[Geoserver-devel] handling namespace-declarations in GetFeature operation

GeoServer GeoServer Developer
1

Hi,

in order to get a full picture how Geoserver handles GetFeature-requests for feature types which are identified or not by full namespace

I have analyzed Geoserver’s current stable version 2.3.3 by sending several alternative GetFeature-requests for WFS version 1.0.0 and 1.1.0.

For a few constellations Geoserver reacts differently from what I think a user/client would expect which

I like to illustrate here (using the default geoserver tasmania dataset):

The request scenarios and their particular HTTP-GET requests (here for version 1.1.0) are the following:

  1. request with a typeName without xml-prefix/ without namespace declaration

http://localhost:8090/geoserver/ows?request=GetFeature&service=WFS&version=1.1.0&typeName=tasmania_roads

expectation: should return a GML result

  1. typeName with known xml-prefix but without namespace

http://localhost:8090/geoserver/ows?request=GetFeature&service=WFS&version=1.1.0&typeName=topp:tasmania_roads

expectation: GML result

  1. typeName with unknown xml-prefix

http://localhost:8090/geoserver/ows?request=GetFeature&service=WFS&version=1.1.0&typeName=tipp:tasmania_roads

expectation: should throw a service exception

  1. typeName with known xml-prefix and corresponding valid/registered namespace

http://localhost:8090/geoserver/ows?request=GetFeature&service=WFS&version=1.1.0&typeName=topp:tasmania_roads&namespace=xmlns(tipp=http://www.openplans.org/topp)

expectation: GML result

  1. typeName with unknown xml-prefix but prefix/namespace mapping to a valid namespace

http://localhost:8090/geoserver/ows?request=GetFeature&service=WFS&version=1.1.0&typeName=tipp:tasmania_roads&namespace=xmlns(tipp=http://www.openplans.org/topp)

expectation: GML result

  1. typeName with xml-prefix which is mapped to an unknown namespace

http://localhost:8090/geoserver/ows?request=GetFeature&service=WFS&version=1.1.0&typeName=tipp:tasmania_roads&namespace=xmlns(tipp=http://www.tippTopp)

My issues/questions:

a) all HTTP-GET responses are correct but one. In scenario 5 for WFS interface version 1.0.0 I get an “unknown Namespace”-error.

I am aware of the fact that the “namespace”-parameter is classified as a common parameter not before WFS-spec 1.1.0, so handling this parameter in Geoserver WFS 1.0.0 code is not

obligatory and would only be a backward-compatibility matter and a user feature

b) sending an HTTP POST request for scenario 1 to WFS-interface 1.0.0 results in

an error message: “Could not locate {http://www.opengis.net/wfs}tasmania_roads in catalog.”

The request is:

<wfs:GetFeature service=“WFS” version=“1.0.0” outputFormat=“GML2” xmlns:wfs=“http://www.opengis.net/wfs” xmlns:ogc=“http://www.opengis.net/ogc”

xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xsi:schemaLocation=“http://www.opengis.net/wfs http://schemas.opengis.net/wfs/1.0.0/WFS-basic.xsd”>

<wfs:Query typeName=“tasmania_roads”>

</wfs:Query>

</wfs:GetFeature>

It looks like Geoserver takes the first namespace, namely the WFS-namespace? Or is it the default namespace according to the spec?

c) sending an HTTP POST request for scenario 3 both to WFS-interface 1.0.0 and 1.1.0

I surpringly get the GML-results, no error message

<wfs:GetFeature service=“WFS” version=“1.0.0” outputFormat=“GML2” xmlns:wfs=“http://www.opengis.net/wfs” xmlns:ogc=“http://www.opengis.net/ogc”

xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xsi:schemaLocation=“http://www.opengis.net/wfs http://schemas.opengis.net/wfs/1.0.0/WFS-basic.xsd”>

<wfs:Query typeName=“tip:tasmania_roads”>

</wfs:Query>

</wfs:GetFeature>

Here, Geoserver resolves only the local part of the requested feature type and does not care about the unknown xml-prefix.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Sven