Links and Resources
5. Now, looking at features with WFS
A Web Feature Service (WFS) follows an entirely different approach: instead of images, the actual vector features are sent to the client. This might or might not result in a lower data volume, but since the features are cached and rendered at the client (eg, web browser) fewer roundtrips between client and server are required.
Now use the Tasmania samples on the Boundless GeoServer (state boundaries, roads and cities) and scroll down in the drop down selector to the WFS formats. These are a variety of vector formats, for this exercise we will use the GeoJSON option, a popular and open geospatial vector format.
The server response will pop up in a separate window, where you can inspect the structure of the format, its coordinate units etc. As a next step, you can save the GeoJSON text response into a file, and open it eg in ArcGIS Online, where it should show up like below: