[gdal-dev] Mapinfo .GST file support?

[Andrew Williams]

I'm not much help other than to confirm your suspicions that a GST is similar to a mapfile.

In Mapinfo speak a geoset is a script file containing the locations of Mapinfo tables and what to do with them when you open them.

Such as in which order, zoom layering etc.

Other than that they don't do much.

The Geoset is primarily developed for the Mapinfo development environments such as MapX(deprecated)/MapXMobile(PDA) and MapXtreme(Web/Desktop).

Applications built using these environments open Geosets natively.

I'm not suggesting you need these just saying that's why the Geoset exists.

If you have access to the MapX development environment or a MapX application there is a utility called the Geoset Manager. You'll find it in the install directory. As the name suggests it allows you to configure the geoset and these other parameters.

Even Mapinfo's own documentation doesn't reveal the specification of the format. It basically says "You have geoset manager for this, so use it" (Heaven forbid, somebody might want to use it for an allied purpose.)

Anyway you may wish to check out the Google group Mapinfo-L. There are many specialists there who may be able to answer your question about Geoset parsing.

There is also www.directionsmag.com

This is a site dedicated to spatial technology with a tools download section. If you search the Mapinfo Professional tools section for "Geoset" you may find a Mapbasic script in uncompiled form that may give you an idea about how to process a Geoset. It will be for Mapinfo but Mapbasic is a very "basic" language and the .mb files can be read with a text editor. You may be able to derive a method for parsing the GST file to create a similar mapfile.

Other than that Geosets are pretty primitive. You may consider an "empirical" method based on an existing GST file. Not ideal but there you have it.

-----Original Message-----
From: gdal-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:gdal-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Woodbridge
Sent: Sunday, 27 July 2008 12:01 PM
To: Gdal-Dev
Subject: [gdal-dev] Mapinfo .GST file support?

Hi all,

Does ogr2ogr support Mapinfo .gst files?
Is there a spec available for GST files?

After spending some time looking at google results, I'm not sure I have
much more clue about this than before I started, other than I think I
get the fact that a GST file might be like a mapfile is to mapserver.

I have a mapfile and shapefiles and a client that wants maps if .gst
format. I assume I can translate the shapefiles to .tab files, but I'm
not sure what to do about the .gst file.

Any help and/or pointers would be appreciated.

TIA,
   -Steve W
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