[mapserver-users] Looking for suggestions...

[Williams, Chris D.]

Thanks for the help...here are some followup...

1)  I am new to shapefiles...how do you check the extents of a shapefile?
2)  What I would like to do is have the user select a bounding box and click
a button that will fill in some form fields with the lat/lon based on the
that area.

Thanks again!
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Lime [mailto:steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us]
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 11:48 AM
To: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu; Williams, Chris D.
Subject: Re: [mapserver-users] Looking for suggestions...


Hi Chris:

1) That extent certainly covers the globe, but whether it's appropriate
depends on you
shapefiles. Check their extents to be sure.

2) You'd only define a projection if you are displaying a map in a
different projection than
your data. If everything is in lat/lon and you don't want to display in
an alternative projection
then there's no need to define it. 

3) Depends, but in most cases yes. You'll have to be more specific on
what you want to do.

4) The DNR site is back up, gremlins... jbox is an updated version of
mapplet in which method
names and so forth have been standardized/sync'd with a DHTML version.
I wanted to use the
same javascript base for either a Java or DHTML front end. That
necessitated some changes
to the applet, albeit minor ones.

Steve

>>> "Williams, Chris D." <WILLIC10 at mail.northgrum.com> 08/27/02 09:34AM
>>>
Hello all.  I have been playing around with MapServer for the past week
and
having some problems trying to understand how all the parts fit.  Here
is
what I am trying to do.

I have a single shape file that contains an outline of the world.  What
I am
trying to do is use mapplet and create a query screen that I am get a
decimal lat/lon from.  I have been able to hack apart the itasca demo
using
my .map file and my shape file with mapplet.  The problem I am running
into
now is the zooming function doesn't seem to work right.  All it wants
to do
is pan and not really zoom.  Here are some of the questions I have...

1)  What should I be defining the EXTENT value as?  I currently have it
set
to -180.0 -90.0 180.0 90.0.  Is this right?
2)  Do I need to use the projection latlong?  I would think so since I
want
to get lat/lon points from the image.  When I added the PROJECTION item
to
my .map file, I get an error from the mapserv cgi saying: Projection
library
eror: major axis or radius = 0 or not given.
3)  Is there a way to take the pixal position and convert it to a lat
long
point?
4)  I have also looked at the Landview on the
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us 
website.  Would using the jbox class be better than mapplet?  I tried
accessing the webpage today and it seems like none of the maps are
working.


I have attached the .map file and the .html files.  The shape file I
am
using can be found at http://www.vdstech.com/download/world.zip.

Thanks!
Chris