APIs & OGC Standards

GeoServer exposes a comprehensive suite of RESTful APIs and strictly adheres to Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) specifications. This guide details endpoint structures, compliance levels, authentication methods, and integration examples.

ℹ️ Note

All API endpoints require authentication via API Key or OAuth 2.0. Base URL for the v2 API is https://api.geoserver.io/v2/.

OGC Standards Compliance

GeoServer implements the following OGC standards with certified compliance. Each standard supports both XML and JSON request/response formats where applicable.

Standard	Version	Compliance Level	Endpoint
Web Map Service (WMS)	1.3.0, 1.1.1	Level 1 & 2	`/wms`
Web Feature Service (WFS)	2.0.0	Level 1	`/wfs`
Web Coverage Service (WCS)	2.1	Level 1	`/wcs`
Web Map Tile Service (WMTS)	1.0.0	Level 1	`/wmats`
Web Processing Service (WPS)	1.0.0	Level 1	`/wps`
GeoPackage (OGC API)	1.2	Level 1	`/ogcapi/geo`

REST API Endpoints

The GeoServer REST API provides programmatic access to server configuration, data management, and publishing workflows.

Available Services

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	`/layers`	List all published layers with metadata
POST	`/layers/{id}/styles`	Apply or update SLD/SE styling to a layer
GET	`/workspaces/{id}/datasets`	Retrieve datasets within a workspace
PUT	`/config/security/roles`	Update role-based access control configuration
GET	`/health`	System status, uptime, and node metrics

Authentication & Authorization

All requests must include valid credentials. GeoServer supports multiple authentication schemes:

API Key: Passed via X-API-Key header
OAuth 2.0 / OIDC: Standard bearer token flow
Basic Auth: For legacy integrations (deprecated in v3.0)

Code Examples

Python (Requests)

python


import requests

# Configure authentication
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
    "Accept": "application/json"
}

# Fetch layer metadata
response = requests.get(
    "https://api.geoserver.io/v2/layers/nasa:landcover",
    headers=headers
)

data = response.json()
print(f"Layer: {data['name']} | Features: {data['feature_count']}")

cURL (OGC WFS GetFeature)

bash


curl -X GET \
  "https://api.geoserver.io/wfs?SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=2.0.0&REQUEST=GetFeature&TYPENAME=geo:urban_zones&OUTPUTFORMAT=application/json&MAXFEATURES=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

⚠️ Rate Limiting

API requests are limited to 1,000 requests per minute per API key. Exceeding this limit returns 429 Too Many Requests. Implement exponential backoff for batch operations.

OGC API - Features (Draft/Experimental)

GeoServer v2.4 introduces experimental support for the OGC API - Features standard, providing a modern, RESTful alternative to WFS 2.0. The following endpoints are available:

GET /ogcapi/geo/collections - List available feature collections
GET /ogcapi/geo/collections/{id}/items - Query features with filtering, pagination, and CRS transformation
POST /ogcapi/geo/collections/{id}/items - Insert new features (requires write permissions)

Error Handling

GeoServer uses standard HTTP status codes. Detailed error payloads include a code, message, and details object for debugging.

json


{
  "error": {
    "code": "INVALID_CRS",
    "message": "Target coordinate reference system is not supported.",
    "details": {
      "provided_crs": "EPSG:9999",
      "supported_crs": ["EPSG:4326", "EPSG:3857"]
    }
  }
}

Changelog & Compatibility

v2.4.1 (Current):

Added full OGC API - Features draft implementation
Fixed WFS 2.0 GML32 encoding edge cases
Improved WCS 2.1 coverage domain intersection performance

For migration guides from v1.x, see the Upgrade Documentation.