[Mapserver-users] Focus immediately on a map feature

[Matthew Haines]

Thanks to some helpful pointers I've gotten my map server up and running and 
can now display a street map of Manhattan along with the street names.

Can someone point me in the right direction?  Now I want to spit out static 
(ie, no pan and zoom) maps centered on a particular feature and zoomed to a 
hardcoded level.  Ideally I would like to do this using the CGI access to 
mapserver, that is by encoding all of the parameters in the URL and the .map 
file.

Is it possible to do this from a static .map file and a URL generated on the 
fly?  Or do I need to explore some of the scripting options for mapserver?  
A pointer to some samples would be very helpful.

Here's a little more thorough explanation of what I want to do:

I have a map file (Bytes of the Big Apple) that consists of the tax blocks 
for Manhattan (New York).  When I query the file with OGR I get something 
like

OGRFeature(mn_tb):1403
  TAXBLOCK(Real) =        1186
  Style = [etc]
  POLYGON (( ... etc ...))

Instead of displaying the full extent of the map, I want to center the map 
over a particular TAXBLOCK and display maybe 1/2 mile radius.  Ideally I'd 
have a URL that would have the TAXBLOCK variable in it and a non-changing 
.map file.

Matthew

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