WFS Server working with ArcGIS Data Interoperability Extensions

The ArcGIS Data Interoperability Extensions allow ArcMAP and ArcCatalog to connect to a mapserver WFS and WMS server. However the ESRI products are fussy, so mapserver needs to be configured just right to get it to work. Here are elements of the map file that seem important to have a general WMS and WFS service that works with a wide range of client programs including the ESRI Data Interoperability Extensions.

IF YOU HAVE MORE INFORMATION PLEASE UPDATE THIS WIKI PAGE. The initial version of this wiki page contains mapfile fragments cut-n-pasted from a mapfile known to work as both a WMS server and a WFS server in both QGIS and ArcMAP.

Map overview: The MAXSIZE should be large enough if your users might have large monitors. The Extent is very important otherwise ARCGIS will get confused. I'm not sure if UNITS should be meters when using a lat-long projection like epsg:4326, but it seems to work. Of course the projection should be specified. For example:

`

    MAP
        NAME "w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543"
        # Map image size
        SIZE 1000 800
        MAXSIZE 4096
        UNITS meters
    EXTENT -117.596180469 32.5342726369 -116.08088026 33.5053791791

        FONTSET 'F:\djangoProjects\web_output\fontset.txt'
    PROJECTION
        "init=epsg:4326"
    END

`

For WMS I've been using the agg output format:

`

       OUTPUTFORMAT
            NAME agg
            DRIVER AGG/PNG
            IMAGEMODE RGB
        END

`

In the WEB section I think IMAGEPATH and IMAGEURL are necessary:

`

    # Set IMAGEPATH to the path where MapServer should
    # write its output.
    IMAGEPATH 'F:\djangoProjects\web_output\images/'

    # Set IMAGEURL to the url that points to IMAGEPATH
    # as defined in your web server configuration
    IMAGEURL 'http://www.example.com/mapimages/'

`

The METADATA section within the web section is very important. The titles need to be specified, the online resource is important, and it should end with a &. I've found the abstract to be extremely useful so that I know what's actually mapped.

`

	#WFSE WFS needs metadata    
    METADATA
      'ows_title' 'w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543'
      'wfs_title' 'w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543'
      'wfs_onlineresource' 'http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?map=F:/path/to/mapfiles/luz_mapfile_scen1_130206_141543_.map&'
      'wfs_srs' 'EPSG:4326'
      'wfs_abstract' 'Map of price for commodity generated from all_exchange_results at 130206_141543.'
      'wfs_enable_request' '*'
      'wms_title' 'w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543'
      'wms_onlineresource' 'http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?map=F:/path/to/mapfiles/luz_mapfile_scen1_130206_141543_.map&'
      'wms_srs' 'EPSG:4326'
      'wms_abstract' 'Map of price for commodity generated from all_exchange_results at 130206_141543.'
      'wms_enable_request' '*'
    END

`

Outside of the METADATA but still inside the WEB section it's useful to have a TEMPLATE. Some users will look at your WMS/WFS URL and try to open it in the browser. The TEMPLATE html should show the resulting map and also explain to the users that this URL is to be used inside a GIS program (WMS client or WFS client), not inside a web browser.

`

    TEMPLATE 'F:\djangoProjects\web_output\templates/mapit/mapserv_template.html'    

`

Here is a layer definition that is known to work. Critical elements seem to be DUMP true, specifying the extent, specifying the ows and wfs titles and online resource, and specifying the types of the data columns (for WFS). Note that the "gml_fieldname_type" entries should specify "xsd:double", if you want ARCGIS to be able to actually plot the data. Any other description causes ARCGIS to interpret the values as strings, and you won't be able to do any thematic maps.

`

 LAYER
    NAME 'luz_wgs84'
    TYPE POLYGON
    DUMP true
    EXTENT -117.596180469 32.5342726369 -116.08088026 33.5053791791
    CONNECTIONTYPE postgis
    CONNECTION "dbname='db_sandag' host=postgis.example.com port=5432 user='postgisuser' password='postgispassword'"
    DATA 'the_geom FROM analysis."w00_Residential_Spa_130206_141543_with_geom" USING UNIQUE gid USING srid=4326'    
    METADATA
      'ows_title' 'luz_wgs84'
      'wfs_title' 'luz_wgs84_data'
      'wfs_onlineresource' 'http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?map=F:/path/to/mapfiles/SANDAG/luz_mapfile_scen1_130206_141543_.map&'
      'wfs_src' 'EPSG:4326'
      'wfs_abstract' 'Map of price for commodity generated from all_exchange_results at 130206_141543.'
       "gml_delta10_5_type" "xsd:double"
       "gml_per10_5_type" "xsd:double"
       "gml_avg2005price_type" "xsd:double"
       "gml_avg2006price_type" "xsd:double"
       "gml_avg2007price_type" "xsd:double"
       "gml_avg2008price_type" "xsd:double"
       "gml_avg2009price_type" "xsd:double"
       "gml_avg2010price_type" "xsd:double"
       "gml_include_items" "delta10_5,per10_5,avg2005price,avg2006price,avg2007price,avg2008price,avg2009price,avg2010price"
      'wfs_enable_request' '*'
      'wms_title' 'luz_wgs84'
    END
    STATUS OFF
    TRANSPARENCY 100
    PROJECTION    
       "init=epsg:4326"
    END
    CLASS
       NAME 'luz_wgs84' 
       STYLE
         SYMBOL 0 
         SIZE 7.0 
         OUTLINECOLOR 0 0 0
         COLOR -1 -1 -1
       END
    END
  END

`