OGC API standards define modular API building blocks to spatially enable Web APIs in a consistent way. OpenAPI is used to define the reusable API building blocks with responses in JSON and HTML.
The OGC API family of standards is organized by resource type. The draft OGC API - Records standard defines a Web API with two goals:
-
Provide modern API patterns and encodings to facilitate further lowering the barrier to finding the existence of spatial resources on the Web.
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Provide metadata discovery and retrieval functionality that is comparable to that of the OGC Catalogue Service (CSW) standard.
GET {root}/
Retrieves the landing page. The purpose of the landing page is to provide clients with a starting point for using the API. Any resource exposed through a Web API can be accessed by following paths or links starting from the landing page.
The landing page includes three metadata elements; title
, description
, and links
. Only links
is required. The title
and description
elements describe the API as a whole. Clients can expect to encounter metadata which is more resource-specific by following links and paths from the landing page.
GET {root}/api
Retrieves the API definition which describes the capabilities provided by that API. This resource can be used by developers to improve their understanding of the API, by software clients to connect to the server, and by development tools to support the implementation of servers and clients.
GET {root}/conformance
Provides a list declaring the modules that are implemented by the API. These modules are referred to as Conformance Classes. The list of Conformance Classes is key to understanding and using an OGC Web API.
GET {root}/collections
Metadata describing the spatial collections available from this API.
GET /collections/{collectionId}
Metadata describing the collection which has the unique identifier {collectionId}
GET {root}/collections/{collectionId}/items
Search results based on querying the service for records satisfying 0..n query parameters.
GET {root}/collections/{collectionId}/items/{recordId}
Record of metadata which has the unique identifier {recordId}.