compression method JPEG is chosen, this value defines the quality of the algorithm.

> GEOTIFF:PREDICTOR=None|Horizontal|FloatingPoint: The predictor value for the LZW and Deflate compression methods.

> GEOTIFF:INTERLEAVE=Band|Pixel: Defines whether the image shall be band or pixel interleaved.

> GEOTIFF:TILING=true|false: Defines if the output image shall be internally tiled.

> GEOTIFF:TILEWIDTH=tilewidth, GEOTIFF:TILEHEIGHT=tileheight: Define the size of the internal tiles. Must be positive integer divisible by 16.

The following request parameters are not part of the WCS 2.0 Core or any extension thereof, and are kept for backward compatibility. They originate from a time where the most vital standard extensions were not specified and the WCS core was not quite useful without. They are deprecated.

> SIZE=axis(value): This parameter sets the size of the desired axis to the desired value (pixels).

> RESOLUTION=axis(value): This parameter sets the resolution of the desired axis to the desired value (pixels/unit).

> Note

> The SIZE and RESOLUTION are mutually exclusive on one axis, but can be mixed on different axes (e.g: SIZE on x-axis and RESOLUTION on y-axis). Also axis names in SUBSET, SIZE and RESOLUTION parameters cannot be mixed. E.g: …&SUBSET=x(0,100)&SIZE=lon(200)&… is not legal although the axis names logically refer to the same axis.

##### Unchanged KVP parameters

The following parameters have not (or just slightly) changed since the last version of the WCS standard.

> VERSION=version: For WCS 2.0, this should be set to ‘2.0.1’. This

>   parameter is deprecated for GetCapabilities related to OGC Web Services Common Standard 2.0.0.

> SERVICE=service

> REQUEST=request

> ACCEPTVERSIONS=versions

> SECTIONS=sections

> UPDATESEQUENCE=updatesequence

> ACCEPTFORMATS=formats: This parameter is currently ignored.

> ACCEPTLANGUAGES=languages: This is used for language negotiation for multi-lingual services

> FORMAT=format: The desired format can now also be set with the name of the outputformat object defined in the mapfile. In contrast to previous versions of WCS this parameter is optional when the native format is either specified or can be determined via GDAL.

> MAP=mapfile

##### KVP request examples

The below sample request outline the new KVP request syntax:

    # GetCapabilities
    http://www.yourserver.com/wcs?SERVICE=WCS&ACCEPTVERSIONS=1.0.0,2.0.1
      &REQUEST=GetCapabilities
    http://www.yourserver.com/wcs?SERVICE=WCS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities
    # DescribeCoverage 2.0
    http://www.yourserver.com/wcs?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=2.0.1
      &REQUEST=DescribeCoverage&COVERAGEID=grey
    # GetCoverage 2.0 image/tiff full
    http://www.yourserver.com/wcs?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=2.0.1
      &REQUEST=GetCoverage&COVERAGEID=grey&FORMAT=image/tiff
    # GetCoverage 2.0 multipart/related (GML header & image/tiff) full
    http://www.yourserver.com/wcs?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=2.0.1
      &REQUEST=GetCoverage&COVERAGEID=grey&FORMAT=image/tiff
      &MEDIATYPE=multipart/related
    # GetCoverage 2.0 image/tiff trim x y both in imageCRS
    http://www.yourserver.com/wcs?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=2.0.1
      &REQUEST=GetCoverage&COVERAGEID=grey&FORMAT=image/tiff
      &SUBSET=x(10,200)&SUBSET=y(10,200)
      &SUBSETTINGCRS=imageCRS
    # GetCoverage 2.0 reproject to EPSG 4326
    http://www.yourserver.com/wcs?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=2.0.1
      &REQUEST=GetCoverage&COVERAGEID=grey&FORMAT=image/tiff
      &SUBSET=x(-121.488744,-121.485169)
      &SUBSETTINGCRS=http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326

Please refer to the WCS 2.0 tests in msautotest for further sample requests.

### Changes to previous versions

The layer name must be a valid NCName, i.e: must not start with a number and can only contain alphanumerical characters. This constraint derives of the gml:id property which has to be a NCName, that relates to the coverage ID which is itself taken from the layers name.

### Specifying coverage specific metadata

For WCS enabled layers in MapServer, there are different possibilities for declaring coverage metadata for WCS 2.0. In the simplest case, all of the required metadata can be retrieved from the source image.

For some reason this may not be desirable, maybe because the source image does not provide these metadata. Not every input image format has geospatial metadata attached. In this case, the layer metadata can be used to provide this information.

The convention is that once (wcs|ows)_extent and one of (wcs|ows)_size and (wcs|ows)_resolution is set in the layer metadata, all the coverage specific metadata will be retrieved from there. Otherwise the source image is queried via GDAL, if possible.

The relevant layer metadata fields are (wcs|ows)_bandcount, (wcs|ows)_imagemode, (wcs|ows)_native_format, and all New band related metadata entries.

### New band related metadata entries

In this section new WCS 2.0 specific layer metadata entries are discussed.

The following layer metadata fields can be used to return a more detailed description for the range type of a “virtual dataset” coverage. A coverage is considered as a “virtual dataset” if the (wcs|ows)_extent metadata entry and one of the (wcs|ows)_size or (wcs|ows)_resolution metadata entries are set.

First of all, the used version of metadata has to be identified. To identify the bands of a coverage, the following field must be present:

> - (wcs|ows)_band_names

The type of these fields is a space delimited list of names, whereas the count of the names has to match the “bandcount” metadata field. These names are then used as a prefix for other metadata fields only concerning this band. The possible metadata keys are the following:

> - {band_name}_band_interpretation

> - {band_name}_band_uom

> - {band_name}_band_definition

> - {band_name}_band_description

> - {band_name}_interval

All values are interpreted as strings, only “interval” is interpreted as 2 double precision float values separated with a space.

Also default values can be configured for every key. These have the same suffix as the band specific keys but start with (wcs|ows) instead of the bands name:

> - (wcs|ows)_band_interpretation

> - (wcs|ows)_band_uom

> - (wcs|ows)_band_definition

> - (wcs|ows)_band_description

> - (wcs|ows)_interval

If no specific or default value is given, the output is dependent on the metadata key. The UOM, for example will be set to ‘W.m-2.Sr-1’, interval and significant figures will be determined according to the image type and definition, description, and interpretation will not be visible in the output at all.

This example demonstrates the use of the band-specific metadata fields with their default values:

    METADATA
      "ows_srs" "EPSG:4326"
      "wcs_extent" "47.5070762077246 16.038578977182 49.0103258976982 17.2500586851354"

      "wcs_size" "1200 1100"
      "wcs_imagemode" "BYTE"

      "wcs_bandcount" "3"
      "wcs_band_names" "BandA BandB BandC"

      #default values
      "wcs_band_interpretation"   "This is default interpretation"
      "wcs_band_uom"              "DefaultUOM"
      "wcs_band_definition"       "DefaultDefinition"
      "wcs_band_description"      "This is default description"
      "wcs_interval"              "0 125"
      "wcs_significant_figures"   "3"

      #specific band values
      "BandA_band_interpretation" "This is a specific interpretation"
      "BandA_band_uom"            "SpecificUOM"
      "BandA_band_definition"     "SpecificDefinition"
      "BandA_band_description"    "This is a specific description"
      "BandA_interval"            "0 255"
    END

The above example would result in having BandA a more specific description, and BandB and BandC having the default description. It would also be possible to only use some of the specific values for BandA and others from the default.

If no default and specific values are given for the interval or significant figures metadata field, the a default is generated from the “imagemode” field, which itself defaults to FLOAT32.

The new metadata fields also contain the (wcs|ows)_nilvalues and (wcs|ows)_nilvalues_reasons

- (wcs|ows)_nilvalues

With this field, specific nilvalues can be set. The values have to be delimited by a space.

- (wcs|ows)_nilvalues_reasons

This field defines the reasons for the specific nilvalues. The reasons are also space delimited and reference the nilvalue with the same index. The values for the reasons should be URIs or URNs.

The following example demonstrates the use of both metadata fields:

    METADATA
      "ows_srs" "EPSG:4326"
      "wcs_extent" "47.5070762077246 16.038578977182 49.0103258976982 17.2500586851354"

      "wcs_size" "1200 1100"
      "wcs_imagemode" "BYTE"
      "wcs_bandcount" "3"

      "wcs_nilvalues" "0 255"
      "wcs_nilvalues_reasons"
        "urn:ogc:def:nil:OGC::BelowDetectionLimit urn:ogc:def:nil:OGC::AboveDetectionLimit"
    END

## HTTP-POST support

Since version 6.0 MapServer also supports HTTP-POST XML requests. All requests possible via HTTP GET can also be sent via POST. POST requests are possible for WCS 1.1 or WCS 2.0 which adhere to the according standard.

This is an example GetCapabilities request:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <wcs:GetCapabilities
      xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0
        http://schemas.opengis.net/wcs/2.0/wcsAll.xsd"
      xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0"
      xmlns:wcs='http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0'
      xmlns:ows="http://www.opengis.net/ows/2.0"
      service="WCS">
      <ows:AcceptVersions>
        <ows:Version>2.0.1</ows:Version>
      </ows:AcceptVersions>
      <ows:Sections>
        <ows:Section>OperationsMetadata</ows:Section>
        <ows:Section>ServiceIdentification</ows:Section>
      </ows:Sections>
    </wcs:GetCapabilities>

This is an example DescribeCoverage request, which is only valid for WCS 2.0:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <wcs:DescribeCoverage
      xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0
        http://schemas.opengis.net/wcs/2.0/wcsAll.xsd"
      xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0"
      xmlns:wcs="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0"
      service="WCS"
      version="2.0.1">
      <wcs:CoverageId>SOME_ID</wcs:CoverageId>
    </wcs:DescribeCoverage>

This example demonstrates the usage of a WCS 2.0 POST-XML GetCoverage request:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <wcs:GetCoverage
      xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0
        http://schemas.opengis.net/wcs/2.0/wcsAll.xsd"
      xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0"
      xmlns:wcs="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0"
      xmlns:wcscrs="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/crs/1.0"
      xmlns:scal="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/scaling/1.0"
      xmlns:int="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/interpolation/1.0"
      service="WCS"
      version="2.0.1">
      <wcs:CoverageId>SOME_ID</wcs:CoverageId>
      <wcs:DimensionTrim>
        <wcs:Dimension>x</wcs:Dimension>
        <wcs:TrimLow>16.5</wcs:TrimLow>
        <wcs:TrimHigh>17.25</wcs:TrimHigh>
      </wcs:DimensionTrim>
      <wcs:DimensionTrim>
        <wcs:Dimension>y</wcs:Dimension>
        <wcs:TrimLow>47.9</wcs:TrimLow>
      </wcs:DimensionTrim>
      <wcs:format>image/tiff</wcs:format>
      <wcs:mediaType>multipart/related</wcs:mediaType>
      <wcs:Extension>
        <wcscrs:subsettingCrs>http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326</wcscrs:subsettingCrs>
        <wcscrs:outputCrs>http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/32611</wcscrs:outputCrs>
        <scal:ScaleToSize>
          <scal:TargetAxisSize>
            <scal:axis>x</scal:axis>
            <scal:targetSize>50</scal:targetSize>
          </scal:TargetAxisSize>
          <scal:TargetAxisSize>
            <scal:axis>y</scal:axis>
            <scal:targetSize>50</scal:targetSize>
          </scal:TargetAxisSize>
        </scal:ScaleToSize>
        <int:Interpolation>
          <int:globalInterpolation>NEAREST</int:globalInterpolation>
        </int:Interpolation>
      </wcs:Extension>
    </wcs:GetCoverage>

These are some other scaling options:

    <wcs:GetCoverage
      xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0
        http://schemas.opengis.net/wcs/2.0/wcsAll.xsd"
      xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0"
      xmlns:wcs="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0"
      xmlns:scal="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/scaling/1.0"
      service="WCS"
      version="2.0.1">

      <!-- ... -->
      <wcs:Extension>
        <scal:ScaleByFactor>
          <scal:scaleFactor>1.5</scal:scaleFactor>
        </scal:ScaleByFactor>

        <!-- or -->

        <scal:ScaleAxesByFactor>
          <scal:ScaleAxis>
            <scal:axis>x</scal:axis>
            <scal:scaleFactor>1.5</scal:scaleFactor>
          </scal:ScaleAxis>
          <scal:ScaleAxis>
            <scal:axis>y</scal:axis>
            <scal:scaleFactor>2.0</scal:scaleFactor>
          </scal:ScaleAxis>
        </scal:ScaleAxesByFactor>

        <!-- or -->

        <scal:ScaleToExtent>
          <scal:TargetAxisExtent>
            <scal:axis>x</scal:axis>
            <scal:low>10</scal:low>
            <scal:high>20</scal:high>
          </scal:TargetAxisExtent>
          <scal:TargetAxisExtent>
            <scal:axis>y</scal:axis>
            <scal:low>20</scal:low>
            <scal:high>30</scal:high>
          </scal:TargetAxisExtent>
        </scal:ScaleToExtent>
      </wcs:Extension>
    </wcs:GetCoverage>

GeoTIFF parameters are used as follows:

    <wcs:GetCoverage
       xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0
         http://schemas.opengis.net/wcs/2.0/wcsAll.xsd"
       xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0"
       xmlns:wcs="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/2.0"
       xmlns:geotiff="http://www.opengis.net/gmlcov/geotiff/1.0"
       service="WCS"
       version="2.0.1">

       <!-- ... -->
       <wcs:Extension>
         <geotiff:parameters>
           <geotiff:compression>LZW</geotiff:compression>
           <geotiff:predictor>Horizontal</geotiff:predictor>
           <geotiff:interleave>Band</geotiff:interleave>
           <geotiff:tiling>yes</geotiff:tiling>
           <geotiff:tilewidth>256</geotiff:tilewidth>
           <geotiff:tileheight>256</geotiff:tileheight>
         </geotiff:parameters>
       </wcs:Extension>
     </wcs:GetCoverage>

Please refer to the WCS 2.0 Specification - XML/POST Protocol Binding Extension and the WCS 2.0 Schemas for further information on POST request in WCS 2.0.

## INSPIRE download service support

Since version 7.2, MapServer WCS 2.0 also supports the the INSPIRE download service. To enable this functionality, the `wcs_inspire_capabilities` setting must be set to either `url` or `embed`.

Please refer to the INSPIRE Download Service documentation for further metadata options.

### Multi-language support

Part of the INSPIRE download service support is the support for multi-lingual WCS services. With the `wcs_languages` a (comma-separated) list of language specifiers can be set. When this is set, client and server can negotiate the result language using the `ACCEPTLANGUAGES` parameter (or the `<ows:AcceptLanguages>`/`<ows:Language>` tags when using XML). The first item in the accept languages list contained in the list specified with `wcs_languages` will be used for the resulting capabilities document

Additional information can be found in the section for Multi-language support for certain capabilities fields.

## Reference Section

To avoid confusion only “wcs_*” and “ows_*” prefixed metadata entries are evaluated in OGC WCS services. Previous versions used “wms_*” prefixed entries as fallback which is dropped in version 6.0 in favor of forcing explicit decisions. The module will look for the “wcs_*” and “ows_*” metadata prefixes in this order.

The following metadata are available in the setup of the mapfile:

### Web Object Metadata

ows_allowed_ip_list (or wcs_allowed_ip_list)

- Description: (Optional) A list of IP addresses that will be allowed access to the service.

  Example:

      METADATA
        "ows_allowed_ip_list" "123.45.67.89 11.22.33.44"
      END

ows_denied_ip_list (or wcs_denied_ip_list)

- Description: (Optional) A list of IP addresses that will be denied access to the service.

  Example:

      METADATA
        "ows_denied_ip_list" "123.45.67.89 11.22.33.44"
      END

wcs_abstract

- Description: (Optional) A brief description of the service, maps to ows:Abstract (WCS 1.1+ only).

wcs_accessconstraints

- Description: (Optional) A list of codes describing any access constraints imposed by the service provider. The keyword NONE is reserved to mean no access constraints are imposed.

wcs_address, wcs_city, wcs_contactelectronicmailaddress, wcs_contactfacimiletelephone, wcs_contactorganization, wcs_contactperson, wcs_contactposition, wcs_contactvoicetelephone, wcs_country, wcs_postcode, wcs_stateorprovince

- Description: (Optional) Contact address information. If provided then all twelve metadata items are required. You can also use the responsibleparty metadata instead.

wcs_band_names

- Description: (WCS 2.0) Space separated list of band names. See New band related metadata entries

wcs_description

- Description: (Optional) A description of the server.

wcs_enable_request (or ows_enable_request)

- Description: Space separated list of requests to enable. The default is none. The following requests can be enabled: GetCapabilities, GetCoverage and DescribeCoverage. A “!” in front of a request will disable the request. “*” enables all requests.

- Examples:

  To enable only GetCapabilities and GetCoverage:

      "wcs_enable_request" "GetCapabilities GetCoverage"

  To enable all requests except GetCapabilities

      "wcs_enable_request" "* !GetCapabilities"

wcs_fees

- Description: (Optional) A text string indicating any fees imposed by the service provider.

wcs_keywords

- Description: (Optional) Short words for catalog searching.

wcs_label

- Description: (Required) A human-readable label for the server.

wcs_metadatalink_format

- Description: (Optional) The file format MIME type of the metadata record (e.g. “text/plain”). The web metadata wcs_metadatalink_type and wcs_metadatalink_href must also be specified.

wcs_metadatalink_href

- Description: (Optional) The URL to the server’s metadata. The web metadata wcs_metadatalink_format and wcs_metadatalink_type must also be specified.

wcs_metadatalink_type

- Description: (Optional) The standard to which the metadata complies. Currently only two types are valid: “TC211” which refers to [ISO 19115], and “FGDC” which refers to [FGDC-STD-001-1988]. The web metadata wcs_metadatalink_format and wcs_metadatalink_href must also be specified.

wcs_name

- Description: (Optional) A name for the server.

wcs_responsibleparty_address_administrativearea, wcs_responsibleparty_address_city, wcs_responsibleparty_address_country, wcs_responsibleparty_address_deliverypoint, wcs_responsibleparty_address_electronicmailaddress, wcs_responsibleparty_address_postalcode, wcs_responsibleparty_individualname, wcs_responsibleparty_onlineresource, wcs_responsibleparty_organizationname, wcs_responsibleparty_phone_facsimile, wcs_responsibleparty_phone_voice, wcs_responsibleparty_postionname

- Description: (Optional) Contact address information. If provided then all twelve metadata items are required. You can also use the address* metadata instead.

wcs_service_onlineresource

- Description: (Optional) Top-level onlineresource URL. MapServer uses the onlineresource metadata (if provided) in the following order:

  1. wcs_service_onlineresource

  2. ows_service_onlineresource

  3. wcs_onlineresource (or automatically generated URL, see the onlineresource section of this document)

wcs_languages

- Description: (Optional) A comma-separated list of supported languages. For details please refer to the section Multi-language support for certain capabilities fields in the INSPIRE Download Service documentation.

### Layer Object Metadata

ows_allowed_ip_list

  Same as ows_allowed_ip_list in the Web Object.

ows_denied_ip_list

  Same as ows_denied_ip_list in the Web Object.

wcs_abstract

- Description: (Optional) A brief description of the service, maps to ows:Abstract (WCS 1.1+ only).

wcs_description

- Description: (Optional) A description of the layer.

wcs_enable_request (or ows_enable_request)

- Description: Space separated list of requests to enable. The default is none. The following requests can be enabled: GetCapabilities, GetCoverage and DescribeCoverage. A “!” in front of a request will disable the request. “*” enables all requests.

- Examples:

  To enable only GetCapabilities and GetCoverage:

      "wcs_enable_request" "GetCapabilities GetCoverage"

  To enable all requests except GetCapabilities

      "wcs_enable_request" "* !GetCapabilities"

wcs_extent

- Description: (Optional) Bounding box of layer, which must be provided for tiled data. Comma-delimited, in the format of: minx,miny,maxx,maxy

wcs_formats

- Description: (Optional) The formats which may be requested for this layer, separated by a space. (e.g. “GTiff MrSID”)

wcs_keywords

- Description: (Optional) Short words for catalog searching.

wcs_label

- Description: (Required) A human-readable label for the layer.

wcs_metadatalink_format

- Description: (Optional) The file format MIME type of the metadata record (e.g. “text/plain”). The web metadata wcs_metadatalink_type and wcs_metadatalink_href must also be specified.

wcs_metadatalink_href

- Description: (Optional) The URL to the layer’s metadata. The web metadata wcs_metadatalink_format and wcs_metadatalink_type must also be specified.

wcs_metadatalink_type

- Description: (Optional) The standard to which the metadata complies. Currently only two types are valid: “TC211” which refers to [ISO 19115], and “FGDC” which refers to [FGDC-STD-001-1988]. The web metadata wcs_metadatalink_format and wcs_metadatalink_href must also be specified.

wcs_name

- Description: (Optional) A name for the layer.

wcs_nativeformat

- Description: (Optional) The current format of the served raster layer. (e.g. “GTiff”) (used for WCS 1.0)

wcs_native_format

- Description: (Optional) The mime-type of the current format of the served raster layer (e.g. “image/tiff”). This field is used when coverage metadata is provided by the layer metadata only (when wcs_extent and wcs_size/wcs_resolution are set). When set, WCS 2.0 GetCoverage requests will use this format when no other format is specified (the format parameter is optional then).

wcs_outputformat_{OUTPUTFORMATNAME}_creationoption_{OPTIONNAME}

- Description: (Optional) (added in MapServer 7.2.0) To provide creation options in a (GDAL) output format specific and layer specific way. {OUTPUTFORMATNAME} should be substituted by the user with the OUTPUTFORMAT.NAME value of an output format allowed for the layer. And {OPTIONNAME} by a valid GDAL creation option valid for the OUTPUTFORMAT.DRIVER.

  The purpose of this metadata item is to provide creation options that depend on the layer, typically to configure some metadata in the resulting raster file that depends on that layer (for non-layer dependent configuration options, OUTPUTFORMAT.FORMATOPTION should rather be used).

  For GDAL drivers that support band-specific creation output (at time of writing, only the GRIB driver in GDAL 2.3.0), with a BAND_{bandnumber}_{OPTIONNAME} syntax for the GDAL creation option, it is also possible to use a MapServer metadata item named wcs_outputformat_{OUTPUTFORMATNAME}_creationoption_BAND_{bandnumber}_{OPTIONNAME}. bandnumber will be automatically adjusted when passed to GDAL so that the WCS band subsetting is properly taken into account. You can consult WCS GRIB output in msautotest as a practical example of how to configure GRIB2 WCS output (requires GDAL 2.3.0)

Axes Descriptions (WCS 1.x only)

MapServer allows you define a number of these for a layer. Individual axis are identified by name when defining specific metadata (e.g. description). All defined axes must be listed in the rangeset_axes metadata tag so MapServer knows in advance what to expect. A special rangeset for multiband date is automatically generated by adding the name “bands” to the rangeset_axes list. If found MapServer will automatically generate metadata for the image bands. You may of course extend that basic support using the naming conventions below.

wcs_rangeset_axes

- Description: (Optional) Delimited list of defined range sets. If defined, you can also use the following nine metadata items, where rangeset axis matches the axis name provided in this wcs_rangeset_axes metadata: (WCS 1.x only)

  > {rangeset axis}_semantic

  > {rangeset axis}_refsys

  > {rangeset axis}_refsyslabel

  > {rangeset axis}_description

  > {rangeset axis}_label

  > {rangeset axis}_values

  > {rangeset axis}_values_semantic

  > {rangeset axis}_values_type

  > {rangeset axis}_interval

wcs_rangeset_description

- Description: (Optional, for DescribeCoverage request) Rangeset description (WCS 1.0 only)

wcs_rangeset_label

- Description: (Required, for DescribeCoverage request) Rangeset label (WCS 1.x only)

wcs_rangeset_name

- Description: (Required, for DescribeCoverage request) Rangeset name (WCS 1.x only)

wcs_rangeset_nullvalue

- Description: (Optional, for DescribeCoverage request) Rangeset single null value (WCS 1.x only)

wcs_srs

- Description: (Optional) Spatial reference system of the layer, in the form of: EPSG:code (e.g. EPSG:42304)

wcs_timeitem

- Description: (Optional) The attribute in the spatio/temporal index that contains time values.

wcs_timeposition

- Description: (Optional) A list of the start and end time of a given coverage (i.e. “2000-11-11T11:11:11Z,2001-11-11T11:11:11Z”), used when advertising GetCapabilities.

### Layer Metadata API

If `wcs_metadatalink_href` is not defined, MapServer will provide a link to the Layer Metadata API for the given layer. See the Layer Metadata API documentation for more information.

## Rules for handling SRS in a MapServer WCS

TODO!

## Spatio/Temporal Indexes

MapServer has long supported a method of breaking a dataset into smaller, more manageable pieces or tiles. In this case a shapefile is used to store the boundary of each tile, and an attribute holds the location of the actual data. Within a MapServer mapfile the layer keywords TILEINDEX and TILEITEM are used to activate tiling.

Consider the example where an organization wants to serve hundreds or even thousands of MODIS scenes. Five images cover the spatial extent and each group of five varies by date of acquisition. This turns out to be a fairly common scenario for organizations interested in WCS, one that the existing tiling support does not adequately address. In previous versions of MapServer a developer would have to create one tile index and one layer definition for each group of five images. This could result in configuration files that are prohibitively long and difficult to manage.

In order to more efficiently support the WCS specification a new tiling scheme has been implemented within MapServer. One that supports spatial sub-setting, but also ad hoc sub-setting based on any attributes found within tile index. In many cases a temporal attribute could be used, but sub-setting is not limited to that case. The new scheme introduces the concept of tile index layers, that is, a separate layer definition is used to describe the tile index dataset. With this we get all the benefits of any MapServer layer, most importantly we can apply MapServer filters to the data. Filters can be defined at runtime using MapServer CGI, MapScript or via the WCS server interface. The syntax for the layer using the index remains unchanged except that the value for Tile Indexes refers to the index layer instead of an external shapefile.

So, looking at the example above again we can reduce our MapServer configuration to two layer definitions, one for the tile index and one for the imagery itself. Extracting a single dates worth of imagery is now a matter of setting the appropriate filter within the tile index layer.

### Building Spatio-Temporal Tile Indexes

Developing these tile indexes is more difficult than basic indexes simply because there are no ready-made tools to do so. Fortunately we can leverage existing tool available within MapServer or supporting libraries such as GDAL by post processing their output.

Taking the above example, building an index is relatively simple task if you are willing to roll up your sleeves and write a bit of code. First, the basic spatial index needs to be built. The GDAL utility gdaltindex already does this. Simply point gdaltindex at the directory containing the collection of MODIS images and it will build a shapefile index suitable for use with MapServer. The next step would be to add the temporal information. The pseudo code would look something like:

- open the index .dbf file for reading

- create a new column to hold the image acquisition date

- for each image; 1) extract the image acquisition date and 2) insert it into the new column

- close the index .dbf file

This general approach could be used for many cases. A scripting language such as Perl, PHP or Python works well since they all have readily available modules for manipulating .dbf files. A worst case would involve hand editing the resulting .dbf file using a desktop tool such as Mircosoft Access or ESRI Arcview.

## WCS 2.0 Application Profile - Earth Observation (EO-WCS)

OGC is currently discussing the adoption of an Earth Observation (EO) Application Profile for WCS 2.0 (EO-WCS) (see public RFC on EO-WCS). For an implementation please refer to the Open Source project EOxServer which already implements this proposed EO-WCS based on MapServer.

## To-do Items and Known Limitations

- MapServer does not derive all of the metadata it could from a given dataset. For example, you must explicitly list time periods covered by a layer. This should get better with time.

- Only spatial, simple temporal and radiometric band subsetting is possible with the current implementation. Future enhancements should allow for arbitrary subsets based on pixel values or tile/image attributes.

- The available set of WCS 2.0 specification documents is not yet complete. Thus, for some implementation details, the content of some forthcoming extensions had to be anticipated based on the approaches taken for WCS 1.1 and 1.0. The implementation will be adjusted as soon as new specification documents become available.

- If you want to use libxml2 or its derived tools (like xmllint) for validation be aware that there is a currently bug in libxml2 that breaks the validation of GML 3.2.1.

## Credits

Support for per-layer creation options has been funded by Meteorological Service of Canada.