Feature Object and text

[Eric Bridger]

On Mon, 2004-08-16 at 13:44, Sean Gillies wrote:
> On Aug 16, 2004, at 11:17 AM, Stefanie Weykam wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> > I have an annotation layer, it contains a point (feature) and a string
> > to
> > label this point.
> > Actually, the string is the title of the map and I want to change it
> > according to the currently displayed theme.
> > Is there any feature object which can be set by MapScript? The Class
> > Reference doesn't mention any. And, how do I change the color of the
> > label?
> > I always get error messages saying that the property (both color and
> > text)
> > don't exist or that the function setRGB() is undefined....???
> > Which objects do have these properties - do I nedd colorObjects?
> > styleObjects?? How do I create them?
> > Thanks,
> > Stefanie
> >
> >  LAYER
> >      NAME       "subtit"
> >      STATUS     ON
> >      TRANSFORM  FALSE
> >      TYPE       ANNOTATION
> >      FEATURE
> >         POINTS  635 10  END
> >         TEXT    "Species Richness"      # "a species name"
> >      END
> >      CLASS
> >         LABEL
> >            TYPE      TRUETYPE
> >            FONT      verdana            # verdana-italic
> >            SIZE      12
> >            POSITION  LL
> >            COLOR     80 130 0           # 160 90 0
> >         END
> >      END
> >  END
> >
> >
>
> Stephanie,
>
> Support for inline features is currently limited.  You cannot
> access a feature once it is in the feature "set".
>
> The thing to do is to leave out the FEATURE block in your map
> file, and insert a new feature as needed:
>
>      p = mapscript.pointObj(635, 10)     # the point
>      s = mapscript.shapeObj(layer.type)  # new shape to hold point
>      l = mapscript.lineObj()             # point must be in a line
>      l.add(p)                            # add point to line
>      s.add(l)                            # add line to shape
>
>      s.text = 'Species Richness'         # label for point
>      layer.addFeature(s)
>
>      layer.draw(map, image)
>

To continue Sean's excellent and concise (Python) example (in Perl/PHP):
I've found that even though the FEATURE is at the layer level, it will
use the LABLE COLOR from the first CLASS. So before your layer.draw()
$class = $layer->getClass(0);
$class->{label}->{color}->setRGB(255,0,0);

Alternatively:

$red = new mapscript::colorObj(255,0,0);
$class->{label}->{color} = $red;

Eric