rasdaman newsletter 07/2019

Advancing Coverage APIs: the OGC OpenAPI Hackathon

London, June 2019 - Following weeks of intense preparation by OGC experts, Ordnance Survey has hosted an OGC hackathon in London to get implementation feedback. Coverage work is continuously supported by the rasdaman experts being the prime shapers of the coverage standards. Now work is being consolidated and fed into the OGC adoption process.

With OpenAPI, a new API style has emerged among geo communities. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is fostering this with dedicated activities, at the same time using the opportunity for homogenizing the existing Web service specifications. In support of this, OGC has organized a Hackathon to advance OGC Application Programming Interface (API) specifications. This hackathon has tested draft OpenAPI-based standards for coverages, map tiles, and processes using a common template based on the OGC API for features.

The Hackathon was run by Standards Working Group (SWG) Chairs, with support from OGC staff. A team from rasdaman participated to give support on all levels. On conceptual level, Peter Baumann as WCS.SWG chair and prime editor of the OGC and ISO coverage standards contributed architectural advice to ensure API consistency and compatibility with the existing standards suite, so as to safeguard existing investment into data and service assets. Vlad Merticariu enhanced the rasdaman coverage reference implementation with OpenAPI access, which subsequently was successfully used by EURAC and Sinergise clients.

The Hackathon ran from June 20th 09:00am through June 21st 05:00pm. It was hosted by Ordnance Survey at the Geovation Hub in London. The event was instrumental to the evolution of the OWS standards to a modern API based approach, setting the course for open geospatial standards for the next decade. The hackathon was organized around Coverages (WCS), Map Tiles (WMS and WMTS), and Processing (WPS). A bridging between coverages and tile services could be demonstrated.

The outputs of the hackathon will inform the development of the OGC API - Common specification and the OGC API - Features specification. Other specifications that will benefit from the work done at the hackathon include the OGC API - Processes specification and the OGC API - Coverages specification.

More information: OGC Open API hackathon