"Capturing" mapserver images

[Chris Tweedie]

Hi Steve, WMS-Time support is my obvious suggestion for your situation.

Check out http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/docs/howto/wms_time_support for 
setting up inside Mapserver and also 
http://geoservices.cgdi.ca/mapbuilder/demo/timeSeries/index.html for an 
example of a "pseudo-animation" mapbuilder client which seems to fit 
your requirements quite well.

Regards,

Chris

Quoting Stephen Davies <sdc at SDC.COM.AU>:

> Greetings.
>
> I need to be able to present a series of maps for "time lapse" display.
>
> The PostgreSQL database behind the mapserver application in question
> contains both geometry and time-based attribute values and the map file
> currently used to display the data uses layers, filters and classes to
> colour geometries according to current attribute values.
>
> The idea is to somehow capture the images showing the geometry states
> at, for example, noon each day for the past month and then use
> javascript to display those images as a "movie" similar to those
> provided by many weather bureaux.
>
> I have tried doing it simply by pausing in the browser between repaint
> requests but there is too much variability between browsers and - in
> particular - between broadband and dialup users.
>
> I know I could achieve the objective by writing a PERL or Java program
> to emulate a browser, retrieve the output image name and ignore the
> output but wondered if there were a simpler method such as invoking
> mapserver in map mode from a shell.
>
> Any suggestions and/or advice would be most welcome.
>
> Cheers and thanks,
> Stephen Davies
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