Managing Connections

paid tier only. Authenticated connections are available on the paid tier of Geo Data Connector. On the free tier, you can explore and retrieve data from public (unauthenticated) services only.

A Connection stores the URL and credentials for a data service that requires authentication. Once saved, Geo Data Connector uses the connection automatically whenever it detects a matching source URL during exploration or retrieval — you never need to enter credentials into a URL.

Why connections exist

Some data services restrict access to registered users or organizations. Instead of embedding credentials in a URL (which is insecure and unsupported), you save the credentials as a Connection. Geo Data Connector associates those credentials with the URL and applies them transparently.

The Connections screen

Click Connections in the navigation to open the Connections screen. The table lists your saved connections with:

Column	What it shows
URL	The service URL for this connection
Type	The service type (WFS, WCS, etc.)
Name	Your label for this connection
Description	Optional notes
Datasets	Number of datasets discovered through this connection

Click any connection row to explore that service immediately using the saved credentials.

Connections — saved authenticated sources.

Adding a connection

1. Click Add Connection (top right).
2. Fill in the form:
   • URL — the base URL of the service (without credentials or query parameters).
   • Type — the service type.
   • Name — a label to identify this connection (e.g., "City of Helsinki WFS").
   • Description — optional notes.
   • Auth method — choose Basic auth and enter the username and password.
3. Save the connection.

Credentials are write-only — they are stored securely and are never displayed again after saving.

Using a connection for exploration

When you paste a service URL into the home screen search bar and click Explore, Geo Data Connector checks whether you have a connection matching that URL. If a basic-auth connection exists for that URL, its credentials are applied automatically to the exploration request.

You can also explore a connection directly by clicking its row on the Connections screen.

Using a connection during retrieval

When you subscribe to a dataset from an authenticated source, Geo Data Connector automatically resolves and applies the matching connection credentials for retrieval. You do not need to specify the connection separately.

Updating credentials

Click a connection row and edit the authentication fields. The new credentials are saved and used from that point forward.

Deleting a connection

Use the delete action within the connection edit form. Deleting a connection does not delete existing subscriptions for that source, but future retrieval runs for those subscriptions will no longer have credentials available.