[mapserver-users] multiple shapefiles in single layer

[Steve Lime]

There is a mechanism in the MapServer that already supports this -
tiling. Basically you create an index shapefile that contains boundaries
for the various shapefiles in the layers (in you case counties). The
index shapefile then references the individual shapefiles as an
attribute. The default attribute is 'location' but you can call it what
ever you'd like to (then use TILEITEM parameter) and can even use a
single tile index for multiple layers (e.g. you have roads and lakes
tiled by county). Support for query of tiled data is supported in
version 3.5+. See the documentation (and perhaps the wiki) for more
details.

Steve

Stephen Lime
Data & Applications Manager

Minnesota DNR
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-297-2937
>>> Joe Bussell <joe at otsys.com> 04/03/02 20:21 PM >>>
Greetings,
    I am attempting to combine multiple shapefiles (data from different
counties) into single layers.  How can I do this without declaring
multiple layers which must be handled seperately in the mapfile?  Is
there a standard method which will preserve the ability to querry
the data?  The mapfile syntax does not seem to allow multiple data tags
for a given display layer.  This leads me to wonder if there are tools
which can merge shapefiles into a larger superset.  Is anyone aware of
such a tool?

Joe Bussell
On Time Systems