WMS services support a series of operations, such as GetCapabilities, GetMap, GetStyles, and so on, which allow client applications to work with the service by appending parameters to the service's URL. The GetFeatureInfo operation works in the same manner and is designed to return the attributes of features queried in a map in various formats such as HTML, XML, and plain text.
For example, the following is a GetFeatureInfo request along with its response in the default HTML format:
Request
http://gisserver.domain.com/arcgis/services/ihs_petroleum/MapServer/WMSServer?&service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=GetFeatureInfo&layers=fields&query_layers=fields&styles=&bbox=47.130647,8.931116,48.604188,29.54223&srs=EPSG:4326&feature_count=10&x=562&y=193&height=445&width=1073&info_format=text/html&
Response
In many cases, the default HTML, XML, or plain text response is appropriate, but there may be a situation when you want to customize the response format or schema to execute specific business logic. For example, for interoperability reasons, you might want to get the feature information back in a standard schema such as GML or GeoJSON.
XSLT templates
Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) templates are a way of generating readable output from a WMS GetFeatureInfo response. For example, when you send a WMS GetFeatureInfo request to the server, the server responds with the requested features in XML format. The XSLT template then does the work of "translating" the XML into a specified format, such as HTML or plan text, which makes the final response readable.
Reviewing the WMS GetFeatureInfo XML response and the default XSLT templates that come with the ArcGIS Server installation will help you gain a better understanding of how to customize a GetFeatureInfo response. The next sections look at each one in more detail.
GetFeatureInfo XML response
Below is an example of the XML from a GetFeatureInfo response in a WMS service:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<esri_wms:FeatureInfoResponse version="1.3.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:esri_wms="http://www.esri.com/wms" xmlns="http://www.esri.com/wms">
<esri_wms:FeatureInfoCollection layername="fields">
<esri_wms:FeatureInfo>
<esri_wms:Field>
<esri_wms:FieldName><![CDATA[OBJECTID]]></esri_wms:FieldName>
<esri_wms:FieldValue><![CDATA[1]]></esri_wms:FieldValue>
</esri_wms:Field>
<esri_wms:Field>
<esri_wms:FieldName><![CDATA[Shape]]></esri_wms:FieldName>
<esri_wms:FieldValue><![CDATA[Polygon]]></esri_wms:FieldValue>
</esri_wms:Field>
<esri_wms:Field>
<esri_wms:FieldName><![CDATA[Shape_Area]]></esri_wms:FieldName>
<esri_wms:FieldValue><![CDATA[0.009079]]></esri_wms:FieldValue>
</esri_wms:Field>
...
<!-- there could be more <esri_wms:Field> -->
...
<esri_wms:Field>
<esri_wms:FieldGeometry>
<esri_wms:Point><![CDATA[0,0]]></esri_wms:Point>
<esri_wms:Multipoint>
<esri_wms:Point><![CDATA[0,45]]></esri_wms:Point>
<esri_wms:Point><![CDATA[10,55]]></esri_wms:Point>
<!-- there could be more <esri_wms:Point> -->
</esri_wms:Multipoint>
<esri_wms:Polyline>
<esri_wms:Path>
<esri_wms:Point><![CDATA[0,45]]></esri_wms:Point>
<esri_wms:Point><![CDATA[10,55]]></esri_wms:Point>
<!-- there could be more <esri_wms:Point> -->
</esri_wms:Path>
<!-- there could be more <esri_wms:Path> -->
</esri_wms:Polyline>
<esri_wms:Polygon>
<esri_wms:Ring>
<esri_wms:Point><![CDATA[0,45]]></esri_wms:Point>
<esri_wms:Point><![CDATA[10,55]]></esri_wms:Point>
<esri_wms:Point><![CDATA[15,25]]></esri_wms:Point>
<!-- there could be more <esri_wms:Point> -->
</esri_wms:Ring>
<!-- there could be more <esri_wms:Ring> -->
</esri_wms:Polygon>
</esri_wms:FieldGeometry>
</esri_wms:Field>
</esri_wms:FeatureInfo>
...
<!-- there could be more <esri_wms:FeatureInfo> -->
...
</esri_wms:FeatureInfoCollection>
...
<!-- there could be more <esri_wms:FeatureInfoCollection> -->
...
</esri_wms:FeatureInfoResponse>
Notice these details:
- The root tag <FeatureInfoResponse> can contain multiple <FeatureInfoCollection> elements.
- Each <FeatureInfoCollection> element contains the attribute fields and values of all identified features from a single WMS layer.
- The information for a single identified feature is contained in a <FeatureInfo> tag. Notice the name-value pair for each field.
- Spatial reference information is included with each <FeatureInfo> tag.
- If available, feature geometry is returned in <FieldGeometry> tag.
- A field geometry can contain point, multipoint, polyline, or a polygon goemetry.
Default XSLT templates
ArcGIS Server comes with XSLT templates for the supported formats listed in the WMS's capabilities files. For example, if you open the directory of these templates at <ArcGIS Server installation location>/Styles/WMS, you'll see the following:
- featureinfo_application_geojson.xsl
- featureinfo_application_vnd.esri.wms_featureinfo_xml.xsl
- featureinfo_application_vnd.ogc.wms_xml.xsl
- featureinfo_text_html.xsl
- featureinfo_text_plain.xsl
- featureinfo_text_xml.xsl
As their names imply, each template is used to produce a default GetFeatureInfo response in a readable format, such as GeoJSON, plain text, and XML.
The example HTML table with the blue caption featured at the beginning of this topic was produced using the default XSLT HTML template. Alternatively, if you want to get the raw XML as the response, you can set the GetFeatureInfo request parameter INFO_FORMAT to application/vnd.esri.wms_raw_xml. You could use this method to create your own XSLT template.
Customizing the GetFeatureInfo response
Now that you have a better understanding of the GetFeatureInfo response XML and XSLT templates, you can explore a couple of ways to customize the WMS GetFeatureInfo response.
Modifying the default XSLT templates
The first way that you can do this is to physically modify the XSLT templates. For example, if you open the featureinfo_text_html.xsl HTML template in a text editor and replace the <Style> tag with the following XML, you would see the table caption color change to red:
Example XML
<style type="text/css">
table, th, td {
border:1px solid #e5e5e5;
border-collapse:collapse;
font-family: arial;
font-size: 80%;
color: #333333
}
th, td {
valign: top;
text-align: center;
}
th {
background-color: #ffb7b7
}
caption {
border:1px solid #e5e5e5;
border-collapse:collapse;
font-family: arial;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 80%;
text-align: left;
color: #333333;
}
</style>
Example response
However, if you decide to modify these templates, it will directly affect any WMS published through ArcGIS Server. For this reason, avoid trying to put any map service-specific logic into the templates.
Using the xsl_template parameter
Another method of customizing the GetFeatureInfo response is to override the behavior of the default XSLT templates using the xsl_template parameter. The xsl_template is an Esri-specific parameter that you can set in the URL of an XSLT template file. When the template is specified in the URL string, the WMS will override the default template and use the template you specified. If you've already built a custom template, this is the most appropriate method for utilizing the template in the GetFeatureInfo response.
Note:
When using the xsl_template parameter, your XSLT template doesn't have to follow the same naming convention as the default templates, but it does need to be available through a URL. Specifying a local path or network share will cause the request to fail.
Below is an example of a GetFeatureInfo request with the xsl_template parameter:
http://gisserver.domain.com/arcgis/services/ihs_petroleum/MapServer/WMSServer?&service=WMS&version=1.1.1&request=GetFeatureInfo&layers=pipelines&query_layers=pipelines&styles=&bbox=47.119661,28.931116,48.593202,29.54223&srs=EPSG:4326&feature_count=10&x=389&y=120&height=445&width=1073&info_format=text/plain&xsl_template=http://server/resources/xsl/featureinfo_application_geojson.xsl
The URL above references an external template that overrides the default template. The customized template XML is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:esri_wms="http://www.esri.com/wms" xmlns="http://www.esri.com/wms">
<xsl:output method="text" indent="yes" encoding="ISO-8859-1"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
{
"type": "FeatureCollection",
"spatialReference": { "wkid": <xsl:value-of select="esri_wms:FeatureInfoResponse/esri_wms:FeatureInfoCollection/esri_wms:FeatureInfo/esri_wms:CRS"/> },
"features": [<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:FeatureInfoResponse/esri_wms:FeatureInfoCollection/esri_wms:FeatureInfo">
{
"type": "Feature",
<xsl:if test="count(esri_wms:Field/esri_wms:FieldGeometry/*) > 0">
"geometry": {
<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Field/esri_wms:FieldGeometry">
<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Point">"type": "Point", "coordinates": [<xsl:value-of select="."/>]</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Multipoint">"type": "MultiPoint", "coordinates": [<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Point">[<xsl:value-of select="."/>]<xsl:if test = "position() != last()">,</xsl:if></xsl:for-each>]</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Polyline">"type": "MultiLineString", "coordinates": [<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Path"> [<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Point">[<xsl:value-of select="."/>]<xsl:if test = "position() != last()">,</xsl:if></xsl:for-each>]<xsl:if test = "position() != last()">,</xsl:if></xsl:for-each>]</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Polygon">"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Ring"> [<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Point">[<xsl:value-of select="."/>]<xsl:if test = "position() != last()">,</xsl:if></xsl:for-each>]<xsl:if test = "position() != last()">,</xsl:if></xsl:for-each>]</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:for-each>
},
</xsl:if>
"properties": {<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:Field">
"<xsl:value-of select="esri_wms:FieldName"/>": "<xsl:value-of select="esri_wms:FieldValue"/>"<xsl:if test="position() != last()">,</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
},
"layerName": "<xsl:value-of select="../@layername"/>"
}<xsl:if test="position() != last()">,</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
]
}
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
The template was created to make the WMS return its GetFeatureInfo responses in plain text GeoJSON with feature geometry instead of the default HTML format. GeoJSON can be parsed by many JavaScript libraries, allowing you to integrate your responses with web pages in an easy-to-read format.
Below is an example of a GetFeatureInfo GeoJSON response as a data source of an Ext.Grid in an OpenLayers web map application:
To build on the preceding sample, the following example template can be used to embed a video object in the response:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:esri_wms="http://www.esri.com/wms" xmlns="http://www.esri.com/wms">
<!--
<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
-->
<xsl:output
method="html"
indent="yes"
encoding="UTF-8"
omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<!--<html>
<head>-->
<style type="text/css">
table, th, td {
border:1px solid #e5e5e5;
border-collapse:collapse;
font-family: arial;
font-size: 80%;
color: #333333
}
th, td {
valign: top;
text-align: center;
}
th {
background-color: #aed7ff;
}
caption {
border:1px solid #e5e5e5;
border-collapse:collapse;
font-family: arial;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 80%;
text-align: left;
color: #333333;
background-color: #aed7ff;
}
</style>
<!--</head>
<body>-->
<div>
<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:FeatureInfoResponse/esri_wms:FeatureInfoCollection">
<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="1">
<tbody>
<caption>layer names: '<xsl:value-of select="@layername"/>'</caption>
<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:FeatureInfo[1]/esri_wms:Field">
<xsl:variable name="fieldName" select="esri_wms:FieldName"/>
<xsl:variable name="fieldValue" select="esri_wms:FieldValue"/>
<xsl:if test="$fieldName = 'PLOT_SYMBOL_GROUP'">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$fieldValue = 2">
<tr>
<td>
wiki link
</td>
<td>
<a target="_blank">
<xsl:attribute name="href">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well
</xsl:attribute>
Oil Well
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
video
</td>
<td>
<div>
<object width="425" height="344">
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HVxsbb1lDsQ"></param>
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HVxsbb1lDsQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed>
</object>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</xsl:when>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
</tbody>
</table>
</xsl:for-each>
</div>
<!--</body>
</html>-->
</xsl:template>
Below is an example of the GetFeatureInfo response with an embedded video in an OpenLayers web map application:
The following is a more comprehensive example that heavily customizes the GetFeatureInfo response to embed a JavaScript code snippet. The code plays a tour in the Google Earth plug-in web application. Keep in mind that in this XSLT template, there is logic specific to a particular WMS service. Therefore, this template should always be referenced through the xsl_template parameter. It should not be made the default template.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:esri_wms="http://www.esri.com/wms" xmlns="http://www.esri.com/wms">
<!--
<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
-->
<xsl:output
method="html"
indent="yes"
encoding="UTF-8"
omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<!--<html>
<head>-->
<style type="text/css">
table, th, td {
border:1px solid #e5e5e5;
border-collapse:collapse;
font-family: arial;
font-size: 80%;
color: #333333
}
th, td {
valign: top;
text-align: center;
}
th {
background-color: #aed7ff;
}
caption {
border:1px solid #e5e5e5;
border-collapse:collapse;
font-family: arial;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 80%;
text-align: left;
color: #333333;
background-color: #aed7ff;
}
</style>
<!--</head>
<body>-->
<div>
<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:FeatureInfoResponse/esri_wms:FeatureInfoCollection">
<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="1">
<tbody>
<caption>layer names: '<xsl:value-of select="@layername"/>'</caption>
<xsl:for-each select="esri_wms:FeatureInfo[1]/esri_wms:Field">
<xsl:variable name="fieldName" select="esri_wms:FieldName"/>
<xsl:variable name="fieldValue" select="esri_wms:FieldValue"/>
<xsl:if test="$fieldName = 'WGS84_LONGITUDE'">
<xsl:variable name="lon" select="esri_wms:FieldValue"/>
<tr>
<td>lon</td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="$lon"/></td>
<script type="text/javascript">
popup_lon = '<xsl:value-of select="$lon"/>';
</script>
</tr>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:if test="$fieldName = 'WGS84_LATITUDE'">
<xsl:variable name="lat" select="esri_wms:FieldValue"/>
<tr>
<td>lat</td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="$lat"/></td>
<script type="text/javascript">
popup_lat = '<xsl:value-of select="$lat"/>';
</script>
</tr>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:if test="$fieldName = 'PLOT_SYMBOL_GROUP'">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$fieldValue = 14">
<tr>
<td>
3d map
</td>
<td>
<div id="map3d" style="width:384px;height:256px;"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
google.earth.createInstance(
'map3d',
function(instance) {
ge = instance;
ge.getWindow().setVisibility(true);
var kmlStr = ''
+ '<kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:gx="http://www.google.com/kml/ext/2.2">'
+ '<gx:Tour>'
+ '<gx:Playlist><gx:FlyTo>'
+ '<gx:duration>20.0</gx:duration>'
+ '<LookAt>'
+ '<longitude>' + popup_lon + '</longitude>'
+ '<latitude>' + popup_lat + '</latitude>'
+ '<altitude>0</altitude>'
+ '<heading>0</heading>'
+ '<tilt>0</tilt>'
+ '<range>500</range>'
+ '<altitudeMode>relativeToGround</altitudeMode>'
+ '</LookAt>'
+ '</gx:FlyTo></gx:Playlist>'
+ '</gx:Tour>'
+ '</kml>';
var kmlObj = ge.parseKml(kmlStr);
ge.getTourPlayer().setTour(kmlObj);
ge.getTourPlayer().play();
},
function() {
}
);
</script>
</td>
</tr>
</xsl:when>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
</tbody>
</table>
</xsl:for-each>
</div>
<!--</body>
</html>-->
</xsl:template>