[mapserver-dev] RFC 89 Layer Geomtransform: Call for vote

[Daniel Morissette]

On 13-02-20 1:36 PM, Alan Boudreault wrote:
> Initially, that's what I wanted to avoid: adding new GEOMTRANSFORMUNITS.
> We already have UNITS, TOLERANCEUNITS and SIZEUNITS. I would tend to
> force the user to use UNITS with GEOMTRANSFORM. I'm not necessary right
> though.
>

Thinking about this some more and out loud:

- unless I'm mistaken, the UNITS value will matter in this context only 
if you use the [map_cellsize] variable in your GEOMTRANSFORM expression. 
In this case the UNITS setting is used to convert the map->cellsize from 
the map output units to the units of the source data

- if you don't use the [map_cellsize] variable then the args (e.g. the 
simplify or buffer tolerance)) are passed directly to the corresponding 
function (GEOS or other), so the arg value is assumed to be in the same 
units as the source data (whatever it is) and the UNITS setting has no 
impact in this case

- there is currently no way in MapServer to set UNITS to a null/unset 
value, so we have no way to know if UNITS was explicitly set in the 
mapfile or not (the default units setting is meters)

- adding a GEOMTRANSFORMUNITS param (presumably to add the ability to 
pass the tolerance args in arbitrary units instead of in the data 
source's units) will just complicate the issue and not solve the core 
issue which is to determine in which units the original data source 
coordinates are in order to convert the map>cellsize from map output 
units to layer data source units for use in the [map_cellsize] variable


If the above are true, then a simple solution would be to always use the 
layer->units value and never try to lookup of the projection units. We 
should document the requirement to set UNITS together with the 
[map_cellsize] variable docs (at the same place). If one chooses to use 
[map_cellsize] in their GEOMTRANSFORM expression then they MUST also 
explicitly set UNITS in the layer to the correct value (corresponding to 
the UNITS of the raw vector data source).




-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000