WMS time support with DB (not solved yet)

[Marco Marsella]

Hi!

Uli's kind reply was prompt but unfortunately not very helpful because
he stores the geometries in the DB while I have satellite images that
are in the filesystem. I need to know if there is a way to use a DB
table to map the time request value to the actual filename or I *must*
use a shapefile.

Anyway, it seems to me that both (shapefile or DB) are rather
convoluted ways of dealing with the matter. I have proposed some time
ago to extend the token substitution mechanism that is available for
request parameters (the one using %xx%, just to be clear) so that the
DATA statement would accept something as:

DATA  "%year%-%month%-%day%"

where %year%, %month% and %day% would be the relevant fragments of the
TIME request value. We have used this with deegree and it worked like a
charm. It would be much better than having to deal with a shapefile or
with a DB table! Almost every time, satellite images have the date
information right there in the filename and therefore it is much easier
to "build" the filename according to the time request value.

Eric Bridger's reply is not satisfactory because it is not WMS
compatible: the format of the time value in the request is defined by
the standard.

Thank you for your advice!

Marco

Marco Marsella wrote:
> Hi list,
> I am trying to figure out how to configure Mapserver to provide WMS
> server support for time dimensions using a database.
> I have examples that use a shapefile to map time request values to the
> actual filename, but I cannot find any description of how to do the
> same using a database table.
> Anybody willing to shed some light ?
> TIA
> Marco