Add QGIS Desktop to Client Implementations

[doublebyte1]

As discussed on these issues qgis/QGIS#50296 qgis/QGIS#52674 , in the master build of QGIS, it is now possible to add an OGC API - Tiles collection collection through the "Add Layer Menu".

[jerstlouis]

@doublebyte1 Since this really uses the GDAL OGC API driver, should we just add this as additional details in the GDAL implementation row? It is not technically a different implementation.

[doublebyte1]

+1
I just want to make sure QGIS users realize that they can read OGC API Tiles

[jerstlouis]

@doublebyte1 Thanks, is it OK like this:

https://github.com/opengeospatial/ogcapi-tiles/blob/master/implementations.adoc
?

[hebersgit]

It's a very good idea to add explicit support for OGC-APIs and I'm happy that this is included now.
But: Is there any working example for using OGC API with a vector layer? I tested our own geoserver-hosted endpoints and the following well-known endpoints for OGC API Tiles

• https://maps.gnosis.earth/ogcapi/collections/Daraa/tiles
• https://ogc-api.nrw.de/lika/v1/tiles

and every time I get the error
CRITICAL Invalid Data Source : OGCAPI:https://... is not a valid or recognized data source.

[jerstlouis]

@hebersgit GDAL accepts either the OGC API landing page or the collection end-point.
In the case of that Daraa dataset the landing page would be https://maps.gnosis.earth/ogcapi and the collection would be https://maps.gnosis.earth/ogcapi/collections/Daraa .
This collection is a parent collection with multiple layers.
You may also want to try an individual layer like https://maps.gnosis.earth/ogcapi/collections/Daraa:AgricultureSrf .
I believe all of these should be working with the latest released GDAL version.

I am not sure to what extent GeoServer is ready to serve OGC API - Tiles at this point, see https://docs.geoserver.org/main/en/user/community/ogc-api/tiles/index.html :

Implementation based on early specification draft, not yet updated to final version

You may have better luck with pygeoapi or ldproxy.

[kudlav]

@jerstlouis
Currently, QGIS cannot open the mentioned landing page or the collection description:

• Invalid Data Source: OGCAPI:https://maps.gnosis.earth/ogcapi/collections/Daraa is not a valid or recognized data source.
• Invalid Data Source: OGCAPI:https://maps.gnosis.earth/ogcapi is not a valid or recognized data source.

And from the following raster collection description https://maps.gnosis.earth/ogcapi/collections/blueMarble QGIS can read only coverage TIFF, not the tiles or other formats like PNG or JPG.

The usage from QGIS/GDAL is very limited.

[jerstlouis]

@kudlav @doublebyte1 @rouault

Could you please file QGIS / GDAL issues?

Please let me know if there are issues with our implementation that prevent success, or if anything with the standards need clarifications.

It is possible that the failures are related to removing some backward compatibility properties predating version 1.0 of the standards.