Using WMS and WMS Tiles

Web Map Services (WMS), one of the first OGC web services created, provides a method for dynamic raster generation served over the Web. They are a compromise between the flexibility of WFS and the speed of Tile services.

Getting ready

There are several iterations of WMS, and QGIS supports most of them. To use a WMS, you need to give QGIS the GetCapabilities URL of the service that you want to view data from.

How to do it…

  1. Find a WMS service that you want to use and copy the GetCapabilities URL. In this recipe, we can use the Geoserver demo website (http://demo.opengeo.org/geoserver/web/).

    Tip

    As with other web services, it's more efficient if you load your local layers and zoom to their extent first. This enables you to not waste ...

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