[Mapserver-users] Re: Rendering classes - what order does mapserver use?

[pkishor_98]

--- In mapserver-users at yahoogroups.com, AMC Story <s9646183 at s...> wrote:
> Hi there everyone,
> 
> I was just wondering in what order mapserver renders the difference classes for 
> each layer based on their order in the map file.  I was hoping that the 
> principle would be the same as for rendering layers, so that if a class is at 
> the top of several for a particular layer, it would displayed behind those 
> lower down.  This doesn't seem to work though.  Can someone let me know if I 
> can specify the order in which classes are drawn, and how?
> 


are you referring to the order the classes appear in the legend? If yes, the first one 
appears first, the next one below that, and so on.

If you are referring to the order in which classes appear within a layer... hmmmm... 
there are no intra-layer layers... all classes for a given layer are ordinally at the same 
level. The purpose of a class is to distinguish some features from some other features 
based on some attribute. Geographically they all have the same z-index, so to say, 
hence they are in the same layer. There could be instances of layers where intra-layer 
there would be stratification -- for example, a layer depicting condos could somehow 
distinguish between condos on the 5th floor from the ones on the 4th floor... but that 
is a special case, no?