mapserv Win32 DLLs / ActiveX / COM

[Brent Fraser]

Chris (and list subscribers),

  I've made Windows DLLs for the MapServer-related
libraries you've listed.

And I've made a couple of attempts at getting a Perl
version of MapScript built but was unsuccessful.  See the
included text below for some details (it's an email I sent
to the list on June 13, 2000).  

The short story is I was able to build a mapscript.dll, but
ActivePerl would not load it.  My current theory there are
some function interfacing issues.  The answer may be
to "Swig" mapscript on NT to see if the generated code
is any different then the code generated on Unix (and
packaged with the rest of the MapServer source).  Haven't
got around to that yet...

As for the ActiveX/COM question, I had written a rudimentary
ActiveX layer to MapServer (before MapScript came out).
It worked ok, but was lacking features, mostly related to
dealing with layers as a collection.  I put the work on hold
until I had a chance to examine Steve's MapScript object
model and haven't returned to it.  Too bad Swig doesn't
produce ActiveX wrappers...

Brent Fraser
bfraser at geoanalytic.com 
GeoAnalytic Inc.
#300 , 700 - 4th Avenue SW Calgary, AB
Canada T2P 3J4
Tel:  (403)213-2700 Fax:  (403)213-2707
www.geoanalytic.com

======================================
Steve (and list subscribers),

    I'm using the makefile created by using the
command "perl makefile.pl" (I'm using ActivePerl,
on NT 4.0.  I then  do an "nmake" at the command
line.

 I removed the "-nodefaultlib" from the makefile
(what a hacker), and now it will compile to a DLL
using "nmake". I then did a "nmake install" and it
seemed to work (it copied files into the ActivePerl
directory and updated some other files).

  I tried the dump.pl perl script in the mapscript
examples directory, and got the following error:

Error: Parse Exception

When I use perl interactively, and type in the first
line of the dump.pl script "use mapscript;" I get
the same error as above.  So likely some perl file
has not been updated properly so it will recognize
the mapscript package.

Any perl experts out there..?

Brent Fraser

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Lime" <steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us>
To: <bfraser at geoanalytic.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2000 9:11 AM
Subject: Re: some progress building MapScript on NT


Which makefiles you using and are you using the perl MakeMaker 
module to build the perl code? I'm a win32 neophyte so how to install
the dll is a mystery. A note to the list might help cause I think there are
a bunch of people trying to do this same thing.

s.

>>> "Brent Fraser" <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> 06/13/00 09:24AM >>>
Steve,

  Well, it looks like we won't have to change the variable names
(maybe).  I edited the Makefile at the line CCFLAGS (approx
line 244) and removed -TP and -DPERL_OBJECT.

Things compiled alot cleaner, but I still had some unresolved
symbols at the linking stage.  I added perlCAPI.lib to the list
of libaries in perlvars, and inserted  #include "perlCAPI.h" into
mapscript_wrap.c

  It compiles and links in the VC++ GUI.  I actually get a DLL !

However, on the command line with nmake, the linking stage
gives unresolved symbols in regex and proj of "HUGE" and 
"pctype".  I'm not sure if it's worth pursuing since I can use
the GUI to produce the DLL.

  Now that I have a mapscript.dll (the same as mapscript.so
in Unix?), what do I do with it (be nice!)?  Do I need to place 
it in the perl dir tree somewhere?

Thanks,
Brent
=========================================

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Stuber" <imap at chesapeake.net>
To: "mapserver-users" <mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2000 12:06 PM
Subject: mapserv Win32 DLLs / ActiveX / COM


> 
> Has anyone created Win32 DLLs for any of the following?
> 
> mapserv,freetype,libtiff,proj,regex,gd,gdft
> 
> I believe that in order to get mapscript to run
> on the Windows platform, the components needs to be
> callable presumably via DLL.  Or perhaps mapscript
> can be statically linked to these libs???   Has anyone
> gotten mapscript to run under Perl, ActiveX/COM?
> 
> If anyone has gone down this road, your comments
> would be appreciated.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Chris Stuber (mapsurfer)
> Silicon Mapping Solutions, Inc.