Test for .dbf files

[Stephen Lime]

By definition shapefiles consist of 3 files. Will ArcView work without the
.dbf file? This is a mapserver matter, not shapelib as all components of
a shapefile are processed at one time. We could make not finding a
dbf file a non-fatal error pretty easily though although I'm not sure it's
worth the effort and potential errors if items are referenced.

BTW ArcView pukes if no .dbf file is found...

Steve

Stephen Lime
Internet Applications Analyst

Minnesota DNR
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-297-2937

>>> Thorsten Fischer <frosch at cs.tu-berlin.de> 03/27/01 05:20AM >>>

Hello list.

I discovered that the .dbf files are in any circumstances neccesary
for the mapserver to draw a layer.

There seems to be a test if a .dbf file exists, even for
drawing plain polygon data. I understand that it might be
neccessary for drawing annotations, though it seems to prevent
me from getting annotation data from a database. If the .dbf
file is missing, plain polygon layers are not drawn.

It is possible to create a 0 byte name.dbf file for a name.shp file.
Drawing works fine then.

Is this a shapelib matter or a mapserver internal? Is this
even desired behaviour?


Thorsten Fischer