open map using coordinates from a database

[John Westwood]

 Hi Henric

MapServer can be set up as a WFS (Web Feature Service) server for
vector data and / or a WMS (Web Map Service) server for raster data. You
can then write a WFS request URL or WMS request URL and this should
return the specified map layer at the specified coordinates.

You need to look up how to make WFS / WMS requests and how to set up
MapServer as a WFS / WMS server. There are some good information on the
MapServer web site, just use the search box. :)

An example WMS request could look something like this:

http://www.examplewebsite.org/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/path/to/map/file/mapfile.map&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=getmap&LAYERS=layerToDisplay&SRS=EPSG:4326&STYLES=&BBOX=-180,-90,180,90&WIDTH=600&HEIGHT=300&FORMAT=image/png

You can use many different databases with MapServer. Personally, I
would recommend Postgres with the PostGIS extension - this works well
with MapServer. You would load your vector data into the database and
then in the MapServer map file you would specify a database connection
string as the data source for a particular layer.

I found the book Web Mapping Illustrated, published by O'Reilly to be
very useful.

I hope this will give you somewhere to start.

John W.


>>> On 04/09/2007 at 18:31, in message
<002301c7ef19$649cb180$1102a8c0 at HENRIC>,
Henric Ernstson <henric at ERNSTSON.NU> wrote:

> 
> Hi I am a new-bee on mapserver and planing to use a map-server and a
> database, I would like to use data(coordinates) in my database,
> generating a url- that i can use to open a map-view on mapserver
with. 
>  
> The quetion is where to start, I can make applications (have tryed
some
> simple ones) and have made some more complex using chameleon
>  
> I have not found any thing on how to generate a url depending on
> coordinates or any other way for fixing this
>  
> best reg. Henric