The way I approach this is to use MapServer to get the coordinates (or an id of a PostGIS feature) interactively and then connect to PostGIS directly with PHP and pull the information out using their well developed functions, such as:
<br> - <span class="term">PolyFromText(...)<br> - </span><span class="term">Buffer(...)<br> - Intersect(...)<br><br>This is one method, there are many others.<br><br>Aaron<br></span><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 12/8/06,
<b class="gmail_sendername">Sievers, Jason</b> <<a href="mailto:jsievers@co.linn.or.us">jsievers@co.linn.or.us</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<p><font size="2">I want to perform a buffer query around a polygon. I would select a polygon, then get features from another layer who are within a specified distance of the outside edge of my selected polygon. The only queries involving buffers I see in the documentation are on points. I have looked briefly at PostGIS and GRASS documentation. Is the solution possible in MapServer? or should I investigate PostGIS, GRASS, or other tools?
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<p><font size="2">Thanks for any help.</font>
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<p><font size="2">Jason Sievers</font>
<br><font size="2"><a href="mailto:jsievers@co.linn.or.us" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">jsievers@co.linn.or.us</a></font>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>+-------------------------------------------------<br>| Aaron Koning<br>| Information Technologist<br>| Prince George, BC, Canada.<br>+-------------------------------------------------
<br>| Flexible Internet Spatial Template:<br>| <a href="http://fist-mapping.org">http://fist-mapping.org</a><br>+-------------------------------------------------