WFS output formats¶

WFS returns features and feature information in a number of formats. The syntax for specifying an output format is:

outputFormat=<format>

where <format> is one of the following options:

Format	Syntax	Notes
GML2	`outputFormat=GML2`	Default option for WFS 1.0.0
GML3	`outputFormat=GML3`	Default option for WFS 1.1.0 and 2.0.0
Shapefile	`outputFormat=shape-zip`	ZIP archive will be generated containing the shapefile (see Shapefile output customization below)
JSON	`outputFormat=application/json`	Returns a GeoJSON or a JSON output. Note `outputFormat=json` is only supported for getFeature (for backward compatibility).
JSONP	`outputFormat=text/javascript`	Returns a JSONP in the form: `parseResponse(...json...)`. See WMS vendor parameters to change the callback name. Note that this format is disabled by default (See Global variables affecting WMS).
CSV	`outputFormat=csv`	Returns a CSV (comma-separated values) file

Note

Some additional output formats (such as Excel) are available with the use of an extension. The full list of output formats supported by a particular GeoServer instance can be found by performing a WFS GetCapabilities request.

Shapefile output customization¶

The shapefile output format output can be customized by preparing a Freemarker template which will configure the file name of the archive (ZIP file) and the files it contains. The default template is:

zip=${typename}
shp=${typename}${geometryType}
txt=wfsrequest

The zip property is the name of the archive, the shp property is the name of the shapefile for a given feature type, and txt is the dump of the actual WFS request.

The properties available in the template are:

typename—Feature type name (for the zip property this will be the first feature type if the request contains many feature types)

geometryType—Type of geometry contained in the shapefile. This is only used if the output geometry type is generic and the various geometries are stored in one shapefile per type.

workspace—Workspace of the feature type

timestamp—Date object with the request timestamp

iso_timestamp—String (ISO timestamp of the request at GMT) in yyyyMMdd_HHmmss format

Format options as parameter in WFS requests¶

GeoServer provides the format_options vendor-specific parameter to specify parameters that are specific to each format. The syntax is:

format-options=param1:value1;param2:value2;...

The currently supported format option in WFS output is:

filename—Applies only to the SHAPE-ZIP output format. If a file name is provided, the name is used as the output file name. For example, format_options=filename:roads.zip. If a file name is not specified, the output file name is inferred from the requested feature type name.

callback—Applies only to the JSONP output format. See WMS vendor parameters to change the callback name. Note that this format is disabled by default (See Global variables affecting WMS).

id_policy—Applies only to the JSON output format and is used to determine if the id values are included in output. If an attribute name is provided it will be used. For example, format_options=id_policy:reference_no. Use true for feature id generation. To avoid any feature id output use false. If id_policy is not specified feature id generation is used.