A confused Network Admin

[Lisi, Christine]

It is actually not very complicated.  You're using trying to start using

a LOT of different technologies all at once.  Most people don't do that,

so that's why relatively few people can be expected to be as frustrated

as you are <g>.  YOU'RE RIGHT.

 

For example, MapScript is a PHP module.  Most users who want to start

using PHP MapScript are PHP users who would like some maps.  If you were

a PHP user and familiar with PHP and modules, most of your recent email

conversations would be straightforward and obvious.  It's perfectly OK

that you are new to all that, but don't blame MapScript.  It's not being

complicated - it's pretty straightforward.  You'd be having the same

problems with ANY external PHP module.  I was not blaming MapScript at
all.  My frustration is with Open Source software in general and trying
to get all the pieces to work together.

 

I'll remind you of my first email to you.  MapScript is NOT a "MapServer

module".  There is a large library of mapmaking functionality in the

MapServer suite.  All that code (think of it as a small collection of

related DLLs) has been wrapped into several interfaces.  One of those is

the MapServer CGI program, which allows CGI requests to be made against

the libraries, and one is the PHP MapScript module, which lets PHP

scripts call functions in the libraries.  They are completely

independent of each other - neither one requires the other.  Some users

use both, and your consultant seems to want to do that.  But they are

two separate things.  You do not need to have MapScript installed to use

the MapServer CGI.  My confusion with thinking that MapScript is a
MapServer module comes from the README.txt distributed with MapScript.
On the very top it says PHP/MapScript Mapserver Module.  This would
confuse any beginner like me.  Thanks for the clarification.  I'm sure
the consultant will know what to do with it all.  My part of the job is
almost complete.

 

You should go back to the error message you reported from your working

PHP script.  As was mentioned, your script cannot load a module from a

file that is evidently there.  That means that (a) the script doesn't

have permission to load that module or (b) that module has dependencies

it cannot find.  As stated in one of my earlier messages, the problem
was that I didn't have the MapScript version (4.5) for PHP 5.0.3.  It
seems that although PHP 5.0.3 is a functional/tested version, the
MapScript version for PHP 5.0.3 is still in "beta".  Nobody's fault, but
I refer back to my frustration with Open Source software in general.
Don't get me wrong - thank goodness for Open Source and I give kudos to
the programmers, but for an admin like myself it can be very frustrating
and time consuming to get it all together.  Once I downloaded the
correct MapScript module for PHP 5.0.3 everything worked, but I am still
confused at to why a newer version of MapScript (4.5) would have older
.dll's than an older version (4.4).  Maybe I'm spoiled because I'm so
used to being able to call up Tech Support and get issues resolved and
questions answered.  Verbal communication is much more effective than
e-mail in communicating these complicated issues.  I'm dealing (with
it)...

 

The first place I'd look is whether the C:\PHP directory is on the

search path of the user context running in IIS (usually the

IUSR_<machinename> account).  You can probably just add that directory

to the system search path, although you should probably restart IIS

after doing that (or at least unload the site you're testing).  This is
no longer a problem.

 

Ed - I appreciate your input and I'm glad you appreciate where I'm
coming from.  Maybe one day I'll understand how it all works, but right
now I'm just glad to have gotten this far.  My only remaining issue is
with MapSURFER.  Can't get a response from Russ.

 

Christine

 

-----Original Message-----

From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On

Behalf Of Lisi, Christine

Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 11:51 AM

To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU

Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] A confused Network Admin

 

The consultant told me to have both so I don't understand.  MapScript is

a MapServer module, no?

 

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

 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Paul Spencer [mailto:pspencer at dmsolutions.ca] 

Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 11:44 AM

To: Lisi, Christine

Cc: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU

Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] A confused Network Admin

 

Christine,

 

you don't (normally) need both MapServer and MapScript ... you would use

 

one or the other.  And the versions wouldn't have to match (except 

perhaps for dependencies).

 

MapScript is completely self-contained ...

 

Paul

 

Lisi, Christine wrote:

> OK, Paul's script now works and returns no errors - also sees

MapScript.

> The way I accomplished this was that I downloaded PHP MapScript

version

> 4.5 for PHP 5.0.3 (thank you Yewondwossen!).  It says it's compatible

> with MapServer 4.5, but I can't find that version on the MapServer

site.

> The latest listed is 4.4.1.  Why oh why does this all have to be so

> complicated?!  Does anyone know where I can download MapServer 4.5?

> 

> My other concern is that many of the .dll files in this MapScript 4.5

> version are older than those in MapServer.  I did replace the

gdal12.dll

> in MapServer with the version 1.2.5 from MapScript 4.5 because it

states

> in the README.txt that MapScript requires this version.  I hope this

> doesn't mess things up in the long run.

> 

> Is anyone else as frustrated as I am?

> 

> 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

> 

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU]

On

> Behalf Of Paul Spencer

> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 9:15 AM

> To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU

> Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] A confused Network Admin

> 

> slight clarification, the php module name is case sensitive and for

> mapscript it is actually "MapScript".

> 

> For the record, my test script for testing MapScript extension is a

> little simpler :)

> 

> <?php

> if (!extension_loaded('MapScript'))

>      dl('php_mapscript_44.'.PHP_SHLIB_SUFFIX);

> phpinfo();

> ?>

> 

> Also, for most purposes, it is more convenient to make a copy of

> php_mapscript_44.dll and name it php_mapscript.dll, then your scripts

> can all reference php_mapscript.dll as the most recent version.  When

> 4.6 comes out, you can test your apps then upgrade everything by

making

> php_mapscript.dll a copy of php_mapscript_46.dll

> 

> Cheers

> 

> Paul

> 

> William Bronsema wrote:

> 

>>Also note that the extension_loaded check is not the extension_name

>>(i.e. php_mapscript_44) rather it is the module name itself. In this

>>case it is "mapscript".  Your code should be:

>> 

>> 

>> 

>>if(!extension_loaded('mapscript'))

>> 

>> 

>> 

>>HTH,

>> 

>>Bill

>> 

>> 

>> 

>>________________________________________________

>>William A. Bronsema, C.E.T.

>>Applications and Software Development,

>>DM Solutions Group Inc.

>> 

>> 

> 

> 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 

>>*From:* UMN MapServer Users List

> 

> [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU]

> 

>>*On Behalf Of *Jeff Portwine

>>*Sent:* March 2, 2005 8:19 AM

>>*To:* MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU

>>*Subject:* Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] A confused Network Admin

>> 

>> 

>> 

>>Make sure that you have the <?PHP  line in front of everything and

> 

> that

> 

>>the script is ended with ?>.

>> 

>> 

>> 

>>I think in the original example he just had <?  which should be ok,

> 

> but

> 

>>I like to use <?PHP myself.  It looks like your script omitted the

> 

> '<',

> 

>>so it wasn't being recognized as a php script and was just reading the

>>script as though it were html and outputting the text to your browser.

>> 

>> 

>> 

>>Hope this helps,

>> 

>>Jeff

>> 

>> 

>> 

>> 

>> 

> 

> 

> --

> +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

> |Paul Spencer                           pspencer at dmsolutions.ca   |

> +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

> |Applications & Software Development                              |

> |DM Solutions Group Inc                 http://www.dmsolutions.ca/|

> +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

> 

> 

 

-- 

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

|Paul Spencer                           pspencer at dmsolutions.ca   |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

|Applications & Software Development                              |

|DM Solutions Group Inc                 http://www.dmsolutions.ca/|

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

 
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