[mapserver-users] DBASE Error at shapefile call

[Stefan Stern]

Hi all,

I ran into a strange behavior of mapserver.

I want to display a shapefile that is created by the following sample 
dataset table:
#################################################
id,description,samplesites,x_british_survey,y_british_survey
T1,"u/s of N-Y-F",T,267009,196614
T2,"At mouth of N-Y-F",T,267000,196592
T3,"d/s of N-Y-F",T,266985,196585
#################################################

 Just a table that stores Id, description, samplesites and GPS coordinates.



1. The following extract of my mapfile works fine and the layer displays 
the T1 GPS Point:

#####################################
LAYER # start of the gps layer object
  NAME "gps"
  DATA "gps140902"
  STATUS DEFAULT
  TYPE POINT

  CLASSITEM "Id" # attribut

  CLASS # gps points class
    NAME "f_gps"
    EXPRESSION "T1"
    COLOR 255 0 0
    SYMBOL 'circle'
    SIZE 10
  END # end of Gps class object
END # end Layer
######################################

2.
BUT, when I change the CLASSITEM to "Samplesites", which is a proper 
identifier as well:

####################################
LAYER # start of the gps layer object
  NAME "gps"
  DATA "gps140902"
  STATUS DEFAULT
  TYPE POINT

  CLASSITEM "Samplesites" # attribut

  CLASS # gps points class
    NAME "f_gps"
    EXPRESSION "T"
    COLOR 255 0 0
    SYMBOL 'circle'
    SIZE 10
  END # end of Gps class object
####################################

the following error occurs:
########################
msDBFGetItemIndex(): DBASE file error. Item 'Samplesites' not found.
###########################

I tried "SAMPLESITES" and "samplesites" unsuccessfully as well.


I guess Mapserver can't deal with my created Shapefile set.
Where does the "msDBFGetItemIndex()" function look for the identifier 
(e.g. Samplesites)? In the .dbf file or in  the .shp file itself?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Best Regards,
Stefan Stern