[Mapserver-users] Re: data/mapfile organization advice sought

[pkishor_98]

--- In mapserver-users at yahoogroups.com, Jan Hartmann <jhart at f...> wrote:
..
> Note that for security reasons the DATA statement is *not*
scriptable by 
> default any more. You have to put "DATAPATTERN <regex>" somewhere in 
> your MapFile. <regex> is a regular expression; only DATA-pathnames 
> agreeing with that expression are allowed after that. When you leave 
> DATAPATTERN out, all scripted DATA calls will be silently ignored.
..


woo hoo! methinks this is what I want. Thank Jan.


by the way, if a data file referenced in the mapfile is not found,
then Mapserver usually croaks. Is there a switch to make Mapserver
ignore errors? As I mentioned earlier, while existing layers are all
named the same, there are a few layers missing for a few countries.
For example, layer9 might not exist for a couple of countries, etc.
Would be easier for me if I could simply include all the layers in my
mapfile, but if a particular layer didn't exist, it would be simply
ignored by Mapserver.






> Puneet Kishor wrote:
> > To ms data mavens -- please give me a piece of your mind.
> > 
> > I have shapefile data of several countries, about 14 countries.
> > 
> > Each country has 8 to 12 different layers, but they are all called
the 
> > same. For example, all countries have a layer called "layer1",
"layer2", 
> > and so on, while a few countries may not have "layer8" or
"layer11," etc.
> > 
> > If I were to draw all the countries together, they would draw
correctly, 
> > that is, they are in the correct geographic space. However, their
data 
> > are self-contained. That is, even though country1 and country2 are 
> > contiguous, drawing country1 does not bring up country2... they
are in 
> > different folders.
> > 
> > How do I create and work with their mapfiles?
> > 
> > I can't really have one big mongo mapfile with all the layers of
all the 
> > countries... it would be unworkable, and probably very inefficient.
> > 
> > On the other hand, if I have 14 different mapfiles, they will be
almost 
> > identical to each other except for the path to the data. If I make a 
> > tweak in any one mapfile (for example, change the color or visible
scale 
> > of a layer), I will have to go and change it in 14 different mapfiles.
> > 
> > Ideally I would like to have one master mapfile (like a template),
and 
> > just substitute (on the fly) the path to the data. I guess I could do 
> > some preprocessing with Perl, and swap a filter keyword using regexp 
> > search, to create a working, valid mapfile on the fly, but I would
also 
> > have to account for those one or two particular layers that happen
to be 
> > absent for a given country.
> > 
> > Please share your insight.
> > 
> > Many tia.
> > 
> > Puneet.
> > 
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> > 
> 
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