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Web services based on Open Geospatial Consortium Web Processing Service Standard (WPS) are used increasingly for geospatial data processing and analysis in recent years. The standard assumes only the server-side computations when the client resources remain not involved. However in some cases, use of the client-side resources can bring some gains, e.g. can maintain the privacy of processed data, can provide processing services which are resistant to the network connection loss, etc.

In previous studies (Kazakov et al., 2015; Panidi et al. 2015), we proposed the idea and some techniques of extension of the WPS Standard with transmitting possibility of executable program components of the processing tool onto the client computer. The transmitting of the program components is provided by the implementation of specific request to the WPS server (GetProcess request). This approach provides the possibility of processing execution on the client side.

Previously we tested this approach on the case of simple Python scripts. Our main conclusion was that the implementation of client-side runtime environment is needed, i.e. software application or infrastructure which can support the downloading of the WPS executable components and their orchestration on the client computer.

Currently we implemented the prototype of such software using the Java Web Start technology. This prototype is able to provide automatic downloading and installation of all needed software components of the processing tool. Java Web Start in this case provides the possibility of version control and minimizes user participation in the processes of software administration, similarly to the traditional WPS architecture.

Open Geospatial Standards, Free and Open Source Geospatial Software, Web Processing Service, Client-Side Geoprocessing