[Chameleon] WFS client and HTTP GET/POST

[Bart van den Eijnden]

Hi list,

I would like to discuss an "issue" which has come accross my path when 
trying to implement Chameleon functionality, and then especially the 
ExtractWFSData widget, on a server different from Mapserver. I know this 
is probably a long term issue, but anyway, always good to discuss these 
things a.s.a.p in my opinion. Also, it is both a PHP Mapscript and a 
Chameleon issue.

In the code of the ExtractWFSData widget it is assumed that the WFS server 
supports the DCPTYPE HTTP GET request for GetFeature on the WFS interface. 
For Mapserver this is true, but when I am using the ArcIMS WFS Connector, 
it only supports DCPTYPE HTTP POST. Ofcourse those things are advertized 
through the GetCapabilities interface, but for many requests the 
GetCapabilities interface is skipped which is quite logical taking into 
account performance.

Will the PHP/Mapscript code be enhanced in future, to support also an 
advanced WFS Client which can use both GET and POST, and will Chameleon 
use this functionality from PHP/Mapscript?

And will there be more wfs metadata tags then describing which DCPTYPE 
(HTTP GET/POST) is supported for the various WFS interfaces, so the WFS 
client will know what to do, or will the capabilities be parsed for this?

Best regards,
Bart