[Mapserver-users] about shapefile

[Sean Gillies]

On Tuesday, December 23, 2003, at 08:54  AM, Aga Shirazi wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I wanted to learn how a shpefile is structured, created and compiled. 
> I read the technical description from ESRI about Shapefiles, but I 
> couldnt get much out of it as I lack a GIS programming background. For 
> instance: I have no idea what PolygonZ or M is, and why would I use 
> it. I also couldnt find in the Tech. paper how can I code and compile 
> a shapefile?
>
> I would be greatly appreciative if someone could name some websites or 
> books that could guide me.
>
> Thanks
> Aga Shirazi

How can you create a shapefile?  My favorite is to use Frank Warmerdam's
shapelib, a library for reading and writing shapefile features and
attributes

http://shapelib.maptools.org/

with Python bindings: http://www.hobu.biz/software/shapelib.  Shapelib
is all you need for creating shapefiles for use with MapServer.

Frank Warmerdam's OGR library

http://ogr.maptools.org/

also provides a C/C++ API for shapefiles and has Python bindings.

Shapelib has been assimilated into MapServer and you can also read and
write shapefiles using the shapefileObj class of MapScript,

If you are a Java user, there is sf4java (used in deegree, JUMP(?),
and other open-source Java GIS).

Don't trouble yourself too much with the shapefile specs, jump right in
with one of these programming interfaces.

cheers,
Sean


--
Sean Gillies
sgillies at frii dot com
http://www.frii.com/~sgillies