BoundingBox incorrectly stated as optional for WMS 1.3.0

[jpassmore]

On page ​http://www.mapserver.org/ogc/wms_server.html#wms-1-3-0-support the documentation states:

<cite>If the MAP PROJECTION block is provided in the format “init=epsg:xxxx” then MapServer will also use this information to generate a <BoundingBox> tag for the top-level layer in the WMS capabilities document. Note that the BoundingBox is an optional element of WMS capabilities, but it is good practice to allow MapServer to include it when possible.</cite>

and

<cite> For vector layers, if a PROJECTION block is provided in the format “init=epsg:xxxx” then MapServer will also use this information to generate a <BoundingBox> tag for this layer in the WMS capabilities document. Note that the BoundingBox is an optional element of WMS capabilities, but it is good practice to allow MapServer to include it when possible. </cite>

These incorrectly state that BoundingBox is optional; that was the case in WMS 1.1.1, but not in WMS 1.3.0.

OGC® 06-042 7.2.4.6.8 BoundingBox WMS service metadata shall declare one or more bounding boxes (as defined in 6.7.4) for each Layer.

[tomkralidis]

FYI see ​http://lists.eogeo.org/pipermail/wms-dev/2009-June/000952.html for clarification.

[jpassmore]

Replying to tomkralidis:

FYI see ​http://lists.eogeo.org/pipermail/wms-dev/2009-June/000952.html for clarification.

I'm reading the above clarification as, the WMS 1.3.0 schema cannot fully define the nuances of the specification, that this will always be the case, and there is no need to put in a change request to OGC WMS 1.4 draft in an attempt to resolve this issue.

I reading too that this confirms that in a WMS 1.3.0 GetCapabilities response at least one BoundingBox must be returned.

This issue needs to be addressed in the documentation, even if fixing related issues in MapServer WMS are not doable because of schema validation problems.

[havatv]

I have tried to update the trunk and 6.0 wms_server documentation in r12519. I have changed optional to mandatory with a note in parenthesis on 1.1.0 (the link given by tomkralidis does not seem to work anymore).