OpenLayers and WFS: Using a mapfile correctly with featureType and featureNS

For starters, I went off the example at http://openlayers.org/dev/examples/wfs-reprojection.js and got that working just fine with the states vector layer showing up.

Now I'm trying to use my own mapfile (wfs_navdata_02.map) and do the same. Just one layer for now, cities_1x.

var wfs = new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("My Layer", {
            strategies: [new OpenLayers.Strategy.Fixed()],
            protocol: new OpenLayers.Protocol.WFS({
                version: "1.1.0",
                srsName: "EPSG:4326",
                url:  "http://my_local_url/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?map=/file_location/wfs_navdata_02.map",
                featureType: "cities_1x",

                featurePrefix: "",
                featureNS: "http://yourdomain/application/catalogLayer"
            }),
    });
    map.addLayer(wfs);

What do I put in for featureNS? For the url, is referencing the mapfile like that ok? I read one poster that said he needed to use featurePrefix but I don't think thats necessary here.

Also for featureType, is that the name of the LAYER or the wms_title within the layer?

I've successfully used WMS before but WFS is a bit more confusing. I am not having any errors in the javascript console via Chrome.

Snippet of mapfile can be seen here: http://codeshare.io/C1hki

Not sure if OUTPUTFORMAT is necessary.

Any input is appreciated.

Answer

This might help you move forward: by default, MapServer uses "ms:" as a prefix, and http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/mapserver as a namespace:

featurePrefix: "ms",
featureNS: "http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/mapserver"

OpenLayers might/did have some quirks when specifying both of these, so you might want to try setting only one of those at a time, c.f. http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/openlayers-users/2009-August/013320.html

Edit:

You can also try with version: '1.0.0' as this will prevent lat/lon coordinate inversion. I also found a few issues with your mapfile:

• The mapfile should end with an END at the map level.


• The OUTPUTFORMAT is not mandatory.


• Make sure to use "init=epsg:4326" as your projection.

Using the NameSpace and prefix above and fixing the mapfile, I successfully got points in OpenLayers.