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OGC

In this topic

  1. OGC specifications
  2. Use compatible basemaps with WMTS, WMS, and WFS layers
  3. Secure OGC services
  4. Custom parameters
  5. Limitations

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international voluntary consensus standards organization. The mission of the OGC is to develop, approve, and maintain standards for making maps and related geographic data available and shareable over the web. Using OGC services and encodings enables open access to geographic data and software functionality, allowing organizations to incorporate their GIS data and services into any app on a variety of computing and mobile devices. These open services and encodings help improve the sharing and interoperability of geospatial information.

There can be challenges associated with OGC services; for example, some are served on relatively old servers that can cause performance issues when the services are displayed in newer apps. In addition, there can be basemap compatibility issues related to the support of tiling schemes or coordinate systems of OGC layers. Learn more about OGC at the Open Geospatial Consortium website. Esri also maintains an Interoperability and Standards web page detailing its support for OGC services in ArcGIS.

OGC specifications

OGC standards and specifications evolve over time. ArcGIS Online supports the following OGC specifications in the ways described below:

OGC API – Features

The OGC API – Features specification is a newer feature specification that has multiple parts. It includes standards for creating and working with spatial data on the web and standards for APIs for sharing feature data on the web.

In ArcGIS Online, you can publish an OGC feature layer from a hosted feature layer. OGC feature layers follow the OGC API – Features specification.

OGC feature layers in ArcGIS Online are able to work with larger amounts of data and provide better performance than layers that use the OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) specification. For these reasons, it is recommended that you use feature layers that use the OGC API – Features specification whenever the consuming clients support them. Because the OGC API – Features specification is a newer specification built on the legacy of the OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) specification, it is recommended that you use feature layers that use the OGC API – Features specification whenever the consuming clients support them.

You can use OGC feature layers in the following:

  • Map Viewer—See Add an OGC API - features layer.
  • ArcGIS Pro 2.8 or later—See Use an OGC API feature service in the ArcGIS Pro help for more information.
  • Apps created using ArcGIS Maps SDKs.
  • Apps created using JavaScript 4.x API.
  • Third-party apps that support the OGC API – Features specification—Consult the documentation provided with the third-party app to determine if it supports the OGC API – Features specification.

OGC Web Coverage Service

OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS) is a dynamic coverage service that follows the WCS specification of OGC.

You can use the URL of the OGC WCS service to do the following:

  • Add grid coverages as an item in the Content page.
  • Add grid coverages to a scene in Scene Viewer.
  • Add grid coverages to a map in Map Viewer.

OGC Web Feature Service

OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) is a dynamic feature service that follows the WFS specification of OGC.

You can do the following with OGC WFS layers in ArcGIS Online:

  • Add them to maps in Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic. See an example.
    Note:

    You can only add WFS 2.0 layers that support GeoJSON output to Map Viewer.

  • Add them to scenes in Scene Viewer.
  • Add them as items in the Content page.
  • Publish one from a hosted feature layer.

OGC Web Map Service

OGC Web Map Service (WMS) is a dynamic map service that follows the WMS specification of OGC.

You can do the following with OGC WMS layers in ArcGIS Online:

  • Add them to maps in Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic. See an example.
  • Add them to scenes in Scene Viewer.
  • Add them as items in the Content page.

OGC Web Map Tile Service

OGC Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) is a set of cached image tiles that follows the WMTS specification of OGC.

You can do the following with OGC WMTS layers in ArcGIS Online:

  • Add them to maps in Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic. See an example.
  • Add them to scenes in Scene Viewer.
  • Add them as items in the Content page.

    When adding a WMTS service as an item, you must select a specific layer and must also select the coordinate system for the layer, if the layer supports multiple coordinate systems. To add multiple layers or additional coordinate systems, you must add individual items for each layer or coordinate system.

Additionally, WMTS is available for hosted tile layers you publish to your organization and share with the public. You can copy the WMTS endpoint from a field on the Overview tab of the tile layer's item page.

Use compatible basemaps with WMTS, WMS, and WFS layers

For maps to display correctly, the coordinate systems of the layers and basemaps must be compatible. In addition, the tiling scheme of a WMTS layer must match the tiling scheme of the basemap. Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic attempts to draw your layer with the basemap you select. If your layer can't be drawn on the basemap (because the coordinate system or tiling scheme doesn't match), and the OGC WMS or WMTS layer is the first layer you added to a map, Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic attempts to use a different basemap.

For example, if your layer is in GCS WGS84, Map Viewer uses the GCS WGS84 World Imagery basemap. Your administrator may have changed the default basemaps and may have included some that support your layer's coordinate system. If a basemap in the gallery is not compatible, Map Viewer uses your layer as the basemap. If you add an OGC WMS or WMTS layer to an existing map or it is not compatible with any basemaps in your gallery, Map Viewer will not add it to the map; instead, you will see an error message stating that the layer is not compatible with the basemap's coordinate system.

For OGC WFS layers, the coordinate system of the basemap must be supported by the WFS service or the layer may not be drawn successfully. Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic will not switch to use a compatible basemap. If the basemap is not compatible with the WFS layer, Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic will display a message to that effect.

Secure OGC services

OGC WCS, WFS, WMS, and WMTS services secured with web-tier authentication, such as Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA), a public key infrastructure (PKI), Basic, or Digest access authentication, are supported. OGC WCS, WFS, WMS, and WMTS services secured with token-based authentication are not supported. Configure support for OGC services secured with web-tier authentication by adding the server hosting the services to your organization’s list of trusted servers. The server must support Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS); otherwise, layers hosted on the server will not function as expected in ArcGIS Online. Additionally, CORS must be configured to allow the specific domains that will be used to communicate with the server, such as your ArcGIS Online organization domain.

After you add the server to the list of trusted servers, you can add your OGC services to the map or as an item. If authentication is necessary, users adding or viewing secured OGC layers will be prompted to enter their credentials.

Custom parameters

If you connect to an OGC service that has additional capabilities or if you want to set a property connection itself, you can add custom request parameter names and values when you add the OGC service as an item to your organization. Parameter names and values are defined on the service and are specific to that service. They may be vendor specific and usually add capabilities that fall outside the scope of the OGC standard. For example, you can use a custom parameter on an OGC WFS service to transpose the x- and y-coordinates of features when they are queried (swapxy, True), or a custom parameter can define a filter expression to return a specific feature (FeatureID, Feat203).

Limitations

The following are the current limitations of using OGC layers in ArcGIS Online:

  • Hosted WFS layers support a maximum of 3,000 features per request.
  • You can only add WFS 2.0 layers that support GeoJSON output to a map in Map Viewer.
  • You cannot edit features, add token-based secure OGC layers, or add internal OGC layers.
  • When in the same map, WFS, WMS, and WMTS layers and the basemap must use the same coordinate system, for example, Web Mercator (the coordinate system of the default basemaps in the basemap gallery). The organization administrator may have changed the default basemaps. Check with your administrator if you have issues using basemaps with an OGC layer.
  • OGC WMS group layers are not supported.
  • The refresh operation only works on OGC WMS layers if the WMS service honors standard HTTPS caching rules.
  • If the option to enable pop-ups is not available for the WMS layer, you may need to add the layer to the map again or re-create the WMS item. Some WMS layers do not support pop-ups.
  • Custom parameters are not supported when printing OGC WCS, WMS, or WMTS layers.
  • To print secure OGC layers from ArcGIS Online, you must use your own print service that supports the secure layer.
  • To print secure OGC layers from ArcGIS Enterprise, you must use your own print service that supports the secure layer.

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In this topic
  1. OGC specifications
  2. Use compatible basemaps with WMTS, WMS, and WFS layers
  3. Secure OGC services
  4. Custom parameters
  5. Limitations