Visual map file builder

[Doyon, Jean-Francois]

Since someone asked, I just thought I'd post what I'm doing exactly as far
as a DB Backend :

Because maintaing a HUGE mapfile (100's of layers, 100's of shapefiles, and
possibly 1000's of classes)
would be a big problem in the environment where I work, due to the fact that
there are several people involved
in maintenance and development of the content, server administration, etc
... I had to find a way to simplify
the management of all the data.

One of the mapping tools we currently use has such a system, which uses a
Database backend to store
all configuration data, and then provides a web interface to this Database
backend, effectively giving users
a web interface to the administration of the mapserver.

Since MapServer comes with the ever-so-great Perl and PHP wrappers/API's ...
Integrating the mapserver
with a database becomes almost trivial.

So I simply created a database which stores all vareity of objects that can
exist within a map file. There are
tables for layers, classes, labels, etc ... And each table contains all
possible parameters for the said object
(So for the layers, there's "data", "maxscale", "maxfeatures", etc ...).
Some basic relationship design allows
me to relate a label to a class, and a class to a layer. A layer can have
several classes of course, and so on ...
There's more details, and a few exceptions of course, but that's the jist of
it.

Currently I'm using this as a backend to an OGC/WMT compliant server
(http://www.opengis.org) ... And it is
all written in perl.  I'll soon be implementing a web/php based admin
interface to this RDB ... Right now I just
use SQL syntax to add layers, change colors, etc ... Which is still simpler
than editing a potentially huge
mapfile, and the web interface will give me the flexibility of
de-centralized management of the data/content, 
leaving me to worry about systems/design issues.

I'm working right now on potentially getting a page up where all my work
would be posted and so on, and I don't
think opening up my work under the GPL should not be a problem, gotta ask
the bosses first though, although this
is my ultimate goal.

I'm using PostgreSQL as back end ... It has a lot of features I like that
MySQL doesn't, including those nifty geometric
datatypes, which I'll probably make use of soon.

There, now everybody knows ! :) Comment suggestions and questions are
allways welcome !

J.F.

> ----------
> From: 	Doyon,
> Jean-Francois[SMTP:Jean-Francois.Doyon at CCRS.NRCan.gc.ca]
> Sent: 	Friday, July 07, 2000 5:08 PM
> To: 	mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> Subject: 	RE: Visual map file builder
> 
> Well, as you might remember I'm using a database back end to handle all
> the
> various configuration information that would normally be stored in a map
> file (With mapscript for perl).
> 
> This is because one of the possible applications I have for it could be
> handling hundreds of layers and shape files, and managing a map file for
> this could get very complicated, especially since there are various people
> managing the content.
> 
> I therefore also plan on creating a decent web based admin interface to it
> (The database, really). It should proove quite nice once it's done, you'll
> be able to add layers, change colors, add/remove/edit classes, work with
> labels, etc ... In theory anything mapscript can handle I could manage
> through the DB Backend and the web interface.
> 
> It's not exactly what you're working on ... but serves a similar purpose.
> 
> Like Daniel, I'll probably use PHP to do it, taking advantage of the PHP
> Module to do things like layer/map previews and so on ...
> 
> My .02$ !
> 
> J.F.
> 
> > ----------
> > From: 	Stephen Lime[SMTP:steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us]
> > Sent: 	Friday, July 07, 2000 3:31 PM
> > To: 	mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> > Subject: 	Visual map file builder
> > 
> > Hello users: I'm starting a new project to aid in building map files.
> The
> > plan now is to
> > use MapScript and Perl/Tk to build a GUI for creation and editing map
> > files. I wanted 
> > to find out what, if anything, others are doing in this area. I know
> there
> > are a couple
> > of folks using ArcView to create map files but I think we need something
> a
> > bit more
> > MapServer centric. Lemme know...
> > 
> > Steve
> > 
> > Stephen Lime
> > Internet Applications Analyst
> > 
> > Minnesota DNR
> > 500 Lafayette Road
> > St. Paul, MN 55155
> > 651-297-2937
> > 
>