Installing Python Mapscript on Windows XP

[Bas Vanmeulebrouk]

Frank,

Thank you very much for your reaction. I did rename the one in the
windows/system32 directory. However, I didn't notice that there were two
gdal12.dll's in the Python installation directory: one in the root and one
in the DLLs subdirectory. I have renamed the one in the DLLs subdirectory
and after that got a different error message (now sde90.dll was missing). 

This errormessage always appeared, no matter from what location I started
Python. Sde90.dll was on my machine, in the C:\Program Files\Common\ESRI
directory. After I had added this directory to the PATH environment
variable, Python Mapscript was finally working. But does this mean Python
Mapscript needs some ESRI files? The ones I have came with the installation
of ESRI MapObjects 2.3. 

I want to use Python/Mapscript to generate a map and some HTML which can be
displayed in webbrowser. So I thought I should get a Python/Mapscript script
which does this to work as a CGI script. I can get Apache to execute a
Python CGI script, but when I include the line "import mapscript", I get an
internal server error and the following error messages in the Apache error
log. 

Traceback (most recent call last):\n
   File "c:\\PROGRA~1\\APACHE~1\\apache\\cgi-bin\\HELLO_~1.PY", line 4, in
?\n
     import mapscript\n
   File "C:\\programs\\python23\\Lib\\site-packages\\mapscript.py", line 4,
in ?\n
     import _mapscript\n
ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.\n

I don't have a clue which dll is missing this time. Anyone? Or is there
another way to achieve this?

Kind regards,

Bas Vanmeulebrouk. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Warmerdam [mailto:fwarmerdam at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 2:19 PM
To: Bas Vanmeulebrouk
Cc: MAPSERVER-USERS at lists.umn.edu
Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] Installing Python Mapscript on Windows XP


On 4/28/05, Bas Vanmeulebrouk <bvanmeul at ebe.uct.ac.za> wrote:
>  
> Hi list,
>   
> I have been trying to get Python Mapscript up and running on MS 
> Windows XP, but I haven't succeeded yet. I have downloaded the 
> binaries at http://hobu.stat.iastate.edu/mapserver/. When I start 
> Python from the directory in which I have installed Python, Mapscript 
> works fine. However, if I start Python from another directory, I get 
> the following error message when I try import mapscript at the Python 
> command line: "The procedure entry point 
> ?SetnextByIndex at OGRLayer@@UAEHJ at Z could not be located in the dynamic 
> link library gdal12.dll.".
>   
> I have found four copies of gdal12.dll on my machine. I have been 
> exeprimenting with the PATH environment variable, I have renamed the 
> various dll's, but the message stays the same.
>   
> Does anyone have an idea what might be wrong?

Bas, 

I am guessing that one of the 4 gdal12.dll's is in windows\system32, 
right?  This location takes precidence over the PATH, but even higher
precidence is the directory the program is running in. 

I would suggest you move or rename the version in windows\system32. 

Best regards,
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------
---------------------------------------+------
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