GetCapabilities Operation

The GetCapabilities operation allows WCS clients to retrieve service metadata from a WCS server and summary information about the data collections.

Request

Request parameters

The main parameters of GetCapabilities operation request are shown in the following table:

Request parameters	O/M	Description
SERVICE=WCS	Mandatory	Service type. Request WCS service. Shall be "WCS".
REQUEST=GetCapabilities	Mandatory	Request names. Name of the operation, shall be "GetCapabilities".
AcceptVersions	Optional	The request version order of WCS server. Use a comma to separate different version and put the version that most want to return ahead. Returns the latest version in the service version if this parameter is default or is not the version that the server supports.
Sections	Optional	Sections=Contents Requests the returned metadata Sections of server and uses a comma to separate the different sections. Returns all the information of current WCS server if this parameter is default or is not supported by the server.
updateSequence	Optional	updateSequence=XXX The version number of metadata document. This is a increment and every change will add a value. Returns the latest version of the service metadata if this parameter is default or is not the version number that the server supports.
AcceptFormats	Optional	AcceptFormats= text/xml The describe document format of request service. Use a comma to separate different format and put the format that most want to return ahead. Returns the 'text/xml' format if this parameter is default or is not the format that the server supports.

Note: The case of the parameters is not important and the order of the request parameters can be random.

Request example

After started the iServer service, performs GetCapabilities request to data-world/wcs112 service as the following:

http://localhost:8090/iserver/services/data-world/wcs112?service=wcs&REQUEST=GetCapabilities

Response

The server returns the simple description that includes WCS service of the client request in the format of XML document.

Response parameter

The GetCapabilities operation returns the XML document that includes service metadata and summary information about the data collections. This document is composed of three parts:

Element Name	Description
ServiceIdentification	Metadata about this specific server.
ServiceProvider	Service provider. The information description of the service provider.
OperationsMetadata	Metadata about the operation. Describes the operations the server provides. The three are required operations according to the WCS standard.
Contents	The table of contents. For the WCS, this section shall contain or reference brief descriptions of the coverages available from this server.

Contents is used to describe brief descriptions of the coverages and mainly contains the following parts:

Element Name	Description	Format
coverageSummary	Brief metadata describing a top-level coverage available from this WCS server.	CoverageSummary data structure, see Table 4.
supportedCRS	Reference to CRS in which GetCoverage operation response may be expressed.	URI
supportedFormat	Identifier of format in which GetCoverage operation response can be encoded.	String
otherSource	Reference to another source of contents metadata

Element Name	O/M	Description	Whether it can be inherited
(Description)	Mandatory	Description of a coverage.	Optional
metadata	Optional	More metadata about this coverage.	Optional
wgs84BoundingBox	Optional	Minimum bounding rectangle surrounding coverage, using WGS 84 CRS with decimal degrees and longitude before latitude	Inherited when not provided.
supportedCRS	Optional	CRS in which GetCoverage operation response may be expressed.	Mandatory
supportedFormat	Optional	Format in which GetCoverage operation response may be encoded.	Mandatory
Identifier	Optional	Unambiguous identifier of this coverage, unique for this WCS server	Optional
CoverageSummary	Optional	Brief metadata describing one subsidiary coverage available from this server	Optional

Response example

The server will return XML document as following if performs GetCapabilities request of the data-world/wcs112 service in the Request example.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Capabilities xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/1.1"
  xmlns:ows="http://www.opengis.net/ows/1.1" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/1.1 http://localhost:8090/iserver/services/data-world/wcs112?request=getschema&amp;file=wcs,1.1.2,wcsGetCapabilities.xsd"
  version="1.1.2">
  <ows:ServiceIdentification>
    <ows:Title>Sample service for WCS</ows:Title>
    <ows:Abstract>The WCS services published based on the sample data provided by SuperMap iServer</ows:Abstract>
    <ows:Keywords>
      <ows:Keyword>iServer</ows:Keyword>
      <ows:Keyword>Sample Data</ows:Keyword>
    </ows:Keywords>
    <ows:ServiceType>WCS</ows:ServiceType>
    <ows:ServiceTypeVersion>1.1.1</ows:ServiceTypeVersion>
    <ows:ServiceTypeVersion>1.1.2</ows:ServiceTypeVersion>
    <ows:Fees>none</ows:Fees>
    <ows:AccessConstraints>none</ows:AccessConstraints>
  </ows:ServiceIdentification>
  <ows:ServiceProvider>
    <ows:ProviderName>SuperMap Software Co. ,Ltd</ows:ProviderName>
    <ows:ProviderSite xlink:href="http://www.supermap.com.cn" />
    <ows:ServiceContact>
      <ows:IndividualName>Contact name</ows:IndividualName>
      <ows:PositionName>Position</ows:PositionName>
      <ows:ContactInfo>
        <ows:Phone>
          <ows:Voice>+86-10-59896655</ows:Voice>
          <ows:Facsimile>+86-10-59896666</ows:Facsimile>
        </ows:Phone>
        <ows:Address>
          <ows:DeliveryPoint>Building 107 No A10,Jiuxianqiao North Road</ows:DeliveryPoint>
          <ows:City>Beijing</ows:City>
          <ows:AdministrativeArea>Beijing</ows:AdministrativeArea>
          <ows:PostalCode>100015</ows:PostalCode>
          <ows:Country>China</ows:Country>
          <ows:ElectronicMailAddress>support@supermap.com</ows:ElectronicMailAddress>
        </ows:Address>
      </ows:ContactInfo>
    </ows:ServiceContact>
  </ows:ServiceProvider>
  <ows:OperationsMetadata>
    <ows:Operation name="GetCapabilities">
      <ows:DCP>
        <ows:HTTP>
          <ows:Get
            xlink:href="http://localhost:8090/iserver/services/data-world/wcs112?">
          </ows:Get>
          <ows:Post
            xlink:href="http://localhost:8090/iserver/services/data-world/wcs112?">
          </ows:Post>
        </ows:HTTP>
      </ows:DCP>
    </ows:Operation>
    <ows:Operation name="DescribeCoverage">
      <ows:DCP>
        <ows:HTTP>
          <ows:Get
            xlink:href="http://localhost:8090/iserver/services/data-world/wcs112?">
          </ows:Get>
          <ows:Post
            xlink:href="http://localhost:8090/iserver/services/data-world/wcs112?">
          </ows:Post>
        </ows:HTTP>
      </ows:DCP>
    </ows:Operation>
    <ows:Operation name="GetCoverage">
      <ows:DCP>
        <ows:HTTP>
          <ows:Get
            xlink:href="http://localhost:8090/iserver/services/data-world/wcs112?">
          </ows:Get>
          <ows:Post
            xlink:href="http://localhost:8090/iserver/services/data-world/wcs112?">
          </ows:Post>
        </ows:HTTP>
      </ows:DCP>
      <ows:Parameter name="store">
        <ows:AllowedValues>
          <ows:Value>True</ows:Value>
          <ows:Value>False</ows:Value>
        </ows:AllowedValues>
      </ows:Parameter>
    </ows:Operation>
  </ows:OperationsMetadata>
  <Contents>
    <CoverageSummary>
      <ows:Title>Day</ows:Title>
      <ows:Abstract></ows:Abstract>
      <ows:WGS84BoundingBox>
        <ows:LowerCorner>-180.0 -89.99999999999997</ows:LowerCorner>
        <ows:UpperCorner>180.0 89.99999999999997</ows:UpperCorner>
      </ows:WGS84BoundingBox>
      <Identifier>1</Identifier>
    </CoverageSummary>
    <CoverageSummary>
      <ows:Title>Night</ows:Title>
      <ows:Abstract></ows:Abstract>
      <ows:WGS84BoundingBox>
        <ows:LowerCorner>-180.0 -89.99999999999997</ows:LowerCorner>
        <ows:UpperCorner>180.0 89.99999999999997</ows:UpperCorner>
      </ows:WGS84BoundingBox>
      <Identifier>2</Identifier>
    </CoverageSummary>
  </Contents>
</Capabilities>