[Mapserver-users] Labeling lines from OGR

[Matthew Haines]

Frank,

That did the trick, sort of.  The problem is that the labels are
streetnames, and in the .map file they have a printing angle on them.  That
ensures that the streetname lies inside the whitespace that represents the
street.  Thus the tax block and lot map is readable.  However, as soon as I
start controlling the style information through MapServer, I lose the angle
and everything just prints horizontally like normal text.  The maps become
unreadable.

I've been struggling with these mapinfo streetname files for a while.  I get
them from the city planning folks.  Is there a good strategy to get some
control over the formatting of the streetnames without losing the angle?

I used ogr2ogr to translate the files into .shp files.  Doing so I got the
idea that maybe I could sneak in a font change or "turn on" the streetname
labels and then convert them back to .map files.  Is this convoluted or a
good strategy?  Ultimately I'd like to have everything inside my PostgreSQL
database, but I can't lose those angles.

Matthew

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Warmerdam" <warmerdam at pobox.com>
To: "Matthew Haines" <mhaines94108 at hotmail.com>
Cc: <mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 11:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Mapserver-users] Labeling lines from OGR


> Matthew Haines wrote:
> > I have a .tab file which I am currently accessing through OGR.  It
> > contains lines like this:
> >
> > OGRFeature(bklion):537
> >  Street (String) = FT HAMILTON
> >  FromLeft (Integer) = 105
> >  ToLeft (Integer) = 107
> >  FromRight (Integer) = 106
> >  ToRight (Integer) = 110
> >  ZipLeft (Integer) = 11209
> >  ZipRight (Integer) = 11209
> >  Style = PEN(w:1px,c:#c0c0c0,id:"mapinfo-pen-2.ogr-pen-0")
> >  LINESTRING (976686.133 162407.387,976203.783 161682.929)
> >
> > When I add them to my .map file as a layer the lines draw nicely.
> > However I can't get the street ('FT HAMILTON' in this example) to draw.
> > What is the minimal stuff I can put in my layer to get these labelled?
> > Below is my current layer.  I have tried it with the STYLEITEM removed
> > and also with the LABEL block removed, but no labels.
>
> Matthew,
>
> Daniel might have a more detailed response, but my take on this is that
> the mapinfo file itself does not by default request a rendering of the
> street names.  That is, there is no "LABEL" action in the Style string.
> So, the STYLEITEM AUTO will just use the PEN information to draw the line
> properly.
>
> To do the labelling you will likely have to add another LAYER definition
> in your .map file, coming from the same .tab file, but in this one use
> normal MapServer mechanisms to draw labels along the line from the Street
> attribute -- but don't use STYLEITEM AUTO.  I am not too up on the
labelling
> stuff, but you should be able to find info in the normal tutorials on
this.
>
> The key think to recognise is that the .tab autostyling information does
not
> include the labels, so it has to be handled in a seperate rendering pass
> (that is ... as an additional layer).
>
> Good luck,
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------+----------------------------------
----
> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam,
warmerdam at pobox.com
> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
> and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent
>
>
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