GetFeature - Latest

Spectrum Spatial Guide

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Software

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Locate

Product family

Spectrum™ software

Product

Spectrum™ software > Spatial > Spectrum Spatial

Version

Latest

ft:locale

en-US

Product name

Spectrum Technology Platform

ft:title

Spectrum Spatial Guide

2025

First publish date

2007

ft:lastEdition

2026-02-13

ft:lastPublication

2026-02-13T17:17:07.540000

L1_Product_Gateway

Locate

L2_Product_Segment

Location Intelligence

L3_Product_Brand

Precisely Spectrum Spatial

L4_Investment_Segment

LI Enterprise

L5_Product_Group

Enterprise LI

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Spectrum Spatial

The Web Feature Service (WFS) is able to service a request to retrieve feature instances. In addition, the client is able to specify which feature properties to fetch and is able to constrain the query spatially and non-spatially. The service can return the search results of a feature (content) based on the description returned in the DescribeFeatureType request.

An application applies filters to retrieve a specific set of features that satisfy the condition specified by the filter. For example, to get the various attributes, geographic or otherwise. Filters also let customers select a set of features for analysis, such as all the water features within a region or a new housing development (a custom polygon).

The GetFeature operation retrieves features and specified information about the feature from the WFS server. An XML document that contains the result set is returned to the client.

POST Request

The XML encoding of a GetFeature request is defined by the XML Schema fragment for WFS 2.0.0 and 2.0.2:

<xsd:elementname="GetFeature" type="wfs:GetFeatureType"/>
<xsd:complexType name="GetFeatureType">
    <xsd:sequence>
        <xsd:elementref="wfs:Query" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:attributename="version" type="xsd:string" use="required" fixed="2.0.2"/>
    <xsd:attributename="service" type="xsd:string" use="required" fixed="WFS"/>
    <xsd:attributename="handle" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
    <xsd:attributename="outputFormat" type="xsd:string" use="optional" default="application/gml+xml;version=3.2"/>
    <xsd:attributename="count" type="xsd:positiveInteger" use="optional"/>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:elementname="Query" type="wfs:QueryType"/>
<xsd:complexType name="QueryType">
    <xsd:sequence>
        <xsd:elementref="ogc:PropertyName" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
        <xsd:elementref="ogc:Filter" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:attributename="handle" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
    <xsd:attributename="srsName" type="xsd:anyURI " use="optional"/>
    <xsd:attributename="typeNames" type="xsd:QName" use="required"/>
</xsd:complexType></codeblock>
			<p>The XML encoding of a GetFeature request is defined by the XML Schema fragment for WFS
				1.1.0:</p>
			<codeblock>
<xsd:elementname="GetFeature" type="wfs:GetFeatureType"/>
<xsd:complexType name="GetFeatureType">
    <xsd:sequence>
        <xsd:elementref="wfs:Query" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:attributename="version" type="xsd:string" use="required" fixed="1.1.0"/>
    <xsd:attributename="service" type="xsd:string" use="required" fixed="WFS"/>
    <xsd:attributename="handle" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
    <xsd:attributename="outputFormat" type="xsd:string" use="optional" default="text/xml; subtype=gml/3.1.1"/>
    <xsd:attributename="maxFeatures" type="xsd:positiveInteger" use="optional"/>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:elementname="Query" type="wfs:QueryType"/>
<xsd:complexType name="QueryType">
    <xsd:sequence>
        <xsd:elementref="ogc:PropertyName" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
        <xsd:elementref="ogc:Filter" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:attributename="handle" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
    <xsd:attributename="srsName" type="xsd:anyURI " use="optional"/>
    <xsd:attributename="typeName" type="xsd:QName" use="required"/>
    <xsd:attributename="featureVersion" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
</xsd:complexType>

The XML encoding of a GetFeature request is defined by the XML Schema fragment for WFS 1.0.0:

<xsd:elementname="GetFeature" type="wfs:GetFeatureType"/>
<xsd:complexType name="GetFeatureType">
    <xsd:sequence>
        <xsd:elementref="wfs:Query" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:attributename="version" type="xsd:string" use="required" fixed="1.0.0"/>
    <xsd:attributename="service" type="xsd:string" use="required" fixed="WFS"/>
    <xsd:attributename="handle" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
    <xsd:attributename="outputFormat" type="xsd:string" use="optional" default="xmlschema"/>
    <xsd:attributename="maxFeatures" type="xsd:positiveInteger" use="optional"/>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:elementname="Query" type="wfs:QueryType"/>
<xsd:complexType name="QueryType">
    <xsd:sequence>
        <xsd:elementref="ogc:PropertyName" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
        <xsd:elementref="ogc:Filter" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:attributename="handle" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
    <xsd:attributename="srsName" type="xsd:anyURI " use="optional"/>
    <xsd:attributename="typeName" type="xsd:QName" use="required"/>
    <xsd:attributename="featureVersion" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
</xsd:complexType>

GET Request

The GET request contains:

Input	Required	Description
`SERVICE=WFS`	Yes	Fixed to WFS.
`VERSION=`	Yes	Fixed to 2.0.2. This is the version of the Web Feature Service standard implemented in this release (1.0.0, 1.1.0, 2.0.0, or 2.0.2).
`REQUEST=GetFeature`	Yes	Set to GetFeature for a get feature operation.
`TYPENAME` (1.0.0 or 1.1.0) `TYPENAMES` (1.0.0 or 1.1.0)	Yes	A comma-separated list of feature types.
`MAXFEATURES` (1.0.0 or 1.1.0) `COUNT` (2.0.0 or 2.0.2)	No	The maximum number of features to return.
`STARTINDEX`	No	For 2.0.0 and 2.0.2 only. If both the `COUNT` and `STARTINDEX` parameters are set, the response will contain next and previous attributes. These attributes will contain URLs for the next set of results by incrementing or decrementing the `STARTINDEX` by the `COUNT`. For example, for the URL: `http://<server>:<port>/rest/Spatial/WFS?SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=2.0.0&REQUEST=GetFeature&STARTINDEX=11&RESULTTYPE=results&COUNT=10&TYPENAMES=ns29:World` The previous attribute would be: `http://<server>:<port>/rest/Spatial/WFS?SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=2.0.0&REQUEST=GetFeature&STARTINDEX=1&RESULTTYPE=results&COUNT=10&TYPENAMES=ns29:World` The next attribute would be: `http://<server>:<port>/rest/Spatial/WFS?SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=2.0.0&REQUEST=GetFeature&STARTINDEX=21&RESULTTYPE=results&COUNT=10&typenames=ns29:World`
`OUTPUTFORMAT`	No	Dependent on the version: For 1.0.0, the default is `text/xml; subtype=gml/2.1.2`. For 1.1.0, the default is `text/xml; subtype=gml/3.1.1`. For 2.0.0 and 2.0.2, the default is `application/gml+xml;version=3.2`.
Stored Query		For 2.0.0 and 2.0.2 only. Uses the `STOREDQUERY_ID` and `ID`parameters. Only the mandatory ID for GetFeatureById is allowed. Sample GET request: `http://localhost:8097/rest/Spatial/WFS?SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=2.0.0&REQUEST=GetFeature&STOREDQUERY_ID=urn:ogc:def:query:OGC-WFS::GetFeatureById&ID=miwfs-2D-World-2D-1` Sample POST request: `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <wfs:GetFeature version="2.0.2" service="WFS" xmlns:wfs="http://www.opengis.net/wfs/2.0" <wfs:StoredQuery id="urn:ogc:def:query:OGC-WFS::GetFeatureById"> <wfs:Parameter name="id">miwfs-2D-World-2D-1</wfs:Parameter> </wfs:StoredQuery> </wfs:GetFeature>`
`STOREDQUERY_ID`	No	Version 2.0.0 and 2.0.2 use different id formats (URN versus URL). The URN format is still allowed for 2.0.2 but it has been deprecated. 2.0.0 - `urn:ogc:def:query:OGC-WFS::GetFeatureById` 2.0.2 - `http://www.opengis.net/def/query/OGC-WFS/0/GetFeatureById` or `urn:ogc:def:query:OGC-WFS::GetFeatureById` (deprecated)
`ID`	No	The feature ID of the feature to be returned. For example, the feature ID `miwfs-2D-World-2D-1` consists of: `miwfs` = schema `2D` = two-dimensional `World` = feature name `1` = the feature to return by feature key

For example, for v2.0.2:

http://server:port/rest/Spatial/WFS?SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=2.0.2&REQUEST=GetFeature&TYPENAMES=World&COUNT=10

For example, for v1.1.0:

http://server:port/rest/Spatial/WFS?SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=1.1.0&REQUEST=GetFeature&TYPENAME=World&MAXFEATURES=10