<html>
<head>
<style>
.hmmessage P
{
margin:0px;
padding:0px
}
body.hmmessage
{
FONT-SIZE: 10pt;
FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma
}
</style>
</head>
<body class='hmmessage'>
Well, there are a few reasons why using MapServer is out of the question.<BR> <BR>1. I am running my mapping application on some server space that I have on the computer science servers here on campus. Although I am granted server space, I obviously have no ability to change the settings to Apache or put MapServer into the cgi-bin of Apache. Therefore, although I can run PHP scripts (which I do), running something like MapServer is out of the question.<BR> <BR>2. I am running Apache on my personal machine....and so of course I could install MapServer on here, but my personal machine is not the "production environment"...it is simply the testing environment. The production environment is my server space on the CS servers - and if I can't run MapServer on those servers, there is no point running it on my test server (my personal computer). <BR> <BR>3. Even if I did have access to a production server where I could configure Apache how I wanted it to be - I am completely unfamiliar with MapServer and WMS requests - although I am very familiar with HTTP requests and networking in general. WMS is simply a protocol I don't know. In addition, I don't know how to create a map that would work with MapServer.<BR> <BR>Consequently:<BR> <BR>I am currently using the free map available at:<BR> <BR><A href="http://labs.metacarta.com/wms/vmap0" target=_blank>http://labs.metacarta.com/wms/vmap0</A>?<BR> <BR>Which is also used in many of the OpenLayers demos. I am thinking, however, of using Google Maps possibly, but I am not sure yet.<BR> <BR>So this is my dilemma: Under these circumstances, how can I recognize which country a user has clicked on the map?<BR> <BR>Several months ago at work I made a simple mapping application in Flash (at which time I didn't even know OpenLayers or MapServer existed). For that mapping application we simply overlayed an image of each country on top of itself on the world map, and then the overlayed image acted as a button - thus making it quite simple to tell which country had been clicked. I was hoping to do something similar with OpenLayers in this mapping application that I am currently building, but using the "Features" in OpenLayers to create polygons that I could overlay over each country - and essentially have each polygon act as a button so I could tell which country had been clicked. I noticed however, that if I held my mouse button down on one of these polygons, I could no longer pan around the map...which is definitely a problem.<BR> <BR>How does the example map at <A href="http://world.freemap.in/" target=_blank>http://world.freemap.in/</A> accomplish this task? I looked at the code, and although I am new to OpenLayers and this whole WMS thing...it seems like it is making some WMS requests to a MapServer server.<BR> <BR>Thanks for any help.<BR> <BR>David<BR><BR>> Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 06:42:27 +0100<BR>> From: eric.c2c@gmail.com<BR>> To: d.pru@hotmail.com<BR>> Subject: Re: [OpenLayers-Users] Selecting a country<BR>> CC: users@openlayers.org<BR>> <BR>> On Jan 7, 2008 3:22 AM, David Pruitt <d.pru@hotmail.com> wrote:<BR>> ><BR>> > Let's say I have a user who is looking at my map, and clicks on a specific<BR>> > country. What is the best way to recognize which country he clicked on?<BR>> ><BR>> > I thought using features would be good, but a user can't pan around the map<BR>> > if he/she is holding down the mouse button on a feature.<BR>> ><BR>> > Is there any way to accomplish this WITHOUT using MapServer or GeoServer or<BR>> > something of that sort?<BR>> <BR>> Hello<BR>> <BR>> If the countries aren't rendered by the browser (and therefore you<BR>> don't have information about these countries on the client side) then<BR>> you need to send a request to some service to get information on the<BR>> clicked country. Have you had some other solution in mind?<BR>> <BR>> --<BR>> Eric<BR><BR><br /><hr />Make distant family not so distant with Windows Vista® + Windows Live™. <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/windows/digitallife/keepintouch.mspx?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_CPC_VideoChat_distantfamily_012008' target='_new'>Start now!</a></body>
</html>