The following points are aimed at helping you enter the correct URL in order to connect to a web service.
OGC Web Services
Applies to Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web services:
• Web Map Service (WMS)
• Web Map Tile Service (WMTS)
• Web Coverage Service (WCS)
What should you enter?
• In most cases you should enter the part of the URL that precedes the question mark.
For example, you may be provided with a URL similar to this sample:
http://www.example.com/wms?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS
In this case you should enter the following text in order to connect to the web service:
http://www.example.com/wms
The string that follows the question mark is a query. For OGC web services it will be a sequence of key value pairs. The application handles adding the query parameters to the URL that you enter in order to make the connection.
Exceptions
Some server applications require vendor-specific query parameters which are not included in the web service specification. When working with such server applications, the application will not add the vendor specific query parameters so they will need to be entered by the user.
One such application is MapServer which can require a query parameter named "map". An example of a URL is:
http://my.host.com/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=mywms.map
In this case it is necessary to enter the full string, preceding, including and following the question mark. This is not true in all cases since it is possible to mask this behaviour of the server in ways that are documented. See the MapServer documentation on changing the online resource URL:
http://mapserver.org/ogc/wms_server.html#changing-the-online-resource-url
OSGeo Tile Map Service
Applies to
What should you enter?
• Enter the URL minus the path to a tile.
For example, if the full URL to the level 0 tile is:
http://www.example.com/tms/0/0/0.png
You should enter:
http://www.example.com/tms
Onboard Service
Applies to
What should you enter?
The URL of the Onboard service is similar to:
http://<hostname>:8080
Replace <hostname> with the name of the host system. If you are accessing the Onboard Service through an application installed on the host system, <hostname> can be replaced with localhost or the IP address and the port (for example, 8080) separated by a colon (:).
The application can connect to the Onboard service, allowing data processed by Onboard to be monitored in real-time. If the service is not available it will be greyed out. If an Onboard Service is connected, every time the user pans or zooms, the application displays updated maps from the Onboard service. Approximately once a minute, the application will obtain and display automatically the most recent map available from Onboard.