How to get GeoNetwork to search through PostGIS fields via GeoServer WMS

Question

I can't seem to get GeoNetwork to search through my PostGIS fields via GeoServer WMS.

According to the GeoNetwork Documentation:

it should loop over datasets served by the service and produce also metadata for each datasets

I have a simple test table with simple features in PostGIS for testing:

| id | date_creation | date_publication | Author | location                |
+----+---------------+------------------+--------+-------------------------+
| 27 |  12/24/2006   |    12/29/2006    |  MDA   | POINT(133.8855 -5.6701) |
| 24 |  02/11/1952   |    05/10/1952    |  NRO   | POINT(22.8855 -44.6701) |
| 12 |  05/12/1996   |    12/24/1956    |  CCP   | POINT(33.8855 -34.6701) |
| 99 |  12/24/2008   |    12/24/1956    |  MDA   | POINT(44.8855 -44.6701) |

• I've added the PostGIS store in GeoServer and published the Layer.
• I've added the "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms" service in a harvesing entry.

When i run the harvester i get 2 entries in GeoNetwork. But the only way i can find the entries is if i search for the GeoServer published "Layer Name". I will not get any results if i search for an author like "MDA" in my table.

Am i missing something? Is there a setting or config for exposing the fields i want to share via metadata on GeoServer or something of the sort? Is this even possible?

Answer 1

The WMS specification is all about delivering images to the client, not feature (geometry + attribute) data. Although I have not used GeoNetwork in this way before, I do not think there is a simple way for GeoNetwork to get the vector information out of a WMS service.

GeoServer also has a WFS service; I believe that if you are to use that service, you may find that it would be able to index this data.