| Developed by | OGC |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1999 [1] |
| Type of format | Container format |
| Container for | XML, JPEG, PNG, others |
| Open format? | Yes, with Copyright [2] |
| Website | www |
A Web Map Service (WMS) is a standard protocol developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium in 1999 for serving georeferenced map images over the Internet. [1] These images are typically produced by a map server from data provided by a GIS database. [3]
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) became involved in developing standards for web mapping after a paper was published in 1997 by Allan Doyle, outlining a "WWW Mapping Framework". [4] The OGC established a task force to come up with a strategy, [5] and organized the "Web Mapping Testbed" initiative, inviting pilot web mapping projects that built upon ideas by Doyle and the OGC task force. Results of the pilot projects were demonstrated in September 1999, and a second phase of pilot projects ended in April 2000. [6]
The Open Geospatial Consortium released WMS version 1.0.0 in April 2000, [7] followed by version 1.1.0 in June 2001, [8] and version 1.1.1 in January 2002. [9] The OGC released WMS version 1.3.0 in January 2004. [10]
WMS specifies a number of different request types, two of which are required by any WMS server: [11]
Request types that WMS providers may optionally support include:
All communication is served through HTTP.
A WMS server usually serves the map in a bitmap format, e.g. PNG, GIF, JPEG, etc. In addition, vector graphics can be included, such as points, lines, curves and text, expressed in SVG or WebCGM format.
Open source software that provide web map services capability include:
Proprietary server software that allow providing web map services include:
Open source standalone (client side) software that allow viewing web map services include:
Proprietary standalone (client side) software that allow viewing web map services include:
WMS is a widely supported format for maps and GIS data accessed via the Internet and loaded into client side GIS software. Major commercial GIS and mapping software that support WMS include:
Open source software that supports WMS include:
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