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Context

The OGC API family of standards are being developed to make it easy for anyone to provide geospatial data to the web. These standards build upon the legacy of the OGC Web Service standards (WMS, WFS, WCS, WPS, etc.), but define resource-centric APIs that take advantage of modern web development practices. This web page provides information on these standards in a consolidated location.

These standards are being constructed as "building blocks" that can be used to assemble novel APIs for web access to geospatial content. The building blocks are defined not only by the requirements of the specific standards, but also through interoperability prototyping and testing in OGC's Innovation Program.
To learn more about using the OGC APIs please view our guidelines here.

The OGC API Roadmap highlights the current and planned standards efforts as well as related extensions to those standards and Innovation Program and other projects influencing and refining the process of standardization.

For more information on the OGC API standards, please contact us using the form below.

To find out more about the OGC please visit our public site. OGC Logo

What's New

OGC API standards in the news

INSPIRE virtual conference
On Monday, June 8, 2020 there will be a special session on OGC API - Features, co-chaired by Athina Trakas.
Executable Test Suite Available

The executable test suite for the OGC API - Features - Part 1: Core (OGC 17-069r3) is now available in the OGC Validation beta environment.

If you would like to register your product implementation:
  1. Register your implementation in the OGC database: Register
  2. Then link your implementation to the test results in the beta website.

Your implementation will then appear in the OGC database as an official implementation.

If you have any issues, please report them directly to the GitHub project page: https://github.com/opengeospatial/ets-ogcapi-features10/issues

Thank you and happy testing!

Approved Standards

The following standards have been approved by OGC membership for publication. These standards have been developed in OGC's international, consensus-based process.

OGC API - Features:

Part 1 - Core

Events

OGC continues to use special events, hackathons, and sprints to validate the OGC API draft candidate standards as those standards evolve. By including the broadest possible selection of stakeholders, OGC can be confident that when the standards are published, those standards have already withstood testing and suitability evaluation.

  • January 2020

    ESIP and OGC Coverage Processing and Analysis Sprint

    Find out moore about this event here.

  • March 2020

    Environmental Data Retrieval API Sprint

    Find out more about this event here.

  • April 2020

    OGC Tiles Sprint

    Find out more about this event here.

Standards in work

The following repositories contain the work-in-progress for OGC API standards. These efforts are at different levels of maturity, but anyone is free to browse the work and submit or comment upon issues.

Features

OGC API - Features: Part 1 - Core is already publicly available. Part 2 - Coordinate Reference Systems by Reference will soon be released for public review.

GitHub repo
Common

OGC API - Common provides those elements shared by most or all of the OGC API standards to ensure consistency across the family. The candidate standard will soon be released for public review.

GitHub repo
Maps

OGC API - Maps offers a modern approach to the OGC Web Map Service (WMS) standard for provision map and raster content.

GitHub repo
Records

OGC API - Records updates OGC’s Catalog Services for the Web by building on the simple access to content in OGC API - Features.

GitHub repo
Processes

OGC API - Processes allows for processing tools to be called and combined from many sources and applied to data in other OGC API resources though a simple API.

GitHub repo
Coverages

OGC API - Coverages allows discovery, visualization and query of complex raster stacks and data cubes.

GitHub repo
Tiles

OGC API - Tiles provides extended functionality to other OGC API standards to deliver tiled data, such as Map Tiles.

GitHub repo

OGC Web API guidelines

The OGC Architecture Board (OAB) considers architecture consistency and life cycle management of the OGC standards baseline. The OAB has developed OGC Web API Guidelines to be followed when building Web API standards. These guidelines are not mandatory or policy, rather their purpose is to assist standards developers to use common patterns and better align their efforts.

Related Blog Posts

The OGC Environmental Data Retrieval API: simple access to big data
The OGC Environmental Data Retrieval API: simple access to big data

Another step towards the creation of the OGC Environmental Data Retrieval (EDR) API Standard has been completed: the successful testing of some of the API’s capabilities during the OGC Environmental Data Retrieval API Sprint.

Read blog
OPF Hands
ESIP/OGC Coverage Processing Sprint Results

A joint OGC / ESIP Coverage and Processing Analytics API development sprint was held on January 6-7, 2020

Read blog
OPF Hands
Open Portrayal Framework

Sharing Styles and Updating Tiles for a New Generation of Maps

Read blog
OGC API Hackathon 2019 blog
OGC API Hackathon 2019

How it went!

Read blog
OGC APIs blog
OGC APIs and the evolution of OGC standards
Read blog
WFS Hackathon

OGC advances the Web Feature Service standard through a public hackathon

Read blog

Innovation Program activities

The OGC Innovation Program provides a world-recognized process for users of geospatial technology to collaborate and share the advancement of technologies for future enterprise architectures.

If you have an idea for an initiative or simply have a question or comment, contact Ingo Simonis, Head of the OGC Innovation Program.

Supporting Documents

OGC and other documents supporting OGC API efforts.

The OGC API standards rely heavily upon fundamental concepts expressed in OGC White Papers and research and testing performed in Innovation Program activities and documented in Engineering Reports. OGC members are also specifying best practices for the use of web APIs and often share that guidance. The documents below provide some background to OGC API efforts.

OGC Open Geospatial APIs - White Paper Joint OGC-W3C Spatial Data on the Web Best Practices OGC Testbed-14: Next Generation Web APIs - WFS 3.0 Engineering Report OGC Testbed-14 Next Generation APIs: Complex Feature Handling Engineering Report OGC Testbed-14: Application Package Engineering Report OGC Testbed-14: ADES & EMS Results and Best Practices Engineering Report OGC Testbed-14: Swath Coverage Engineering Report OGC Vector Tiles Pilot: WFS 3.0 Vector Tiles Extension Engineering Report Vector Tiles Pilot Extension Engineering Report API strategie voor de Nederlandse overheid (section in English)

Use of OpenAPI in legacy OGC standards

While the OGC API standards are being developed in concert around common core elements, some older OGC web service standards have been described using OpenAPI. Examples of these legacy enhancements are found below.

UK Hydrographic Office Web Map Service (WMS) for Electronic Navigational Charts Prototype OpenAPI definition for Web Map Tile Service (WMTS)

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