[Mapserver-users] whats needed for the map itself

[Tyler Mitchell]

Hi Jeramie,

> I apologize in advance for this very newbie question. 

We're all for newbies!

> I have been 
> looking through the documentation trying to figure out what 
> mapserver needs to lets just say, generate a map of California.. if 
> anyone wouldn’t mind giving me a hand I would really appreciate it. 
> Please keep in mind this is my first mapping project and I’m not up 
> on all the acronyms (I don’t mind looking them up =] )

Here is a complete listing of a very basic map file - all it includes is a 
single image.  This gives you an idea of the minimal requirements of a msp 
file but is, by no means, the most minimal.  Hope it helps get you going.

Tyler


#
# Start of map file
#
NAME DEMO
STATUS ON
SIZE 600 400
EXTENT -180 -90 180 90  # Whole world

UNITS DD
SHAPEPATH "./data"
IMAGECOLOR 255 255 255
FONTSET "./fontsets/fonts.txt"

WEB
  #HEADER demo_header.html
  TEMPLATE workshop.html
  #FOOTER demo_footer.html
  IMAGEPATH "/ms4w/tmp/ms_tmp"
  IMAGEURL "/ms_tmp/"
END

#
# Start of legend
#

LEGEND
  KEYSIZE 18 12
  LABEL
    TYPE BITMAP
    SIZE MEDIUM
    COLOR 0 0 89
  END
  STATUS ON
END

#
# Start of scalebar
#

SCALEBAR
  IMAGECOLOR 255 255 255
  LABEL
    COLOR 0 0 0 
    SIZE small 
  END
  STYLE 1
  SIZE 250 4
  COLOR 0 0 0 
  UNITS KILOMETERS
  INTERVALS 5
  TRANSPARENT FALSE
  STATUS TRUE
END

LAYER
  NAME topo8
  TYPE RASTER
  DATA ./raster/topo8.tif
  STATUS OFF
  PROJECTION
   "proj=latlong" "ellps=WGS84" # Geographic
  END
END


END # Map File