yz.com/geoserver?service=someService&request=someRequest&version=X.Y.Z¶m1=...¶m2=... This type of request can also be made in a "POST" request in with a mime-type of "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".
The second form is known as "XML" in which all the parameters come in the form of an xml document. This type of request is made in an http "POST" request.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <SomeRequest service="someService" version="X.Y.Z"> <Param1>...</Param1> <Param2>...</Param2> ... </SomeRequest>
When a request is received, the service the version parameters are used to locate a service desciptor, an instance of {@link Service}. With the service descriptor, the request parameter is used to locate the operation of the service to call.
@author Justin Deoliveira, The Open Planning Project, jdeolive@openplans.org