[beginner] Why does it look like a map of Arctic Snowfields?

[Stephen Lime]

Boy, I need to setup an FAQ for blank maps. If you've got blank images
and not broken images then there are only a couple of (common) possiblities. (The
mapfile isn't much help without an example calling URL)

  - extents aren't right
  - path to data isn't correct
  - layers aren't turned on in the form/url

There are a couple of other possiblities related to multiple class definitions but no 
classitem defined, but that doesn't look to be the case here. Send me a URL or
a form and I'll try to help some more.

Steve

Stephen Lime
Internet Applications Analyst
MIS Bureau - MN DNR

(651) 297-2937
steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us

>>> Jason Domina <jdomina at ystone.mt.gov> 09/15 1:40 PM >>>
howdy,

Normally I am loathe to issue a cry for help on matters that are trivial to
those who have RTFM :)  However, time has squeezed me into a corner that I
cannot wriggle out of.  I am not an GIS analyst, so much of this is still very
confusing.  I am a web developer working for a local county government in
Billings, MT USA.  We've been using ESRI's MapObjects and Internet Map Server
to develop a web based interface to the county's GIS information on Windows
NT(IIS4).  The tirade of expletives this software combination has caused me to
expell isn't worth repeating, but needless to say, these products have
occasioned me to explore alternatives.  A quick search on Freshmeat.net brought
me to MapServer and having viewed the speed and stability of the demo site, I
quickly became enamored.

I can get the demo setup and running correctly on my test machine which is
currently running Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 and Apache 1.3.9.  However, when I try
to use some of our shapefiles I get nothing but an Arctic Snowfield.  My map is
just a big, ol' white square.  I hope it is not too crass, but below you will
find a copy of my ystone.map file.  What am I doing wrong?

Thank you,
Jason Domina
Yellowstone County IS Internet Specialist



-------------begin ystone.map----------------------------

#
# Start of map file
#
NAME ystone
STATUS ON
SIZE 600 600
SHADESET symbols/shade.sym
MARKERSET symbols/marker.sym
LINESET symbols/line.sym
EXTENT 2106685.23181818 443164.375 2492152.01818182 823786.875 
UNITS FEET
SHAPEPATH /home/httpd/html/mapdev/data
IMAGECOLOR 255 255 255

LABELOVERLAP FALSE

#
# Start of web interface definition
#
WEB
  HEADER demo_header.html
  TEMPLATE demo.html
  MINSCALE 1000
  MAXSCALE 1550000
END

#
# Start of reference map
#
REFERENCE
  IMAGE graphics/reference_base.gif
  EXTENT 2106685.23181818 443164.375 2492152.01818182 823786.875
  STATUS ON
  COLOR -1 -1 -1
  OUTLINECOLOR 255 0 0
END

#
# Start of legend
#
LEGEND
  KEYSIZE 18 12
  LABEL
    TYPE BITMAP
    SIZE MEDIUM
    COLOR 0 0 89
  END
  STATUS ON
END

#
# Start of scalebar
#
SCALEBAR
  IMAGECOLOR 255 255 255
  LABEL
    COLOR 0 0 0	
    SIZE SMALL
  END
  SIZE 350 5
  COLOR 255 255 255
  BACKGROUNDCOLOR 0 0 0
  OUTLINECOLOR 0 0 0
  UNITS MILES
  INTERVALS 5
  STATUS ON
END

#
# Start of layer definitions
#

LAYER
  NAME Sections
  TYPE POLYGON
  STATUS ON
  DATA  /home/httpd/html/mapdev/data/sections
  CLASS
    SYMBOL 0
    OUTLINECOLOR 0 0 0
    COLOR 248 248 95
  END
END # Layer

LAYER
  NAME Townships
  TYPE POLYGON
  STATUS ON
  DATA  /home/httpd/html/mapdev/data/towna
  CLASS
    SYMBOL 0
    OUTLINECOLOR 0 0 102
    COLOR 255 255 240
  END
END # Layer

LAYER
  NAME primary_roads
  TYPE LINE
  STATUS ON
  DATA /home/httpd/html/mapdev/data/Y_ROADS
  SYMBOLSCALE 24000

  CLASS
    NAME "Roads"
    COLOR 128 128 128
    SYMBOL 13	
    SIZE 3
    MAXSIZE 5
  END
END # Layer

END # Map File