[Mapserver-users] Oracle Spatial Support

[Frank Warmerdam]

Rajendra Gupta wrote:
> Dear  Users
> 
>  We have recently downloaded Mapserver & MapLab software and configured
> with IIS as well as Apache web server. We could successfully able to run
> the demo application of MapServer in both the  environments using the ESRI
> shape file data. The application is able to do panning, zooming, querying,
> layer control, etc. operations. Now as a part of second phase of the
> project, we want to access the Oracle Spatial data from MapServer and
> publish on browser. We made a trial but failed to achieve the objective. In
> this regard, we have the following clarifications
> 
> (a) Does MapServer 3.6.3/4/5 support the Oracle Spatial Database?
> (b) If the answer to above is "Yes" Could you elaborate the procedure for
> setting up the configuration for the same.
> (c) Has any body done coding  to include this feature?
> 
> Any assistance in this regard in solving the above problem shall be highly
> appreciated.
> 
> thanks and regards
> 
> Dr. Rajendra K Gupta

Dr. Gupta,

First, I would encourage you to not reply to digests without removing portions
of the digest you are not directly addressing.

Oracle Spatial support is available in MapServer in two different forms.

The first is the direct oracle support implemented by Rodrigo Becke Cabral,
and found in the source file maporaclespatial.c.  This is the most efficient
form, and how it can be used is described (at least briefly) in the mapfile
reference I think.   However, this support is not generally compiled into the
pre-built binaries distributed by folks like DM Solutions since it makes
MapServer depend on the Oracle Spatial client libraries.  This implementation
uses OCI (the Oracle Call Interface) a custom Oracle client library for access
to the database.  I haven't actually tried this myself, but apparently it does
work well with some limitations.

The second is to access Oracle Spatial via OGR.  OGR's Oracle Spatial support
is also based on OCI, and is quite recent so you would need to download and
build a very recent GDAL/OGR from a nightly CVS snapshot of the source.
You can read the OGR HOWTO to learn more about how to use OGR based vector
layers in MapServer.  Details about the OGR Oracle driver can be found at:

   http://gdal.velocet.ca/projects/opengis/ogrhtml/drv_oci.html

However, in brief, to utilize Oracle you will likely have to dip into the
world of building MapServer yourself or perhaps pay someone to build it for
you.  This isn't exactly a trivial process, but it is achievable.

To the best of my knowledge the native Oracle Spatial support is the same
in 3.6.x and 3.7.

It is nice to see world class consulting organizations like Tata using
MapServer.

Best regards,

-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent