[IDV #AAK-746578]: IDV's WMS support

Hi Murray,

> 
> We (UNESCO trainers for marine data mgt.) would like to use IDV for a broad
> suite of analysis/display functions, involving mainly marine data.  One of
> the first questions a colleague asked me is if it is a good WMS client.
> I've seen the canned list of WMS clients in the CATALOG, so I know that when
> the exact URL for the capabilites document is known IDV does a good job.
> But I'm wondering about the case when the exact URL is not known.
> 
> Please see the attached PDF file to view one of our present lessons, where
> in Panels 8 and 20-21 you can see that most WMS clients only require the
> basic URL for the mapservice (e.g. map.ngdc.noaa.gov and w4.jcommops.org) in
> order to query for capabilities.  We've successfully used these basic domain
> URL's on several WMS-capable applications.  But when I try to use them in
> IDV (forgetting for the moment that the NGDC item is also in your canned
> list), I get the error message shown in the attached image.  Right now I
> don't know if I'm entering the URL's in the wrong place, or typing them
> slightly differently from what IDV expects, or if IDV must have only the
> exact, complete URL for the capabilities document (which is not always easy
> to determine).  Most WMS's known to us are identified only by the basic
> domain URL.
> 
> Can you shed some light on this problem?
> 
We do need the URL to the capabilities document. The catalog chooser is 
expecting to get some form of xml document (e.g., thredds catalog, wms 
capabilities). Just giving a top-level domain (e.g., map.ngdc.noaa.gov) just 
gives us html. Furthermore, we are not aware of any standards that would help 
us figure out the capabilities url given just a host name. 

That said, you could put together a thredds catalog (like our top level 
catalog) that points to the various WMS servers.


-Jeff


Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: AAK-746578
Department: Support IDV
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed