3. WFS Made Easy with GeoExtΒΆ

GeoExt provides access to remote WFS data via Stores and Readers, using the same mechanisms that Ext JS provides for any remote data access. Because the GeoExt.data.FeatureStore can synchronize its records with an OpenLayers vector layer, working with vector features from WFS is extremely effortless.

Users familiar with desktop based GIS applications expect to have a combined map and table (grid) view of geospatial data. GeoExt brings this feature to the web. At the end of this module, you will have built a simple WFS feature editor. The grid view comes for free because Ext JS can display data from any store in a grid, and the synchronized selection between map and table is also handled by GeoExt. Rendering the data on the map, editing and committing changes over WFS-T is provided by OpenLayers.

GeoExt’s FeatureReader is not limited to WFS protocol and GML – other protocols (e.g. plain HTTP) with formats like KML, GeoRSS or GeoJSON work as well.

In this module, you will: