[mapserver-users] PHP and Mapscript: .map file needed

[Lowell Filak]

Good lead-in. I was just going to pose a question to the list regarding either strange behavior on mapservers part or normal behavior in my own strange brain. If we declare at least some of a layers information in the mapfile (name, data, type, status) the rendering of the labels for the layer are mapserver's usual FAST. However if the layer is created completely within mapscript the rendering of the labels can take much longer (60x's). I can't seem to track down if I am missing some combination necessary for proper labelcache or such. If this doesn't have a simple answer it may have a bearing on why you may want to keep some sort of mapfile.
Lowell F.

The following message was sent by Antti.Roppola at brs.gov.au on Thu, 5 Sep 2002 09:55:06 +1000 .

> I use a .map file as an easy way of initialising and/or testing my app.
> In the longer term, I'm thinking about putting the layer definitions
> ito a DB with the data and using that to create map objects.
> 
> Antti
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Smith [mailto:paul at cnt.org]
> Sent: Thursday, 5 September 2002 9:06 AM
> To: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> Subject: [mapserver-users] PHP and Mapscript: .map file needed
> 
> 
> Hi, I'm new to the list and fairly new to MapServer. I've just started 
> running MapScript with PHP, and I'm wondering, since all of the objects 
> of the .map file are accessible via the various classes, what is the 
> need of the .map file at all in a MapScript environment? I'm asking out 
> of a bit of willful ignorance, in that I haven't actually tried it 
> without a .map file, but maybe I would like to know more generally its 
> importance in this situation.
> 
> Paul
> 
> --
> Paul Smith <paul at cnt.org>
> Center for Neighborhood Technology
> Chicago, IL USA
>