A confused Network Admin

Tue Mar 1 12:18:50 PST 2005

Ed,

Thanks for your support on this.  You seem to be the only one who
responds to any of my inquiries so I am grateful!  In response...

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?

Answer:

   You should use PHP as a CGI.  This is simpler and avoids problems
with multithreading.

Response:

Per your suggestion, I have changed the install to CGI.  I guess all
that work setting up PHP as an ISAPI was a good learning experience!  It
is still working set up as a CGI.

Question:

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

Answer:

    You should think about the MapServer CGI and the MapScript DLL as
two different applications built upon the same MapServer libraries.
There's a core of map-rendering functionality that can be wrapped with a
CGI interface (mapserv.exe) or with a PHP scripting interface
(php_mapscript_44.dll).  While they share a lot of code, of course,
these two are completely separate applications, and they are quite
independent of each other.  php_mapscript_44.dll is a PHP "module" and
is loaded by the PHP interpreter when it is referenced by a PHP script
being executed.  The MapServer CGI does not use the php_mapscript_44.dll
file at all.

Response:

Thanks for the input, Ed, but I don't think I'll understand this whole
setup until the consultant comes in and actually makes it all work!  I
hope someone else will respond to my questions.  I still don't know
where to put the files and how to test them.

You're doing very well for having a lot of new stuff thrown at you.
Thanks.  The pat on the back feels good after all this stress!  Do not
worry about ISAPI implementations or the "performance penalty" of CGI (a
limitation that, IMHO, has been greatly oversold by Microsoft).  If -
after you've got everything working well - you think there are
performance gains to be had by improving on the CGI interface, we can
talk about that then.  But let's make work correctly first, THEN make it
work faster <g>.

Microsoft talks about the fact that with CGI's the executable is memory
resident as many times as it is being run.  So, for example, if 5 users
are running the CGI then it is taking up 5x the memory.  That's the way
I understand it from Microsoft's standpoint but I could be wrong.  I've
read so much in the last two weeks that my brain is a bit mushy.

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> 

________________________________

From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On
Behalf Of Ed McNierney
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 12:47 PM
To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] A confused Network Admin

Christine -

It sounds like you're off to a good start!  I'll try to contribute, and
there are others with different expertise who can chime in as well.  Be
sure to send replies to the entire list, not just to the sender, since
you've got a number of questions that are best answered by a few
different people.

Question:

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

Answer:

   No, there is no ISAPI version for IIS.  Using MapServer as a CGI will
work fine.  Since you got the appropriate error message, you've got the
permissions (for executing CGI, etc.) set up properly.

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?

Answer:

   You should use PHP as a CGI.  This is simpler and avoids problems
with multithreading.

Questions:

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

Answer:

    You should think about the MapServer CGI and the MapScript DLL as
two different applications built upon the same MapServer libraries.
There's a core of map-rendering functionality that can be wrapped with a
CGI interface (mapserv.exe) or with a PHP scripting interface
(php_mapscript_44.dll).  While they share a lot of code, of course,
these two are completely separate applications, and they are quite
independent of each other.  php_mapscript_44.dll is a PHP "module" and
is loaded by the PHP interpreter when it is referenced by a PHP script
being executed.  The MapServer CGI does not use the php_mapscript_44.dll
file at all.

You're doing very well for having a lot of new stuff thrown at you.  Do
not worry about ISAPI implementations or the "performance penalty" of
CGI (a limitation that, IMHO, has been greatly oversold by Microsoft).
If - after you've got everything working well - you think there are
performance gains to be had by improving on the CGI interface, we can
talk about that then.  But let's make work correctly first, THEN make it
work faster <g>.

    - Ed

Ed McNierney
President and Chief Mapmaker
TopoZone.com / Maps a la carte, Inc.
73 Princeton Street, Suite 305
North Chelmsford, MA  01863
ed at topozone.com
(978) 251-4242 

________________________________

From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On
Behalf Of Lisi, Christine
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 12:01 PM
To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] A confused Network Admin

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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