Tutorial: Publishing a WFS service—ArcGIS Server | Documentation for ArcGIS Enterprise

Complexity: BeginnerData Requirement: Use your own dataGoal: Publish a WFS service to ArcGIS Server and consume it in a web browser.

This tutorial shows how to publish a Web Feature Service (WFS) service to ArcGIS Server using ArcMap. WFS is a specification published by the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) for serving geographic features on the Internet. When a map service or geodata service is published with WFS capabilities, the data can be accessed by OGC-compliant WFS clients, including the ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension for Desktop in ArcGIS Desktop. These WFS clients can also see the latest changes made to the data. If you're new to WFS services and want to learn more about them before attempting this tutorial, see WFS services.

Before beginning this tutorial

If you've just installed ArcGIS Server, you need to complete some preparatory steps before you can connect to the server and publish services:

For details on how to configure your ArcGIS Server site, see the Getting started after install section of this help system.
To learn how to make the data referenced by your GIS resource available to the server, see the topic Making your data accessible to ArcGIS Server.

Deciding between a geodata service or a map service

With WFS services, you have the option of publishing a geodata service or a map service. There are a few differences to be aware of when selecting the type of service you're going to create. The following sections summarize the functionality available with map and geodata services to help you identify which type of service best suits your requirements.

Geodata service

A WFS geodata service allows you to access a workgroup, enterprise, or file geodatabase through the Internet or any OGC-compliant WFS client. When creating a WFS service from a geodata service, it's important to keep in mind that all the feature classes in the geodatabase will be exposed in the service.

Geodata services are useful in situations where you need to access geodatabases in remote locations; for example, a company may want to set up enterprise geodatabases to manage data in its Los Angeles and New York offices. Once created, each office can publish its enterprise geodatabase on the Internet using a geodata service.

Map service

A WFS map service represents a map document that you've made available to others through the Internet or any OGC-compliant WFS client. Map services with WFS functionality give you a lot of control over the data that's published through the service. The following are common reasons why you might set up a map service:

Unlike a geodata service, a single map service can include data from a variety of sources including data from multiple geodatabases as well as shapefiles.
You can select which feature classes are exposed through a map service.
You can rename the feature classes in the map document so that the service does not expose the actual names in the data source.

There are also some limitations associated with WFS map services. Consider the following when publishing a WFS service from a map document:

The map document is a specification of the layers that will be available in your WFS service. Symbology, query definitions, and field aliases defined at the layer level will not transfer to the WFS service, because the purpose of the service is to expose the features in the data. To expose the visual properties of your map through OGC specifications, use a WMS service.
Two or more layers in the map cannot have the same name.
Since WFS only works with features, any raster layers in the map will be excluded from the service.
Nonspatial tables are not exposed.
If you want the WFS service to support transactions for editing (WFS-T), the source data for all the layers in the map must come from the same workspace, for example, the same enterprise geodatabase.

Publishing a WFS service to ArcGIS Server

To get started publishing a WFS service, follow these steps:

Follow the directions in the following table based on the service type you want to publish to the server:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX always-wrap ">OptionDescription
To publish a WFS map service...
...open your map document in ArcMap, choose File > Share As > Service > Publish service, and click Next.
To publish a WFS geodata service...
...browse to the workgroup, enterprise, or file geodatabase in ArcCatalog or the Catalog window, right-click it, and choose Share as Geodata Service.

Consuming the WFS service

Once you've published a WFS service, it can be used in any client that supports WFS 1.0.0, 1.1.0, or 2.0.0 and the Simple Features profile of GML, including web browsers. A web browser is one of the simplest clients of a WFS service. You can request information through HTTP, and the responses or exceptions are returned through the browser.

Follow these steps to access WFS services through a web browser:

Open a web browser.
Perform the GetCapabilities, DescribeFeatureType, and GetFeature requests as indicated in the following sections.

GetCapabilities

This request will return all feature types and functionality available through the service in GML format. To use the GetCapabilities operation, copy and paste the WFS service URL into the address bar and add ?request=getcapabilities to the end of the URL.

URL example: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/wfs_services/enterprise_wfs/MapServer/WFSServer?service=WFS&request=GetCapabilities

The following graphic is an example of functionality returned by the GetCapabilities operation:

GetCapabilities also returns a list of all available feature classes and tables:

Available feature classes and tables returned by the GetCapabilities operation

DescribeFeatureType

This request describes the field information about one or more features in the WFS service. This includes the field names, field types, allowed minimum and maximum field values, and any other constraints set on a field of the feature classes or tables.

To use the DescribeFeatureType operation, copy and paste the WFS URL into the address bar and add ?SERVICE=WFS&REQUEST=DescribeFeatureType&VERSION=2.0.0 to the end of the URL. This will return all the field information about each of the feature types and tables available in the feature service.

URL Example: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/wfs_services/enterprise_wfs/MapServer/WFSServer?SERVICE=WFS&REQUEST=DescribeFeatureType&VERSION=2.0.0

Feature classes, tables, and field information returned by the DescribeFeatureType operation

Adding filters

You can also specify a single feature class or table for which you want the field information by appending the following request to the end of the URL with the name of the feature type or table: ?SERVICE=WFS&REQUEST=DescribeFeatureType&TypeName=<enter feature type here>&VERSION=2.0.0.

For more information about the different filters available with WFS services, see Communicating with a WFS service in a web browser.

In the following example, the DescribeFeatureType request is used to identify the field information for the feature type called continent:

URL example: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/wfs_services/enterprise_wfs/MapServer/WFSServer?SERVICE=WFS&REQUEST=DescribeFeatureType&typeName=Continent&VERSION=2.0.0

Cities feature class and its field information returned by the filtered DescribeFeatureType operation

GetFeature

This request returns information about specific feature types available through the WFS service.

To use the GetFeature operation in a web browser, copy and paste the WFS URL into the address bar and add ?request=getFeature&typename=<enter feature type here> to the end of the URL. This will return all the attribute and geometry information about each feature or row in the feature type.

URL example: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/wfs_services/enterprise_wfs/MapServer/WFSServer?service=WFS&request=GetFeature&typeName=cities

Attribute and geometry information for the cities feature class returned by the GetFeature operation

Adding filters

You can also add filters in the request to refine the results that are returned. For example, you can request all the cities that are within a specified coordinate range. In the following example, two cities are located within a specified coordinate range. For more information about the different filters available with WFS services, see Communicating with a WFS service in a web browser.

URL example: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/wfs_services/enterprise_wfs/MapServer/WFSServer?service=WFS&request=GetFeature&typeName=cities&BBOX=46.90,-76.21,42.12,-72.88

Cities within the specified coordinate range returned by the filtered GetFeature operation

Using the Data Interoperability extension to connect to a WFS service

The ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension for Desktop allows you to read and write data in data formats other than ArcGIS. You can use the Interoperability Connection tool in ArcCatalog or the Catalog window in ArcGIS Desktop to connect directly to external Esri data formats, including WFS services. Once the connection is made, the data source will appear under the Interoperability Connection entry in the Catalog tree. A connection is just like any other dataset in that you can add it to the table of contents or use it in geoprocessing tools.