OpenGIS
©
Specification OGC 04-094
Copyright © Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc 2005
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ExceptionReport
7.8 Common XML attributes 7.8.1 Version
attribute
All XML encoded WFS requests include an attribute called version. The mandatory version attribute is used to indicate to which version of the WFS specification the request
encoding conforms and is used in version negotiation as described in subclause 6.2.4. The default value of the version attributed is set to 1.1.0, which corresponds to the
version of this document.
7.8.2 Service attribute
All XML encoded WFS requests include an attribute called service. The mandatory service attribute is used to indicate which of the available service types, at a particular
service instance, is being invoked. When invoking a web feature service, the value of the service attribute shall be WFS.
7.8.3 Handle attribute
The purpose of the handle attribute is to allow a client application to associate a mnemonic name with a request for error handling purposes. If a handle is specified, and
an exception is encountered, a Web Feature Service may use the handle to identify the offending element.
8 DescribeFeatureType operation
8.1 Introduction
The function of the DescribeFeatureType operation is to generate a schema description of feature types serviced by a WFS implementation. The schema descriptions define how
a WFS implementation expects feature instances to be encoded on input via Insert and Update requests and how feature instances will be generated on output in response to
GetFeature and GetGmlObject requests. The only mandatory output in response to a DescribeFeatureType request is a GML3 application schema defined using XML
Schema. However, for the purposes of experimentation, vendor extension, or even extensions that serve a specific community of interest, other acceptable output format
values may be advertised by a WFS service in the capabilities document [clause 13]. The meaning of such values in not defined in the WFS specification. The only proviso in
such cases is that WFS clients may safely ignore outputFormat values that they do not recognize.
