getCapabilities

GetCapabilities is a standardized request used by Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web services to retrieve a machine-readable document that describes the service's capabilities. This document provides information about the service, including its name, provider, available operations, supported data formats, coordinate reference systems, and the data resources or coverages the service exposes. GetCapabilities is typically accessed via HTTP GET or POST at the service endpoint with parameters such as service, request=GetCapabilities, and a version.

The response is an XML document, commonly referred to as Capabilities, whose exact schema depends on the service type (for example WMS, WFS, or WCS). A WMS Capabilities document lists available layers, their bounding boxes and CRS, and the supported request formats like GetMap or GetFeatureInfo. A WFS Capabilities document describes feature types and output formats; a WCS Capabilities document describes coverages and supported interpolations.

GetCapabilities is used by clients to discover what a server can provide and to configure applications automatically. It supports dynamic content such as new layers or formats as they are added. Since versions differ across services, developers should parse version attributes and adapt to the corresponding schema.

Because the request is idempotent and often cacheable, clients may retrieve capabilities periodically to detect changes. Access to detailed capabilities may be restricted by security settings or require authentication on some servers.