WMTS Capabilities (OGC Web Map Tile Service)
Open BetaWMTS (Web Map Tile Service) is a 2010 OGC standard for publishing pre-cut raster tiles through a web service with a formal Capabilities document and predictable TileMatrixSets. It underpins government geo-portals and the EU INSPIRE infrastructure. On osm2cdr.ru the export generates a valid 1.0.0 GetCapabilities XML for the chosen area: a layer description, image/png format, the GoogleMapsCompatible TileMatrixSet (EPSG:3857) with zoom levels sized to the bbox, and WGS84 bounds. This is precisely a descriptive document — the metadata of a WMTS endpoint, not a pyramid of ready tiles; the rasters themselves can be produced with a separate tile export.
Key Features
About WMTS Format
WMTS is the OGC standard for publishing pre-cut tiles through a web service. What sets it apart from the plain XYZ scheme is formality: the service has a Capabilities document describing the layers, formats, projections and the exact tile grid. Government geoportals and the INSPIRE infrastructure are built on it.
The export is for developers and integrators: to check how a client reads Capabilities, to prepare a description of a future service, to agree the layer structure with a customer before a real server is up.
The output is a single XML — a valid GetCapabilities document of version 1.0.0 for the selected area: the layer description, the image/png format, the GoogleMapsCompatible grid in the EPSG:3857 projection with zoom levels matched to the size of the area, bounds in WGS84 and sections with the service metadata.
This is a description, not the tiles themselves. Rasters are exported separately — as XYZ tiles, MBTiles or PMTiles — and in the document the placeholder addresses have to be replaced with real ones before publishing.
What Program Opens WMTS Files
The following programs and applications can open, edit, and work with WMTS Capabilities (OGC Web Map Tile Service) (.xml) files exported from OSM2CDR:
Format specifications
- Open standard
- 2D only
- Lossless (no quality loss)
- No attributes
- Output: 1 file
- A valid WMTS 1.0.0 GetCapabilities XML (GoogleMapsCompatible TileMatrixSet, EPSG:3857, WGS84 bounds); a descriptive endpoint document, not a pyramid of ready tiles.
Who Uses WMTS Maps
How to Export WMTS
How to Open After Export
- QGIS — Layer → Add WMS/WMTS Layer, create a connection and point it at the document; QGIS will show the layer and the available grid levels.
- OpenLayers — the optionsFromCapabilities method parses this XML and assembles a WMTS source with no manual parameter setup.
- Editing before publishing — put the real service address into the operations and into the tile links: the export leaves a template there.
- GeoServer or MapProxy — if you need a real service, bring one up and compare your document with what the server returns.
- Validation — run the XML against the OGC schema (with the OGC validator or any XML editor with schemas) before handing it to the customer.
Popular maps in WMTS
Get WMTS Capabilities (OGC Web Map Tile Service) map exports
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