OGC services

An OGC service exposes layers of your Datastore at a web address that other GIS software can read. Point QGIS at it and your layers appear, live: no export, no file to send, no copy to keep in sync.

One service carries one address, one set of access rules and as many collections as you attach to it. A collection is one of your layers, seen from the outside.

Where it lives

The Datastore rail has a Published block with an OGC Services entry. That page lists what your organization currently exposes, with the audience and the number of features of each service.

It is the counterpart of the Datastore table: the table is how you file your data, this page is what leaves the building.

Publishing a layer

From the OGC API tab on the page of a layer, you can:

• publish it as a new service, in one click, which creates a service holding that single layer;
• add it to an existing service, when you want several layers behind one address.

The tab also lists the services that already expose the layer. Everything after that, the address, the audience and the keys, is managed on the service’s own page, so a service is configured in exactly one place.

Not every item can be published this way. A layer that ALIGN only holds as a reference to someone else’s service is not re-exposed.

Who can read a service

Open a service from the OGC Services page to set its audience.

Audience	Who can read it
Private, key required	Anyone holding one of the service’s keys.
Organization, members	The members of your organization, optionally narrowed to the groups you pick.
Public, anyone	Anyone who has the address.

Changing the audience republishes the service at the same address.

Keys

Two kinds of key exist, and they answer two different needs.

The keys of a private service are created by whoever manages the service. A key is shown once, at creation, so copy it then: ALIGN keeps only enough of it to help you recognize it in the list afterwards. One key opens every collection of the service. Revoking a key cuts the access it granted, without republishing the service.

Your own access key is personal: one per member, per organization, created from the OGC Services page. It opens every service shared with you through your organization or your groups, so you paste it once in QGIS instead of collecting one key per service. Regenerating it makes the previous one stop working.

Opening a service in QGIS

The service page has a step-by-step guide, and the short version is:

1. Copy the service address from the page.
2. In QGIS, create a new OGC API Features connection and paste it.
3. Connect. Every collection of the service appears, ready to add to your project.

For a service that needs a key, add it to the address with ?key= followed by your key.

Unpublishing

A service can be taken down from its own page. The address stops answering, and the layers themselves are untouched in your Datastore: unpublishing removes the window, not the data.

Related pages

• The page of an item: the OGC API tab, where a layer is published.
• Sharing: who can reach an item inside ALIGN, which is a separate decision from who can read a service.
• Datastore: the listing your services draw from.
• QGIS plugin: the other direction, publishing your QGIS layers into the Datastore.