[Mapserver-users] FileMaker and MapServer

[Sean Gillies]

On Monday, July 21, 2003, at 11:25  AM, Hugh Evans wrote:

> I have a web based map server running on an OS X box 
> (http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/) - I want to keep location info. like 
> Latitude and Longitude of various objects in records in FileMaker, 
> then be able to search for specific  records and "send" search results 
> from FileMaker to the Map package - to be opened up in a browser 
> window.... how should I do this? or where should I look for info. on 
> doing this.
>
> Any insights would be appreciated...
>
> Hugh Evans
>
Hugh,

I think you are the only person who has ever posted to
the list about FileMaker as a source of GIS data.

MapServer works with shapefiles (from ESRI software),
PostGIS/PostgreSQL, Oracle Spatial, ArcSDE, and a few more
well-known GIS formats through the OGR connector.

Your best bet is to get familiar with one of the scripting
interfaces to MapServer and roll your own application that
accesses your FileMaker data.

I see mention on the web of various Python (my personal
favorite) FileMaker adapters.  You could use one of them
to read lat/long points from FileMaker and then you could,
through the Python MapScript, draw these points in the
context of a map.  If you browse or search the mapserver
users list archives, you'll see some examples.

Looks like there is also Perl and PHP adapters for FileMaker.
Take your pick :)

cheers,
Sean


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