consolidation of .map file contents

[Dylan Beaudette]

Steve,

Thanks for the input. To clarify a bit, we have county -by-county information,
with associated data in a MySQL database that is accessed via Mapserver-style
query templates and PHP.

There are 2 current reasons why each county has its own .map file (and they
might not even be very good ones, i hope!):

1. each map obviously has a different:
-context map image
-geographic extent
-shape file for the main content, rendered according to the county

2. the query results need to contain a unique county ID

a lot of these problems could be resolved if i could figure out how to pass
mapserver configuration parameters in the URL: i.e. the county ID, the
geographic extent, and the name of the shape file containing the main content
for that county.

does this seem reasonable?

thanks!

--
Dylan Beaudette
Soils and Biogeochemistry Graduate Group
University of California at Davis
530.754.7341

On Wednesday 20 April 2005 11:47 am, Stephen Woodbridge wrote:
> All of your ideas are valid and can work depending on what you are try
> to accomplish. I know Ed at Topozone.com is using template mapfile
> fragments and using the cpp and Makefiles to generate a large number of
> mapfiles based on change the DEFINES. That way if you need to make a
> change to a section that is in all your mapfiles you just change one
> file and type make.
>
> But before you solve the technology, you might want to describe why you
> need  200 mapfiles and what type of things are changing from one to the
> other. There might be much better solutions.
>
> -Steve W.
>
> Dylan Beaudette wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > We have been using Mapserver for about a year now with a great deal of
> > success on small projects (i.e. single map file, single html template,
> > single query template).
> >
> > Now that we are considering a more complicated project with nearly 200
> > .map files and their associated html templates and query templates -
> > quite a bit to manage should any cosmetic changes need to be made in
> > the map files.
> >
> > Is there any way to "include" bits of a central map file to consolidate
> > the configuration of such a large project, or would it be better to use
> > a single .map file, customizing it through the URL passed to it...
> >
> > ...or is phpmapscript a viable option?
> >
> > thanks in advancce for any ideas!
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Dylan Beaudette
> > Soils and Biogeochemistry Graduate Group
> > University of California at Davis
> > 530.754.7341