[Mapserver-users] 1000 shapefiles or a database?

[woodbri at swoodbridge.com]

You might consider a combo approach where you keep you data in 
shapefiles and some in the DB, then write a front-end app that 
dynamically writes a mapfile for the specific user request. This 
might make it easier to deal with only displaying specific time 
windows. Just a thought.

For you geometric data, shapefiles will probably be fastest, or you 
should be looking at PostGIS/Postgres DB and not MySQL. MySQL is fine 
for just attribute data but you can yet reference it in you mapfiles. 
I think someone is working on that for MS3.7 or later.

-Steve W.

On 25 Feb 2003 at 8:56, Stefan Schwarzer wrote:

> Hi everybody,
> 
> before attacking a new version of my application, I would like to
> answer a question which roams in my head since a couple of days. Here
> it goes:
> 
> I have almost 1000 shapefiles, all covering the whole world, which can
> be divided into three groups:
>    - national (Germany, Thailand, China etc.),
>    - subregional (Western Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe
>    etc.), - regional (Africa, Europe, Asia etc.).
> 
> The information in the dbf files holds statistical values like GDP,
> Population Density, Land Area etc. per country, subregion or region. I
> have all values/tables stored as well in a MySQL database.
> 
> So, a simple thing would be to load all the shapefiles into the 
> application. But that does not seem to be very elegant to me. Another
> idea is to just load one file of each type (thus three in total), and
> to query then, upon the thematic (e.g. GDP, Population Density etc.)
> and regional selection (country/sub-/region) from the user the
> database to display the correct layer, using for example five
> different classes. And when identifying the value of a specific
> country/subregion/region the exact value would be drawn from the
> database?
> 
> Unfortunately the question gets more difficult when mentioning that
> the available years for the variables differ; some hold values for the
> years 1960 to 2000, some only for the years 1990 and 2000, some for
> the years 1970-75, 1975-80....
> 
> Any hints, ideas and examples are very much appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Stefan
> 
> 
> 
>          _______________________________________
> 
>          Stefan Schwarzer
>          Consultant on GEO
> 
>          UNEP/DEWA/GRID-Geneva
>          Chemin des Anemones 11
>          CH - 1219 Chatelaine
>          Switzerland
> 
>          Tel: (+41) 22.917.83.49
>          Fax: (+41) 22.917.80.29
> 
>          Email: stefan.schwarzer at grid.unep.ch
>          Internet: http://geodata.grid.unep.ch/
>          _______________________________________