[mapserver-users] CGI Map changes

[Frank Koormann]

Robert,

* Robert Crossley (robert at wotzhere.com) [020408 13:24]:
> Hi all,
> 

[...]

> 
> One reference said that MapServer is stateless, so does this mean that
> once it renders and image it forgets what it has done for that user,
> and thus I would assume that it needs to have all parameters that are
> different to the Map file defined on each call? 
> 
> It would be easy enough for me to test this for one user, but what
> about with multiple sessions where each user has a different data
> value would require a bit more effort.

Well, only the mechanism has to be proven. Once tested it can be used
for multiple users: Template substitutions can be used to exchange 
parameters between cgi-binary and web browser. Something like 
layer1_data=someshape in the CGI parameter string will be picked up by
the mapserver whic in trun will replace any occurence of [layer1_data]
in a template by "someshape".

On the other hand you may have a look at the SAVEMAP feature
(http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/doc/cgi-reference.html)

Therewith you can store a new mapfile (for a session) and only have to
ping-pong the mapfile name between server and browser.

Regards,

        Frank

-- 
Frank Koormann                             <frank.koormann at intevation.de>
 Professional Service around Free Software       (http://intevation.net/)
 FreeGIS Project                                 (http://freegis.org/)