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

Wed Sep 15 13:41:38 PDT 1999

Jason, Hello, I am also new to mapserver (one week, approximately).  I
also had the snow problem.  However, from my experience, it is definately
best to start out with one layer at a time and then add on (Thanks for 
your advice Paul :) - plug for my office-mate)  

There is a stand-alone command that is called 'shp2gif' that is like a 
de-bugging command.  It can be found in the ms_3.2 directory after 
installation.  

The syntax looks like this:  shp2gif -m state.map -o state.gif 

Running this on your mapfile will make a gif image of either 
snow or your first layer :) - hopefully your first layer.  If it does not 
run completely, it will give you an error message of what is not working 
so you can start to debug.  I kept my file very simple, not quite as 
complex as the demo (hey - it was complex for me anyhoo) and am going to 
then be adding layers to it.  

I wanted to make sure to get at least one layer working first. 

Just a suggestion from someone who made the suggestion to me-

-matt

Here is my map file:

#
# Start of map file
#
NAME STATE
STATUS ON
SIZE 600 600
SHADESET /usr/people/mkrusmar/mapserv/ms_demo/ms_demo/symbols/shade.sym
MARKERSET /usr/people/mkrusmar/mapserv/ms_demo/ms_demo/symbols/marker.sym
LINESET /usr/people/mkrusmar/mapserv/ms_demo/ms_demo/symbols/line.sym
EXTENT 189783 4816309 761653 5472346  
UNITS METERS
SHAPEPATH "/usr/people/mkrusmar/mapserv/shp"
IMAGECOLOR 255 255 255

LABELOVERLAP FALSE

#
# Start of web interface definition
#
WEB
  HEADER /usr/people/mkrusmar/mapserv/web/state_header.html
  TEMPLATE /usr/people/mkrusmar/mapserv/web/state.html
  MINSCALE 1000
  MAXSCALE 100000000
END

#########################
# Start of reference map#
#########################
REFERENCE
  IMAGE /usr/people/mkrusmar/mapserv/graphics/reference_state.gif
  EXTENT 189783 4816309 761653 547234
  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 county
  TYPE POLYGON
  STATUS DEFAULT
  DATA /usr/people/mkrusmar/mapserv/shp/county
#  TOLERANCE 3
  CLASS
    NAME "County"  
    SYMBOL 0
    OUTLINECOLOR 0 0 0
    COLOR 248 248 95
  END

  QUERYITEM "Name"
  QUERY
      TEMPLATE /usr/people/mkrusmar/mapserv/web/county_query.html
  END
END

END
END # Map File

On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, Jason Domina wrote:

> 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
> 

--------------------------------------------
Matthew G. Krusemark
Information Technology / GIS 
Dept. of Soil, Water & Climate
University of Minnesota
439 Borlaug Hall
St. Paul, MN 55108-6028
email. mkrusmar at gis.umn.edu
tel. 612-625-9737
http://soils.umn.edu/slal
--------------------------------------------