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I need to select from a layer(s) and I am wondering what way I should serve the layer. The requirements are that I need to be able to select multiple features at a time by drawing a box or polygon. They should become highlighted and I should display the data for all the features. I don't need to do any editing of them. I'm using geoserver and openlayers |
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It sounds like you want to store the vectors in the browser, and query them client side. To do that, you'll need to use WFS. One caveat, though, is that browsers have limitations on how many vectors they can display at one time. If you're dealing with large or complicated data sets, it may be that your only option will be to use WMS. That would be more complicated to implement, though, because the queries would then have to be done server side. |
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If you are already have visual data such as a basemap and just need to select features the WFS would work very well for that. Although, if you need a visual component to go along with your selection, you would be better served by a WMS service, since it was created for that. Although hearing your use-case as you described it, I would personally would just use a WMS service. Also, the GeoServer Blog as a great write-up on the two services and when you should should leverage them. Edit: On an additional note if you are doing anything other than simply querying the feature data, I as a general rule just use WFS, it excels when it comes to data manipulation in comparison to the other OGC services I have used lately. Also, take that with a grain of salt, that is just what I had experienced in my use of the services, which is why I have attached the preceding and following links. |
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