Unit 27 - PyWPS intro

PyWPS is a server side implementation of the OGC Web Processing Service (OGC WPS) standard implemented in the Python programming language.

Fig. 123 Server-client architecture.

Fig. 124 OGC Web Map Service example.

OGC Web Processing Service standard provides rules for standardizing inputs and outputs (requests and responses) for geospatial processing services. The standard also defines how a client can request the execution of a process, and how the output from the process is handled. It defines an interface that facilitates the publishing of geospatial processes and clients discovery of and binding to those processes. The data required by the WPS can be delivered across a network or they can be available at the server. (source: PyWPS documentation)

Fig. 125 OGC Web Processing Service example.

This unit shows how to write your own WPS processes. The processes will be tested in PyWPS demo environment. Download the demo and extract into your working directory.

Install PyWPS and Flask dependency from GRASS Console tab.

Note

On MS Windows download fiona package from https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/ and install it:

python3 -m pip install C:\Users\martin\Downloads\Fiona-1.8.21-cp39-cp39-win_amd64.whl

python3 -m pip install flask==1.1.4 werkzeug==1.0.1 pywps==4.2.11 markupsafe==2.0.1

Go to pywps-flask directory and start PyWPS demo server

python3 demo.py

Open http://127.0.0.1:5000 in order to see all available WPS demo processes. Let’s request process description of selected process, eg. say_hello process. Try to run the process by execute request.

http://localhost:5000/wps?request=Execute&service=WPS&identifier=say_hello&version=1.0.0&datainputs=name=Martin

Example of response:

<wps:LiteralData uom="urn:ogc:def:uom:OGC:1.0:unity" dataType="string">
Hello Martin
</wps:LiteralData>

Let’s continue with creating our own WPS process.

MODIS process

Go to pywps-flask/processes directory and create a new process (grassbuffer.py can be used as a template). Example of process below is based on the script created in Unit 26 - MODIS ST scripting. Let’s focus on important parts.

Process itself is defined as a Python class, ModisV1 in this case (line 7). In class constructor input (lines 9 and 11) and output parameters (line 14) are defined. Every process has its identifier (line 20), title and abstract. The process will operate in GRASS location defined on line 30. On line 61 is assumed that space time LST dataset is located in PERMANENT, see Unit 25 - MODIS ST. For each job (executed process by a client) PyWPS creates in this location a temporary mapset which is deleted when process is finished. Process body is implemented as _handler() method, see line 40. Resultant statistics is stored to response output as a simple string on line 80.

import os

from pywps import Process, LiteralInput, LiteralOutput

__author__ = 'Martin Landa'

class ModisV1(Process):
    def __init__(self):
        inputs = [LiteralInput('start', 'Start date (eg. 2019-03-01)',
                               data_type='string'),
                  LiteralInput('end', 'End date (eg. 2019-04-01)',
                               data_type='string')
        ]
        outputs = [LiteralOutput('stats', 'Computed LST statistics',
                                 data_type='string')
        ]

        super(ModisV1, self).__init__(
            self._handler,
            identifier='modis-v1',
            version='0.1',
            title="Modis process (v1)",
            abstract='The process uses the GRASS GIS to compute LST ' \
            'statistics for given period in 2019 for Germany',
            profile='',
            inputs=inputs,
            outputs=outputs,
            store_supported=True,
            status_supported=True,
            grass_location="/home/user/grassdata/germany-modis"
        )

    def check_date(self, date_str):
        from datetime import datetime

        d = datetime.strptime(date_str, '%Y-%m-%d')
        if d.year != 2019:
            raise Exception("Only year 2019 allowed")

    def _handler(self, request, response):
        from subprocess import PIPE

        import grass.script as gs
        from grass.pygrass.modules import Module
        from grass.exceptions import CalledModuleError
        
        start = request.inputs['start'][0].data
        end = request.inputs['end'][0].data
        self.check_date(start)
        self.check_date(end)

        output = 'modis_response'
        
        # be silent
        os.environ['GRASS_VERBOSE'] = '0'

        # need to set computation region (would be nice g.region strds or t.region)
        Module('g.region', raster='c_001')
        try:
            Module('t.rast.series',
                   input='modis_c@PERMANENT',
                   output=output,
                   method='average',
                   where="start_time > '{start}' and start_time < '{end}'".format(
                       start=start, end=end
            ))
        except CalledModuleError:
            raise Exception('Unable to compute statistics')

        ret = Module('r.univar',
                     flags='g',
                     map=output,
                     stdout_=PIPE
        )
        stats = gs.parse_key_val(ret.outputs.stdout)
        
        outstr = 'Min: {0:.1f};Max: {1:.1f};Mean: {2:.1f}'.format(
            float(stats['min']), float(stats['max']), float(stats['mean'])
        )
        response.outputs['stats'].data = outstr

        return response

Sample process to download: modis_v1.py

The process has to be activated in demo.py.

...
from processes.modis_v1 import ModisV1
...

processes = [
 ...
 ModisV1(),
]

Stop running demo PyWPS server by Ctrl+C and start again.

python3 ./demo.py

You should see your modis-v1 process in the list. Click on DescribeProcess to check input and outputs parameters description.

Fig. 126 Process modis-v1 available on PyWPS demo server.

Important

In order to use GRASS GIS functionality update PyWPS configuration. Open pywps.cfg and set correct GRASS installation directory, eg.

gisbase=/usr/lib/grass80

On Windows specify path in Unix-like style:

gisbase=/C/Program Files/GRASS GIS 8.0

Now execute the process:

http://localhost:5000/wps?request=Execute&service=WPS&identifier=modis-v1&version=1.0.0&datainputs=start=2019-03-01;end=2019-04-01

Example of response:

<wps:LiteralData dataType="string">
Min: -8.3;Max: 12.6;Mean: 7.3
</wps:LiteralData>

Tip

When something goes wrong, check logs/pywps.log for details.

Úkol

Try to improve the process in order to return something more reasonable than a string, eg. JSON.