52°North WSS Quickstart

Getting Started

The 52°North WSS is a web service, that allows policy-based access to OGC Web Services acting as a proxy.

For OSGeo Live distribution, the 52°North WSS is already set up to protect an instance of each, WMS, WFS, WPS, and SOS. To get a list of protected services and test access to the WMS, follow these steps:

1. Go to Geospatial ‣ Web Services ‣ 52North ‣ Start 52North WSS to start the 52°North WSS or use this direct link.
2. The 52°North WSS management interface will open in a browser window.
3. If necessary, authenticate as user/user.
4. Click Manage WSS to get a list of those services, that can be connected using the WSS.

For each protected service, called Enforcement Point, the table contains the base links to the service by authentication method (httpauth, saml, WSS, ...).

To request the capabilities of the WMS

5. Request http://localhost:8080/wss/service/wms_demis/httpauth?SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities in a browser
6. Authenticate as alice/alice to get access with full permissions.

or

7. Authenticate as bob/bob to access the service under limited permissions. Some layers are hidden and cannot be accessed.

To further test the protected service, load http://localhost:8080/wss/service/wms_demis/httpauth as WMS into any desktop mapping client that supports HTTP Basic Authentication, e.g. uDig, and use it as you would with any other WMS.

Additional Information

Where are the users defined?

/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/wss/WEB-INF/classes/users.xml

Where are the permissions defined?

/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/wss/WEB-INF/classes/permissions.xml

Where do I get further information?

Visit the 52North User Guide