OGC OWS Context GeoJSON Encoding Standard. Version 1.0.

Abstract

This standard describes the GeoJSON encoding of the OGC Web Services (OWS) Context conceptual model. This standard defines how to encode an OWS context document that 1.) can be extended to allow a context referencing a fully configured service set, and 2.) can be defined and consistently interpreted by clients. The OWS Context Document standard (OWS Context) was created to allow a set of configured information resources to be passed between applications primarily as a collection of services (but also potentially in-line content). The objective is to support use cases such as the distribution of search results, the exchange of a set of resources in a Common Operating Picture (COP), or delivery of a set of configured processing services to allow the processing to be reproduced on different processing nodes. The goal for OWS Context is to replace previous OGC standards and best practices that provide similar capability. Web Map Context (WMC) has been reasonably successful but is limited to working with only Web Map Service (WMS) instances. Other work on the Location Organizer Folder1 (LOF) was also taken into consideration. The concept of OWS Context and the first prototype document was produced as part of OWS Testbed 7 and documented in [OGC10-035r1], Information Sharing Engineering Report. A principal goal of the OWS Context SWG was to develop encodings that would appeal for use in mass market applications yet also provide facilities for more advanced uses. OWS-7 originally considered the application of existing encoding standards for OWS Context. The OGC Standards Working Group (SWG) has concluded that this standard can have multiple encoding formats and that each encoding format will be described in a separate OGC Extension to the Core model. An additional goal is that transformations of context documents between the different encodings should be lossless. GeoJSON2 is a format for encoding collections of simple geographical features along with their non-spatial attributes using JSON. GeoJSON objects may represent a geometry, a feature, or a collection of features. GeoJSON supports the following geometry types: Point, LineString, Polygon, MultiPoint, MultiLineString, MultiPolygon, and GeometryCollection. Features in GeoJSON contain a geometry object and additional properties, and a feature collection represents a list of features. This document concentrates on the GeoJSON encoding of the OWS Context Model as described in abstract terms in OGC 12-080r2 OGC OWS Context Conceptual Model ( OGC 12-080r2). The goal of OWS Context is to allow many types of OGC data delivery services to be referenced and therefore exploited - not just OGC Web Map Service butother OGC web services and content specifications, including but not limited to Web Feature Service, Web Coverage Service, Web Processing Service, GML, GeoTIFF and KML. This document does not explicitly define the encoding of these services and data encodings in the core, only the general approach to be used for different types of service and data interface.