[mapserver-users] New User - Projection Question

[Mike Boone]

Hi all.

I'm a novice user who stumbled upon mapserver as a way to plot GPS tracks on
the web.

I was looking at examples of mapserver in use and found this one:
http://www.sis.ec.gc.ca/msapps/ec_species/htdocs/ec_species_e.phtml

What makes this different from what I've done is that this map's longitude
lines look like they will merge at the north pole. I think this was done by
some projection change, but maybe that layout is stored in the shapefile?

I swiped a 50 states shapefile from nationalatlas.gov and it displays in my
mapserver in a "flat" layout. How can I get it to map-out like the Canada
map in the example?

I have PROJ.4 compiled into my mapserver OK, but I after putting various
PROJECTION settings in my mapfile, I see no difference.

Is PROJECTION the right place to get this result, or do I need shapefiles
made specifically for this purpose?

Please excuse me if my terminology is wrong...I'm still figuring it all out.

Thanks!
Mike Boone
mike at boonedocks.net