[udig-devel] general purpose client to WFS 1.1

[Paul Ramsey]

Upendra,

Well, anything is possible, but you are right to note that there are  
a number of ways that GML can be more complex than simple geometry  
models, and exposing that complexity to the user for manipulation  
gets complex along with the model.

I think that, with a proper generic topology model in geotools and  
some tools in udig doing GML topology via WFS would be possible too.   
But note that there is some core work to be done before the WFS part  
even becomes possible.

I think that for multiple-geometry schemas it would not be too hard  
to allow people to choose which geometry element they want rendered  
and enable for editing.  I think that in general deeply nested  
feature types could be tricky, but not impossible to expose to the  
user.  Most of the infrastructure for holding and working with those  
schemas already exists in geotools, but there is some design and  
thought required on how to expose it to users (particularly how to do  
so without confusing the default case).

In answer to your final question, yes, it is possible to do a general  
purpose client without knowing the application schema beforehand, as  
udig already does that.  It reads the application schema and  
configures its parser appropriately.  However more complicated cases,  
particularly some of the things in GML3, will require extension to  
support.

And the $1M question is: if the use of the extended features in GML3  
is expected to be infrequent, is it worth spending the effort to  
support them?

P

On 6-Oct-06, at 2:29 PM, Upendra wrote:

> Hello everybody,
>   I am new to UDIG. I want to use udig with WFS. I was able to use  
> it with WFS 1.0, but not with WFS 1.1. My question:- Is it even  
> possible to develop general purpose client for any WFS 1.1? What if  
> my WFS schema is very complicated? In case of WFS 1.0 schemas are  
> usually very simple, one just has to look at a geometry field in  
> the schema and use it for rendering. What if there are multiple  
> geometry fields or if there is topological complex instead of a  
> geometry field? Is it possible to create a general purpose client  
> without knowing the WFS application schema beforehand? Any answers  
> will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
>
> Upendra
>
> Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo!  
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