[mapserver-users] Re: Feature wish: Internal mapfile variables

[Stephen Woodbridge]

One idea regarding this that you might want to consider is the ability 
to put all the named parameters in an include file, then be able to 
include that file via a CGI parameter. So it might look like this:


MAP
   INCLUDE "client-params-%client_id%.inc"
   ...
END

And then you could have parameter files like:

client-params-27.inc
client-params-123.inc
etc.

And these would include nothing but your SET ... commands.

Then when requesting the map:

/http://localhost/cgi-bin/mapserv?client_id=123&mode=map&map=/path/to/mapfile.map&...

This would make it very easy to manage a single mapfile for parameters 
that are different for each client/user.

Obviously the client_id could be set via a cookie, or a wrapper script, 
or a session variable, or manually, etc.

-Steve W

On 10/3/2011 2:39 PM, reholl wrote:
> I'm interested in working on capabilities along these lines.  Are there
> existing RFCs that touch on this?  If not, perhaps one should be created.
>
> This overlaps some configuration ideas I've been mulling over.  From the
> original comment here about internal vars being handy for "/when the same
> layers are re-used for several customers who like to have a bit different
> styling for the same source data/" it occurs to me that a matrix or some
> other constructs more complex than a flat list of internal variables might
> be called for -- provided they don't turn the mapfile and internal mapserv
> into spaghetti..
>
> Jukka Rahkonen (have I ordered your name properly?), do you want to start an
> RFC on this?
>
> To anyone -- would this conversation typically migrate over to 'dev' ?
>
> Robert Hollingsworth
>
>
> I agree that this is a request that comes up often. As usual we'd just
> need someone to lead the effort.
>
> On 11-10-03 12:12 AM, Rahkonen Jukka wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Inspired by the Thomas Bonfort's rendering chain I have been thinking if
>> we could have a native support for using  internal mapfile variables.  Now
>> Thomas is setting for example a bunch of colours in a definition file
>> which is converted into a real mapfile with python script and c
>> preprocessor.
>> http://mapserver-utils.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/README
>> http://mapserver-utils.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/generate_style.py
>>
>> I would like to see a simple way for setting the variables directly in the
>> mapfile, somehow like
>> MAP
>> SET "pedestrian_clr"  "#fafaf5"
>> SET "forest_clr" "#dcdcb4"
>> SET "industrial_clr" "#ebe5d9"
>> ....
>>
>> And then later in the layers use
>> LAYER
>> .....
>> COLOR %pedestrian_clr%
>>
>> The internal variables could be interpreted only from the mapfile and they
>> could not be altered by the web users.
>>
>> Internal variable would help in maintaining big mapfiles with repeating
>> styles like in the OpenStreetMap rendering case.  Another use case is when
>> the same layers are re-used for several customers who like to have a bit
>> different styling for the same source data.
>>
>> -Jukka Rahkonen-
>>
>
> --
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