WFS

Web Feature Service (WFS) is an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard for serving geospatial vector data over the Internet. WFS enables clients to retrieve, query, and, in some versions, edit features—geometries such as points, lines, and polygons along with their attribute data—rather than pre-rendered map images. It is designed to provide access to the underlying data model and support interoperability among GIS applications.

WFS is typically accessed over HTTP and supports several operations, including GetCapabilities, DescribeFeatureType, GetFeature, and, in WFS-T, Transaction for editing features. Responses are usually encoded in Geography Markup Language (GML), which conveys geometry and attribute information. Some deployments also offer alternative encodings or JSON representations for specific use cases. A WFS service may expose multiple feature types, each with its own schema and coordinate reference systems (CRSs).

Key capabilities include retrieving feature data by type, applying spatial and attribute filters, and requesting data in a specified CRS. Filtering is performed using the OGC Filter Encoding Specification (FES) or, in some cases, CQL. GetCapabilities provides metadata about the service, supported feature types, operations, and CRS support; DescribeFeatureType reveals the schema for a feature type.

WFS is part of the broader OGC standards suite alongside WMS and WCS. It is widely used in government, academia, and industry to enable data sharing and integration across GIS platforms. When editing is required, WFS-T enables transactional operations but depends on server capabilities and appropriate data governance.