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Document vendor-specific STYLES parameter for GetStyles requests #1116

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geographika merged 1 commit into from
Oct 13, 2026
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Document vendor-specific STYLES parameter for GetStyles requests #1116

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47 changes: 44 additions & 3 deletions en/ogc/sld.txt
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -678,10 +678,51 @@ placed at the layer level in a MapServer Mapfile:
GetStyles Requests
------------------

As part of the WMS implementation, MapServer supports ``GetStyles`` requests, which return an SLD document describing the styles available for a given layer.
An example of a GetStyles request is https://demo.mapserver.org/cgi-bin/wms?SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.3.0&REQUEST=GetStyles&LAYERS=country_bounds.
As part of the WMS implementation, MapServer supports ``GetStyles`` requests,
which return an SLD document describing the styles available for one or more
layers. An example GetStyles request is
https://demo.mapserver.org/cgi-bin/wms?SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.3.0&REQUEST=GetStyles&LAYERS=country_bounds

This allows Mapfile styling to be used by other clients that support SLD, and can be used to style vector data to match the WMS server's style.
This allows Mapfile styling to be used by other clients that support SLD, for
example to style vector data to match the WMS server's rendering.

The SLD 1.0.0 specification extends WMS 1.1.x with the GetStyles request, as
documented in section 13.1 of https://docs.ogc.org/is/02-070/02-070.pdf.
SLD 1.1.0, used with WMS 1.3.0, no longer defines GetStyles, but MapServer
supports it for all WMS versions (advertised as ``ms:GetStyles`` in WMS 1.3.0
capabilities).

The following GetStyles parameters are supported:

**VERSION=version:** Request version (required)

**REQUEST=GetStyles:** Request name (required)

**LAYERS=layer_list:** Comma-separated list of named layers or groups for
which to retrieve style descriptions (required)

**STYLES=style_list:** Comma-separated list of one style per layer in
``LAYERS``, matched by position, used to limit which styles are returned
(optional, vendor-specific, added in MapServer 8.8).

- Style names are Mapfile CLASS ``GROUP`` names, and are compared
case-insensitively.
- If ``STYLES`` is omitted or empty (``STYLES=``), or an entry is empty or
``default``, all styles are returned for that layer. ``default`` is
reserved, so a CLASS ``GROUP`` named ``default`` cannot be selected.
- When a style is selected, classes without a ``GROUP`` are not included,
matching how GetMap renders the layer with that style.
- An unknown style, or a list whose length does not match ``LAYERS``,
returns a ``StyleNotDefined`` exception.

.. note::

The **SLDVER** parameter from the SLD 1.0.0 specification is not supported.
The SLD version is determined by the WMS version: WMS 1.0.0 to 1.1.1 return
SLD 1.0.0, and WMS 1.3.0 returns SLD 1.1.0.

The response type is ``application/vnd.ogc.sld+xml`` for SLD 1.0.0 and
``text/xml`` for SLD 1.1.0.

The following MapServer style properties are supported when generating SLD:

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