[Gdal-dev] mapserver ogr connection to tile index

[Neil Best]

In the OGR In Mapserver How-To section 4.5 [1] talks about using a tile
index for vector layers.  I have been able to add a collection of
shapefiles with differing attribute schemas to my map and they render
correctly but the attributes are not available for querying, as in an
on-screen identification.  

LAYER
    NAME "ogrtile"
    TYPE POLYGON
    CONNECTIONTYPE OGR
    TILEINDEX "tileindex.shp,0"
    STATUS ON
    TEMPLATE "query"
    CLASS
        NAME "all"
        STYLE
            COLOR 200 255 0
            OUTLINECOLOR 120 120 120
        END
    END
END

The statements in the how-to gave me some optimism that it might work by
saying "OGR tileindex layers should support all normal query and
attribute fetching mechanisms" with the qualification that "problems
may (or may not) be encountered if the component tiles have differing
schemas (different sets of attributes)," which should have dampened my
optimism.  Anyhow I have tested it out and it seems like I need another
approach, but I am wondering if anyone has successfully done this and I
have missed something.  Could this possibly be a useful feature? 
Thanks.

Neil


[1]
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/docs/howto/ogr_howto/#tileindex-with-ogr