A confused Network Admin

[Lisi, Christine]

Prior to last week, I had no experience with PHP, MapServer, MapScript,
MapSurfer, etc. and have been thrown into this very confusing and
frustrating Open Source world.  I have successfully installed ArcSDE,
MapServer and PHP, but I have no idea how each piece talks to the other
and whether or not they will work once our consultant visits.  I am only
responsible for the setup of the apps, and the rest will be up to our
engineers and the consultant.  I have several questions and I hope some
of you can answer them in a language I can understand.  Please remember
that I honestly don't understand how these applications work at all.  I
am a Network Admin and Application Specialist, but have no experience
with GIS/Mapping, etc.

 

Our Server:

Windows Server 2003

IIS6

ArcSDE 9.0 w/ SP2

SQL Server 2000 w/ SP3a

 

General Notes:

For all of the installs below I used environment variables and set the
System Path to point to the individual application directories.  I did
NOT copy any .dll's to my System32 directory.  This is definitely a
preferred method for me.

 

MAPSERVER (v. 4.4.1):

I followed the instructions in the README-install.txt and successfully
received the "No query information to decode.  QUERY_STRING is set, but
empty." message.

Question:

1.       I set this up as a CGI in IIS6.  Is there an SAPI version for
IIS?

 

PHP (v5.0.3):

I followed the instructions in the install.txt and set this up as a
server module (SAPI).  I did run the .exe file, but I then configured it
manually as a server module per the instructions.  There was nothing in
the documentation about how to test this program so after about an hour
of research on the PHP web site I read how to create a Hello.php file
and put it in the wwwroot folder and had successful results.  I assume
the software is working.

Questions:

2.       I read somewhere that PHP will not work with MapServer unless
it is set up as a CGI.  Is this true?

3.       Supposedly they were working on the SAPI version.  Is this
available yet?

 

PHP/MAPSCRIPT MAPSERVER MODULE:

I downloaded this module and read the README.txt.  I'm very confused as
to whether this is a module for MapServer or PHP.  The download for this
module included several .dll's that are already in my MapServer
directory.

Questions:

4.       Where do I put the php_mapscript_44.dll file?

5.       How do I test it?

 

MAPSURFER (v1.5):

I downloaded and extracted the files.  Per the README.txt file, I edited
the mapper.html file and set the location of the MapServer cgi program
and the .map definition file (var mapserver = '/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe';
var mapfile = 'test.map';"

Questions:

6.       Where do I put the extracted MapSurfer folder?  I put it in the
wwwroot folder.  The Readme.txt file says to "Put the MapSurfer
directory somewhere accessible to the web."   This is not clear to me.

7.       How do I test this?

 

Thank you to all of you who read these messages.  I have to give you
credit because I am very confused!  I welcome any comments, even those
that do not apply to my questions.

Christine Lisi
Application Specialist

Management Information Systems * City of Delray Beach * 100 NW First
Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444

Phone, 561-243-7142 * Fax, 561-243-7166 * eMail, Lisi at MyDelrayBeach.com
<mailto:Lisi at MyDelrayBeach.com> 

 
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