[mapserver-users] using Mapscript to pan around a querymap

[Paul Ramsey]

For an example of this kind of thing in action, see 
http://office.refractions.net/dra_roads/main.php
The roads live in a PostGIS database, so we do the geocoding against the same 
database as we do the map rendering.

On Monday 22 April 2002 01:12 pm, Steve Lime wrote:
> It is possible with the main CGI mapserver assuming you can to the address
> lookup. That tends to be a rather sophiticated query (or series of queries)
> and that's why you would need MapScript. Actually you wouldn't even need
> MapScript. You could just use a helper program to do the address lookup and
> then intialize a CGI MapServer session from that output. Attribute queries
> that start a pan/zoom interface can be done without MapScript, you just
> need to have a normal pan/zoom interface as a part of your query template.
> You also might use saved queries to keep a particular feature hi-lighted as
> you pan/zoom but there are ways around that as well using a dynamic
> expression.
>
> Steve
>
> Stephen Lime
> Data & Applications Manager
>
> Minnesota DNR
> 500 Lafayette Road
> St. Paul, MN 55155
> 651-297-2937
>
> >>> Stephen Woodbridge <woodbri at swoodbridge.com> 04/21/02 10:32AM >>>
>
> Lawrence,
>
> > Yes, I want to enter an address, have the map zoom to the address
> > point, then to pan around this location, using the same template (map).
> > I understand that this is not possible using regular MapServer >
> > features. How can I do this using MapScript ?
>
> This feature is not implemented in directly in Mapserver. MapScript has
> a queryByAttributes() function that might work, but I am not sure how it
> works.
>
> Can someone from DM Solutions comment on this?
>
> I wrote my own GeoCoder in C that works off the shape files but it is
> somewhat targeted at US Census data. You can see it at
> http://swoodbridge.com/cgi-bin/geo enter and address east of the
> Mississippi in the US.
>
> Some other people were working on an OpenSource version - you might want
> to check the list archives for more information.
>
> You could build something to do this with shapefiles in Perl or
> PHP/Mapscript because both of these can open *.dbf files where all the
> attributes are stored and scan the records.
>
> I hope this helps,
>   -Steve