[mapserver-users] Help With Interactice Mapserver Applications

[Puneet Kishor]

On Thursday, November 7, 2002, at 07:28  PM, Michael Mio wrote:

> Hi everyone. I am a relatively new Mapserver user and could use some 
> help on
> a few things. I am having a hard time getting my Mapserver 
> applications to
> be interactive. I've found some tutorials online but none of them seem 
> to
> explain that parts that I need explaining. Lots of the applications 
> I've
> come across have an interface with a map that you can click on, some 
> toggle
> buttons, layers you can turn on and off, and then a refresh/query 
> submit
> button. I am wondering what exactly happens when that submit button is
> clicked. I guess those values are sent to the Mapserver application 
> and then
> Mapserver outputs a new map based on those parameters? I kind of 
> understand
> the .map and template files and how they work, and I have been able to 
> get a
> page up with some layers showing and some options to choose from.

well, you got that right. Mapserver needs the map file at the very 
least to create a map. If you were to not give it any value, it would 
create a map based on the values from the map file. If you send some 
values to mapserver, it customizes the default map for you.

No matter what method you are using, mapserver as a cgi or mapserver 
with mapscript, you need to send the values correctly to mapserver. 
That is what the submit button does... tells it to either turn on|off a 
layer, pan|zoom|query the map, etc.

> However
> when I click submit, I get the message saying the page cannot be found.

check out your web page, the one where you click submit... you clicking 
submit to a form... the form has an action... that action tells it 
which page to go to... that page has the info necessary to make the 
calls to mapserver.

I am assuming you are using mapserver as a cgi. Open up the files in 
the itasca demo with a text editor and things will be clear to you... 
provided, of course, that you have at least some experience with web 
scripts. It is quite simple. The itasca demo is a great place to start.

If you are using php/mapscript, check out dmsolutions' gmap scripts, or 
with perl check out the mapquakes.pl... wiki has a lot of help.

Hth.

Puneet.

>