[GRASS-user] Re: How to best access hundreds of orthophotos -- mapserver as WMS server?

[Ivan Shmakov]

>>>>> Dylan Beaudette <dylan.beaudette at gmail.com> writes:

[...]

 >>> an idea: write a little script to make a vector coversheet index.
 >>> maybe output that with the HTMLMAP driver for an interactive web brower
 >>> pull up.

[...]

 >> And, could there be something a bit more clever than storing the
 >> region of the image as a vector feature?  A combination of
 >> downsampling, `r.mapcalc' (to obtain the fill mask), and
 >> `r.contour', may be?

 > Hi,

 > What you are asking for is starting to sound like a Mapserver driven
 > WMS.

	Actually, I'm seeking for a some kind of cataloguing solution
	for GRASS.  However, setting up Mapserver is also on my TODO
	list.

 > Here is how I have dealt with this problem in the past:

[...]

 > 5. create a very simple mapfile pointing to the tile index
 > shapefile. I will work up an example and post it back

	TIA.

 > 6. fill in appropriate WMS metadata into the mapfile

 > 7. use r.in.wms to import imagery into GRASS
 > -or-
 > 7. once GDAL 1.5 is released it will be possible to an r.in.gdal and
 > point it to an XML file defining a WMS resource. A mini-script might
 > be able to construct the XML file on the fly...

 > Unfortunately you will still have to manage the images that are
 > imported into GRASS with GRASS commands, unless you constantly
 > overwrite a temporary set of files by always using the same names and
 > the --o flag.

 > Once you have mapserver setup WMS is quite fast and flexible - it
 > will even project the data on the fly to other coordinate systems.

	Yes, I know.  (Though I hadn't succeed in getting it to show me
	any rasters last time I've tried it; the software packages were
	from Debian etch, if that matters.)