[mapserver-users] making class objects and setting properties on the fly

[Pushkar Pradhan]

I had asked this mailing list yesterday about HSV->RGB conversion. Many of
you gave me very good suggestions and programs to do this.  But I am
thinking that since I've mapscript I could do this dynamically. Scenario:
I've a MS Word file from the client which has about 40-50 shapefiles and
info. on how to plot them e.g.:
Data Layer   Legend Type  Values-Field  Value  Label  Symbol  Color-Hue Saturation Value Outline
Fed_land.shp Unique Value Name          Desoto Desoto 4       128       47         192   0.1
                                        .      .      .       .         .          .
                                        .
                                        .

So rather than converting all these HSV values to RGB and making a big
.map file in which each layer would have from 4-15 classes, would it be
more efficient to read the file (x'lated to a text fmt. etc.), read each
column, create a class obj., set it's color properties etc.

Would this be very slow compared to putting this info. in a map file?

Another idea is creating a database (MySQL) and putting this info. there,
but I think reading from database so much info. would make my script very
slow, right?

-Pushkar S. Pradhan