Hi Stephen, I'm not sure how an API key (or similar) would work for a WMS. Ideally I'd like to restrict the websites that are allowed to embed images from this WMS. But the problem is that the WMS requests are made by the client (i.e. the user's web browser), not the websites themselves. So authentication would have to be on a per-end-user, not a per-website basis, which seems awkward.
One possible solution would be to look at the http-referer header, which usually contains the address of the website that contains the OpenLayers (or whatever) widget. We could restrict access only to certain referrers. However, this would mean that users couldn't access the WMS directly via their GIS tool of choice, and I'm not sure whether this method would be reliable. Any bright ideas? ;-) Jon On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 2:36 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Jon, all, > > Other priorities overtook me as usual but I'm excited to hear you've got a > WMS working on GAE. Have you considered implementing an API key or other > security mechanism to prevent unwanted users maxing out the service? > > S. > > > --- > Stephen Pascoe +44 (0)1235 445980 > British Atmospheric Data Centre > Rutherford Appleton Laboratory > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jon Blower > Sent: 03 December 2009 13:29 > To: NERC DataGrid Technical List > Subject: Re: [ndg-technical] Re: Reliable background maps for OpenLayers? > > Hi Mike, all, > > Only Stephen and I could make the telecon but it never happened as I think we > both got caught up in other things. However, I have been working on > implementing a Web Map Service in Google App Engine, with some success. This > has been quite difficult to set up for various reasons (not least being that > GAE-Java doesn't support many of the Java classes I need, plus it doesn't let > you upload big files like high-res images) but I've eventually cracked it. > > So I now have a prototype WMS in the cloud that fulfils my own requirements: > > 1) Serves high-res Blue Marble imagery in lat-lon and north/south polar > stereographic > 2) Is a "full" WMS, i.e. you can ask for any bounding box ... > 3) ... but memcaches recent images, meaning that it's still fast for tiling > clients > 4) Ought to be scalable, although I'm kind of relying on Google for this > 5) Ditto for reliability - I hopefully won't have to babysit the server > itself. > 6) Is free, provided that it doesn't get used too much! > > The last point is the only thing stopping me from going public - I'm not sure > yet what kind of usage would be required to send it over the free quotas. > > If anyone would like to try this out I can send you the address privately, as > long as you don't hook it up to any operational systems yet! > > It would be good to get more than Blue Marble under this service so if anyone > has any high-res images (e.g. GEBCO) that could be hosted this way I'm happy > to give it a try. > > Cheers, Jon > > > On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 3:46 PM, Mike Grant <[email protected]> wrote: >> Jon Blower wrote: >>> >>> OK, it seems that there's a fair amount of interest in finding a >>> reliable source of base maps. How about holding a meeting/telecon to >>> discuss requirements and potential solutions? A good time for me >>> would be the week after the GO-ESSP meeting (at which I can try to >>> find out whether anyone else has a good solution), i.e. the week of >>> the 12th October. >> >> Out of curiosity, did anything come of this? I couldn't make any of >> the possible telecon times :/ >> >> Cheers, >> >> Mike. >> > > -- > Dr Jon Blower > Technical Director, Reading e-Science Centre Environmental Systems Science > Centre University of Reading Harry Pitt Building, 3 Earley Gate Reading RG6 > 6AL. UK > Tel: +44 (0)118 378 5213 > Fax: +44 (0)118 378 6413 > [email protected] > http://www.nerc-essc.ac.uk/People/Staff/Blower_J.htm > > _______________________________________________ > NDG-technical mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ncas.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/ndg-technical > -- > Scanned by iCritical. > > _______________________________________________ > NDG-technical mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ncas.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/ndg-technical > -- Dr Jon Blower Technical Director, Reading e-Science Centre Environmental Systems Science Centre University of Reading Harry Pitt Building, 3 Earley Gate Reading RG6 6AL. UK Tel: +44 (0)118 378 5213 Fax: +44 (0)118 378 6413 [email protected] http://www.nerc-essc.ac.uk/People/Staff/Blower_J.htm _______________________________________________ NDG-technical mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ncas.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/ndg-technical
