• Introduction
• Technical analysis
• Issues and recommendations
• European SIF

WMS Multilingualism

Summary

“INSPIRE Drafting Team Network Services (DT NS) requirements include the support of multilingualism. Specifically, OGC WMS 1.3 standard, and more generally OWS Common 1.1 does not support language parameters.”

Classification

Category	Access and Processing services
Identifier	ISSUE-WMS-002
Type of recommended activity	Revising existing specifications / standards
Organisations addressed	INSPIRE DT NS, OGC Architecture Board, OWS Common 1.2 SWG, WMS 1.4 SWG.

Additional information

Context	The proposal for INSPIRE Implementing Rules for Discovery and View Services requires the support of the multilingualism with the following behavior: In a service request, the mandatory parameter "language" specifies client's preferred language. The value can be empty (no value) to indicate using the view service's default language. The response document shall be returned in this preferred language if it is supported. The parameter language is applicable to exception message too, if any. For the service capabilities answer has to include mandatory parameter "supported languages" list and set the value of mandatory "response language" field accordingly with the language used in the answer. In the draft Technical Guidance for View Services a detailed implementation recommendation is made based on a specific usage of the "_ExtendedCapabilities". In ISO 19128, "language", "supported language" and "response language" parameters remain undefined for request and response so unsupported at the time being. The usage of _ExtendedCapabilities is left up to the implementer. However, the change request 08-016r1 for OWS Common 1.2 SWG is addressing the multilingualism issue.
Rationale	Required multilingualism parameters are not supported by OGC WMS 1.3 standard, neither OWS Common 1.1.
Dependencies	ISSUE-WMS-001 OWS SOAP Binding
Further background information	Technology Watch Report - Data Access and Processing [PDF] Comparative analysis report (version 2) [PDF] Comparative Analysis Report (version 2) - Annex Recommendations [PDF]
Main discussion points	INSPIRE requires multilingualism OGC standards in general, OGC WMS 1.3 in particular, does not support any language setting.
Roadmap	Inform OGC Common 1.2 SWG and OGC WMS 1.4 SWG. Follow up activities.