[Mapserver-users] Status of MapServer support for ESRI ArcSDE

[Steve Lime]

> Hi,
 
> I don't have experiance with Mapserver, but have to investigate the
> possibilities for use of Mapserver along with ESRI ArcSDE based on an
> Informix database. Here are a few questions:

> 1. What is the current status of Mapserver's support to ArcSDE? Are
> there any important restrictions/bugs? Is Mapserver in connection with
> ArcSDE stable enough to be used for professional applications?

It's quite functional. I been using it on a limited basis for several years. There
are outstanding issues with version 8.3 but I have a patch from a user that
should fix these issues. MapServer does NOT support raster SDE layers.

> 2. Is it possible with Mapserver, to display a background map in raster
> format overlaid by a layer with customer objects having
> "Gauss-Krüger-Streifen 3 / Bessel" coordinates?

I'm not familiar with that coordinate system, but IF the background map and
the vector data are all in that coordinate system then it doesn't matter (MapServer
doesn't care). If they are in different coordinate systems then you'll need to 
make sure the Proj.4 supports transformations to/from them.

> 3. The map representation is required to be switchable by button
> between two reference systems: a) Gauss-Krüger-Streifen 3 / Bessel and b)
> UTM-Streifen 32, ETRS89. What does this mean for Mapserver and ArcSDE? Do I?
> have to use two different kind of maps or is it possible to transform from
> one reference system to the other? If yes, how?

What you're talking about is switching the projection of the output map. You can
switch that on-the-fly either by changing map files or by dynamically altering the
output projection using either the MapServer CGI or MapScript. Again, you'd need
to verify that Proj.4 can indeed support the necessary transformations. MapServer
can reproject both vector and raster data.

Steve