Animating Dynamic Data with MapServer Layers.

[Kristjan Annus]

Hello,

The best way I have figured out so far is to generate raster base map
with Mapserver and some XML output of your dynamic layers and then draw
the XML into your map in your Flash application. Then you got the most
flexible and scalable environment.

Kristjan

> Hello List,
>
> I am working with MapServer and Flash. MapServer will obviously 
> generate the prescribed maps, and Flash will be the application that 
> makes the maps viewable on the Web. I am pulling data from shape files 
> and from Oracle Spatial databases. My ultimate goal is to create a map 
> with selectable attributes (onClick and/or rollOver) to animate 
> various aspects of the map (such as water levels, nesting locations, 
> and so on.)
>
> I know what I want to do (and I hope I explained it sufficiently 
> above), but I don’t know how to go about it. I need to find a way to 
> import the data from the Oracle Spatial databases (which will be 
> through MapServer map files) and to query (in a sense) the data in 
> Flash to dynamically generate a Flash animation. Does this make sense 
> so far?
>
> I’ve devised two possible solutions to my problem:
>
> 1. Generate a map file that would have, for example, twelve layers 
> that would query (through Oracle Spatial) for twelve months worth of 
> forecasted water levels on a certain part of the river. Each layer 
> (query) would return a date (month) and a forecasted water level. Some 
> how I would take these results and dynamically put them into Flash 
> ActionScript that would ultimately generate an animation.
>
> 2. Generate a map file that would have, for example, one layer that 
> would query (through Oracle Spatial) for all of the data at once. Than 
> I would be able to some how sort and sift through the data in the 
> returned layer to pull out data that I wanted, which in turn would 
> create the dynamic animation.
>
> I guess what I am asking for is… whether either of these concepts will 
> work. I’m not asking for advice on the animation part, but only on 
> pulling the data from the various Oracle Spatial databases.
>
> Anyone have any advice? Does this make sense?
>
> Thanks for your time.
>
> Ryan
>