Administering the WFS Connector

WFS administration is done through a Web-based WFS Connector Administrator. WFS administration tasks include:

Logging in to the Administrator
Setting the WFS Connector properties
Changing the password
Enabling and disabling WFS services
Interpreting and resolving errors and warnings during administration

Logging in to the Administrator

To access the WFS Connector Administrator, follow these steps:

1. Open a Web browser.
2. Enter the URL for the Administrator, which is accessed through a URL similar to the following example:

   http://<hostname>/<deploy_name>/index.htm

   where

   • <hostname> is the URL domain name for your site such as www.esri.com or a fully qualified machine name.
   • <deploy_name> is the name you assigned to the Web application when you deployed the WFS Connector. The recommended deployment name is "wfsconnector".
3. In the page that appears, type your user name and password.

   If this is your first time logging in to the Administrator, you are prompted to create a new username and password and to confirm your password by typing it again. This user name and password is required for all future sessions.

4. Click Login.

Setting the WFS Connector properties

The WFS Connector Properties page allows you to set up or update the WFS Connector working environment. The following properties are set on this page.

To open the WFS Connector Properties page, click on the Connector Properties link that appears on the top left corner of the WFS Connector Administrator page.

Enable WFS

This property specifies whether the WFS Connector is enabled or disabled. When enabled, WFS requests can be made through the connector. When disabled, all WFS services still exist along with their Capabilties files, but are inaccessible to WFS requests. The only allowable command is connectorPing, which tests communication with the WFS Connector. An example URL using connectorPing is:

http://<hostname>/<deploy_name>/com.esri.wfs.Esrimap?CMD=connectorPing

where

• <hostname> is the URL domain name for your site such as www.esri.com or a fully qualified machine name.
• <deploy_name> is the name you assigned to the Web application when you deployed the WFS Connector. The recommended deployment name is wfsconnector.
• http://<domain_name>/wfsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap? is the full URL to access the WFS Connector on an ArcIMS site.
• CMD=connectorPing is the parameter to test communication with the WFS Connector.

ArcIMS host machine

The host machine is the name of the machine on which the ArcIMS Application Server is running. If your site has more than one machine with an Application Server, choose the primary machine.

ArcIMS client port

The client port is the port through which ArcIMS Servlet Connector communicates with the ArcIMS Application Server. By default, the port is 5300. If your site uses more than one port, use the port number that matches the port for the primary host machine.

Default service

Sets the default ArcIMS service recognized by the WFS Connector. The WFS Connector can support many services. Nondefault services are accessible by including the service name in the URL.

Example URL using default service:

http://<hostname>/<deploy_name>/com.esri.wfs.Esrimap?request=getcapabilities&service=wfs&version=1.0.0

Example URL specifying a service name:

http://<hostname><deploy_name>/com.esri.wfs.Esrimap/<FeatureService_name>?request=getcapabilities&service=wfs&version=1.0.0

Capabilities directory

The capabilities directory is the location in which the WFS Capabilities files are stored. A capabilities file specifies the content of a WFS service. Capabilities files are created for each WFS-enabled ArcIMS service. The directory can be placed anywhere on your network that is visible to the host machine. It does not need to be in a location accessible to the Web server. If the directory name you choose does not exist, a new directory is created.

Note: If a new directory is created when setting the capabilities directory, this directory can only be one level down from an existing directory. For example, if c:\wfs already exists, you can create a new directory, c:\wfs\capabilities. However, you cannot create a new directory c:\wfs\capabilities\new.

Path to Connector

This parameter specifies the path to the deployed WFS Connector. The default path is:

http://<hostname>/wfsconnector/

Namespace name

Namespace name provides a namespace prefix, which points to the namespace Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). The namespace is used to distinguish your feature type definition in the XML schema from the ones defined by other organizations, even if you have the same name. Namespace name combined with namespace URI provides a unique ID for your feature type definition.

Namespace URL

This parameter specifies the URI reference of target namespace (specified in Namespace Name) for your feature type definitions in XML schemas.

Debug

This parameter specifies whether logging is enabled. The default is false.

Error Log

Errors and messages can be logged in one of two files:

• Use file if you want debug information to be logged to WMSEsrimap.log. This log file is a text file located in the Capabilities Directory.
• Use servlet if you want debug information to be logged to the servlet engine's log file.

If the Debug property is false, this property is ignored, and there is no logging. The default value is file.

Submitting the parameters

When you have filled out all parameters on the page, click Submit. The information is registered automatically by the WFS Connector and the WFSEsrimap_prop property file is updated. This file is located in the expanded WAR file's WEB-INF/classes directory. The location of this directory varies depending on the servlet engine you are using. However, the structure of the expanded WAR file is always the same.

<Application Name>
            |__WEB_INF
                    |__classes
                            |__WFSEsrimap_prop

where

<Application Name> is the name of your application when you deployed the WAR file. The recommended name is wfsconnector. You should not edit WFSEsrimap_prop in a text file. Instead, you should use the Administrator. If you do edit WFSEsrimap_prop, you must manually restart your servlet engine for the changes to take effect.

Notes:

In some applications, it may be unnecessary to restart the Web application after making changes to the properties using the Administrator, but there can be situations in which the servlet application needs to be restarted. If you do not observe your changes taking effect after making them in the Administrator, it would be advisable to restart the servlet application. Refer to the documentation on starting/restarting a servlet application specific to your particular servlet engine.

There are some hidden parameters in the WFSEsrimap_prop file.  They are:

• localSchema - Set to true if you want to make schema locations in WFS responses to be linked to http://<hostname>/wfsconnector/schema/ instead of the OGC Web site.
• multiGeometryType - Set to true if you want WFS to return multiPoint, multiLineString, and multiPolygon instead of Point, LineString, and Polygon.

Changing the password

You should occasionally change your password to the WMS Connector Administrator. To do this:

1. From the WFS Connector Properties page, click the Change Password link.
2. In the page that appears, type a user name and password. You must confirm the password by typing it again.
3. Click Login.

Enabling and disabling WFS services

After you have logged in and set properties for the WFS Connector, you will see the main Services page. This page lists all ArcIMS Feature Services available for your server.

Service column

This column lists all ArcIMS Image, ArcIMS Feature, and ArcMap Image Services available on the server.

WFS-enabled column

To enable a service for WFS, click Enable WFS. A check mark appears next to the link. When you enable a service, a set of Capabilities files for the service is generated and placed in the Capabilities directory. A client can send the following WFS requests to the service: GetCapabilities, DescribeFeatureType, and GetFeature.

To disable a WFS service, click Disable WFS. An X appears next to the link. When you disable a service, the Capabilities files for the service are deleted from the Capabilities directory.

Caution: Any edits you may have made to a Capabilities file will be lost when you disable the WFS service.

When the ArcIMS Monitor or Application Server is not running, you may see some unexpected behavior when enabling or disabling services. Services can be disabled as usual and the Capabilities file deleted. When you try to enable a service, you will get the following error message:

The service could not be enabled for WFS. There was a problem creating one or more capabilities files.

When you see this error, check that the ArcIMS Monitor and Application Server are running.

Capabilities column

When you click Download on the Services page, you can view a copy of the Capabilities file. Do not edit this file since it is only a temporary copy. When you click Update, the Capabilities files are updated. Do this if you change information in the ArcIMS service.

Caution: If you make edits in a Capabilities file and click Update, a new file is generated and overwrites the file you edited.

Navigation links

• To return to the WFS Connector Properties page, click Connector Properties.
• To update the services list, click Update Services List. Update the list whenever you add or delete ArcIMS services.

Notes:

• If an ArcIMS service is stopped or deleted, the Capabilities files for that service are not deleted. However, if you update the services list, the service is no longer included in the list.
• If you restart or re-create the service, the Capabilities files become accessible again.
• If you have modified the ArcIMS service in any way, be sure to update the Capabilities files.

• If the ArcIMS Application Server is not running, you will see the following error:
  

  Err3002: An error occurred communicating with the ArcIMS Application server. The service list could not be generated.

  When you restart the Application Server and update the services list, the list will return as before. No Capabilities files are deleted.

Errors and warnings during WFS Connector administration

If a problem arises during administration, you will receive an error or warning message. An error message indicates the process was unsuccessful. A warning message indicates that the process was successful, but the results may be incorrect. The following table lists some common error and warning messages you may receive when using the Administrator.

 

Problem	Error message
ERR3002	An error occurred communicating with the ArcIMS Application Server. The service list could not be generated. Check if the Application Server is running. If not, restart it. After restarting, you may need to click Update Service List to see the list of services.
ERR3006	One or more capabilities files for this service could not be deleted. Check if the files are read-only or are being used by another application such as a text editor.
ERR3007	The directory containing the capability files for this service could not be deleted. Check if the directory has permission to be deleted, is not being shared, or is locked by another process.
ERR3009	The service could not be enabled for WFS. There was a problem creating one or more capabilities file. Check if the ArcIMS Monitor and Application Server are running. If they are, check if the ArcIMS service is running.