GIS Web GIS and Services 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which HTTP method is typically used by a WFS GetFeature request to retrieve vector features from a web service?
- POST only
- GET or POST (Correct answer)
- PUT
- DELETE
Correct answer: GET or POST
WFS supports both GET (KVP encoding) and POST (XML encoding) for GetFeature requests.
Question 2: What does the acronym CSW stand for in the context of geospatial web services?
- Coordinate System Web
- Catalog Service for the Web (Correct answer)
- Compressed Spatial Workflow
- Cloud Spatial Workspace
Correct answer: Catalog Service for the Web
CSW (Catalog Service for the Web) is an OGC standard for publishing and searching collections of geospatial metadata.
Question 3: In a RESTful GIS API, which response format is most commonly used for exchanging vector geographic data?
- Shapefile
- GeoJSON (Correct answer)
- TIFF
- KMZ
Correct answer: GeoJSON
GeoJSON is the de facto standard format for RESTful GIS APIs because it is lightweight and natively understood by browsers and JavaScript libraries.
Question 4: What is the primary purpose of an OGC Web Processing Service (WPS)?
- Serve raster tiles
- Execute geoprocessing operations on a server (Correct answer)
- Cache map images for faster delivery
- Manage user authentication
Correct answer: Execute geoprocessing operations on a server
WPS provides a standard interface for publishing and executing geospatial processes (e.g., buffer, clip, intersect) on a remote server.
Question 5: Which tile pyramid scheme is used by Google Maps, Bing Maps, and most modern web mapping libraries by default?
- TMS (Tile Map Service)
- WMS
- XYZ/Slippy Map tiles (Correct answer)
- WMTS QuadKey
Correct answer: XYZ/Slippy Map tiles
The XYZ (Slippy Map) scheme with z/x/y URL templates is the de facto standard used by Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, and Leaflet.
Question 6: What does CORS stand for, and why is it relevant to Web GIS applications?
- Coordinate Reference System; used to define projections
- Cross-Origin Resource Sharing; browsers block cross-domain requests without it (Correct answer)
- Cached Object Rendering Service; speeds up tile delivery
- Client-Only Routing Schema; manages API keys
Correct answer: Cross-Origin Resource Sharing; browsers block cross-domain requests without it
CORS is a browser security mechanism that must be configured on GIS servers to allow web applications on different domains to fetch map data.
Question 7: Which Esri technology allows users to publish, share, and consume GIS content through a web-based portal?
- ArcGIS Desktop
- ArcGIS Online / Enterprise Portal (Correct answer)
- ArcSDE
- ArcPad
Correct answer: ArcGIS Online / Enterprise Portal
ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise Portal are Esri's cloud/on-premises platforms for sharing web maps, feature layers, and GIS services.
GIS Web GIS and Services 2
Which HTTP method is typically used by a WFS GetFeature request to retrieve vector features from a web service?