WMS provides a standardised way of showing raster map layers on a map over http. It can be used on websites through services such as leaflet and mapbox or can be used in desktop GIS software such as QGIS or ArcGIS.
Norkart provides a range of WMS services such as thematic data, background maps, aerial images and historical maps.
WMS requests can perform (among others) the following operations [1]:
| GetCapabilities | Retrieves metadata about the service, including supported operations and parameters, and a list of the available layers |
| GetMap | Retrieves a map image for a specified area and content |
| GetLegendGraphic (optional) | Retrieves a generated legend for a map |
Examples are shown for wms-takhelning. If you want to test this out yourself you will need an Api key. Test the examples by replacing '{{API_KEY}}' with your own api key. Request API access here.
GET https://waapi.webatlas.no/WMS-Takhelning/?REQUEST=GetCapabilities&SERVICE=WMS&api_key={{API_KEY}}
- an xml with metadata about the service, including supported operations and parameters, and a list of the available layers (too large to show)
https://waapi.webatlas.no/wms-takhelning/?SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetMap&VERSION=1.1.1&LAYERS=wms-takhelning:takhelning&FORMAT=image/png&TRANSPARENT=true&HEIGHT=256&WIDTH=256&SRS=EPSG:3857&BBOX=640007.2378317807,8171118.323685342,640083.6748600659,8171194.760713628&api_key={{API_KEY}}
In this example, we limit the results to the matching features that occur withing the provided bounding box. See more details in geoservers docs about legend graphics [2]
https://waapi.webatlas.no/wms-takhelning/?REQUEST=GetLegendGraphic&VERSION=1.0.0&FORMAT=image/png&WIDTH=20&legend_options=hideEmptyRules:true&LAYER=wms-takhelning:takhelning&SRS=EPSG:3857&BBOX=640007.2378317807,8171118.323685342,640083.6748600659,8171194.760713628&api_key={{API_KEY}}
To use Norkart wms-sevices in QGIS or ArcGIS, you must provide the api key. This is done as follows:
Gemini and other software have issues adding the &api_key to the URL, so you might want to try to reverse the order. So instead of:
GET https://waapi.webatlas.no/WMS-Takhelning/?REQUEST=GetCapabilities&SERVICE=WMS&api_key={{API_KEY}}
You can try
GET https://waapi.webatlas.no/WMS-Takhelning/?api_key={{API_KEY}}&REQUEST=GetCapabilities&SERVICE=WMS
- Wms in leaflet: https://leafletjs.com/examples/wms/wms.html
- Wms in mapbox: https://docs.mapbox.com/mapbox-gl-js/example/wms/
- Geoserver wms-documentation: https://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/services/wms/reference.html
[1] Geoserver. WMS reference. https://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/services/wms/reference.html.
[2] Geoserver. GetLegendGraphic. https://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/user/services/wms/get_legend_graphic/index.html#colormap-type-is-ramp