Accessing Web Services (WMS, WFS, CS-W)

Introduction

Web services allow software and web applications to directly access data and metadata residing in the LINZ Data Service (LDS).

LDS supports a Web Feature Service (WFS) for accessing vector data, a Web Map Service (WMS) for displaying raster data, and a Catalogue Web Service (CS-W) for accessing metadata.

For more information on web services:

• WFS: Wikipedia | OGC
• WMS: Wikipedia | OGC
• CS-W: Wikipedia | OGC

Getting started with LDS web services

1. Check out why and when to use LDS Web Services
2. Create a web services key
3. Jump right in or use our 'Introduction to web services' guide to help you along the way.

Web services user guide

For a step-by-step guide on how to use the LDS Web Feature Service (WFS) and Web Map Service (WMS) to retrieve data from LDS using ArcGIS, Quantum GIS and MapInfo, see our 'Using LDS web services: an introduction' user guide.

Web Feature Service (WFS) for vector layers

Use this URI in your GIS software:

http://wfs.data.linz.govt.nz/<YOUR-WEB-SERVICE-KEY>/wfs

Details:

• WFS v1.1.0 and v1.0.0 are supported
• GetFeature responses are currently limited to 1,000,000 (1 million) features
• WFS Layer identifiers are of the form "v:x802" for the corresponding layer http://data.linz.govt.nz/layer/802-nz-dam-centerlines-topo-1500k/

The URL for the GetCapabilities document is:

http://wfs.data.linz.govt.nz/<YOUR-WEB-SERVICE-KEY>/wfs?SERVICE=WFS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities

Web Map Services (WMS) for raster layers

While WMS can supply cartographic representations of vector layers, LDS currently only delivers raster layers via WMS.

Use this URI in your GIS software:

http://wms.data.linz.govt.nz/<YOUR-WEB-SERVICE-KEY>/r/wms

Details:

• Only raster data layers are currently supported, i.e. Topo50 and Topo250 map sheet layers
• WMS v1.3.0 and v1.1.1 are supported
• WMS Layer identifiers are of the form "r:x767" for the corresponding layer http://data.linz.govt.nz/layer/767-nz-mainland-topo50/

The URL for the GetCapabilities document is:

http://wms.data.linz.govt.nz/<YOUR-WEB-SERVICE-KEY>/r/wms?SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities

Catalogue Web Service (CS-W) for metadata

The CS-W service does not require a web services key.

Use this URI in your CS-W client:

http://data.linz.govt.nz/feeds/csw

Details:

• The CS-W v2.02 ISO Profile is supported
• Records are available as ISO19115/19139 documents and OGC/Dublin Core records

The URL for the GetCapabilities document is:

http://data.linz.govt.nz/feeds/csw?SERVICE=CSW&REQUEST=GetCapabilities