deegree Web Feature Service (deegree WFS) is an Open Source implementation of the OpenGIS® Web Feature Service (WFS) Implementation Specification. WFS defines interfaces for accessing and manipulating geographic features using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Typically, a WFS is used to read existing feature instances from a service, create new feature instances, update and delete existing feature instances (also known as CRUD operations). Furthermore, WFS provides means to query features based on spatial and non-spatial constraints.

From a user's perspective, a WFS serves as a data source for vectorial data (e.g. census data, land-use patterns or other spatially distributed features). In contrast to traditional Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which usually store geographic data in vendor-specific file formats, WFS provides a uniform interface to access vector data. Behind the scenes, deegree WFS handles access to most common file- and database formats for spatial data. Within the spatial domain, most common file formats are Oracle Spatial, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, Geography Markup Language (GML), ESRI shape file format and generic SQL datastores (providing access to virtually any database technology).

deegree WFS is a full implementation of the WFS 1.0.0 and 1.1.0 specifications of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), thus providing a basic WFS (read-only access), an XLink WFS (basic WFS plus GetGmlObject interface) as well as a fully-featured transactional WFS (including read-and write access to spatial data).

deegree WFS is capable of handling simple as well as complex features (i.e. features containing features) and therefore the best choice to fuel your spatial data infrastructure with a data access component for vector data. Handling complex feature models enable deegree WFS to be used in complex application fields like city planning (e.g. using XPlanungGML, CityGML, and other complex feature models) and environmental information systems.

deegree WFS is certified to be OGC compliant.