Mastering GeoServer

Using WPS to perform spatial analysis

Now that we have configured our GeoServer instances to work as a spatial analysis platform, we can start putting it to work. There are a number of different ways in which we can approach this, all made possible by the OGC standards implemented. Since we are just dealing with a web service, almost any application can be used to send WPS requests and receive responses. Some of the approaches we can take are:

• Build a web mapping client using OpenLayers
• Connect to the WPS service using Desktop GIS such as QGIS
• Execute from the command line using cURL

Regardless of the approach that you want to take, they all have one thing in common: they communicate with the WPS service over HTTP POST using XML. To really learn and ...