Feature-level transparency...in 5.0?

[Steve Lime]

Mike: Although this is just on the wishlist at the moment what I'm
thinking is feature
level, that is it would be applied when an individual feature is drawn.
The class or
style issue is a matter of where the value is set.

Steve

>>> Mike Leahy <mgleahy at GOLDEN.NET> 11/30/2006 10:39:18 PM >>>
Hello list,

As far as I can tell, transparency in MapServer is currently only
available at the layer level.  I'm working on some data that would
benefit from being able to view overlapping features (within a single
and/or multiple layers) using transparency to reveal density of
coverage
of certain features (i.e., the more shapes that overlap a given area,
the darker the colour).  This works great in some tools (e.g., QGis),
but it doesn't work so well in mapserver, as overlapping shapes within
a
single layer end up looking like a single polygon.  It seems that at
the
moment the only workaround would be to have a separate for each
individual shape...or use varying hatched styles to fill the polygons.

I saw on this page
(http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/development/release_plans/mapserver_5_0)
that class or style-level transparency is proposed for 5.0.  Out of
interest, will this be equivalent to feature-level, or would I have to
add individual classes for every feature in a given layer?  I suspect
the latter, but I'm curious to know if feature-level transparency is
on
the radar for future development.

Thanks for any info...

Mike