Question about MapServer/OGR and MapInfo tab with multiple geometry types

[Emil Zegers]

Hello,

Using MapInfo tab files with multiple geometry types, some strange things occur. 

Some of these issues have been mentioned before on the list and in Bugzilla but I would like to ask these questions again to find out if there are recent changes, updates or plans on this.

Example 1) a tab file with POINT, POLYGON, MULTIPOLYGON objects

Questioning this file with ogrinfo only reports one layer with no geometry type specified.

Using the tab file as layer in MapServer with TYPE POLYGON works ok, with TYPE POINT an error message follow:

msDrawMap(): Image handling error. Failed to draw layer named 'bis_rap'. 
ogrGeomPoints(): OGR error. OGRGeometry type `MULTIPOLYGON' not supported yet.

This is reported before on the list (http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/data2/wilma/mapserver-users/0107/msg00049.html)

In Bugzilla bugs 448 and 478 seem more or less related to this but there is no specific info on how to get around this.

In the OGR HOWTO on http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/doc44/ogr-howto.html it states that Mapserver does not yet support tab files with mixed geometry types.

Is MapServer support for mixed geometry types in tab files planned? What effort will be necessary to get it done?


Example 2) a tab file with POINT, LINESTRING objects

Questioning this file with ogrinfo only reports one layer with no geometry type specified.

Using the tab file as layer in MapServer with TYPE LINE works ok, with TYPE POINT not only the point objects are displayed but also the points from the LINESTRING objects.

Is this behaviour by design and/or can it be changed? For example by putting a query filter on the object type?

As workaround I can put a query filter on one of the attributes but I would prefer the LINESTRING points not to be displayed at all when using TYPE POINT or filter them out with a filter on the object type.

Regards,

Emil Zegers