Map file from a URI instead of a filesystem!?

[Jeroen Ticheler]

Hi,
A question that came up while discussing integration of MapServer  
with a catalog application (GeoNetwork opensource) was if mapserver  
in CGI mode could use a map file coming from another server; a URL  
(used for OGC-WMS services) would look like this:

http://localhost/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=http://remotehost/mapfile.map

or, in the way we were thinking of using it for example as:

http://localhost/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=http://localhost/geonetwork/map? 
id=20

It would allow us to store map files in our catalog, with the  
metadata and run the W*S services straight out of the repository. In  
fact, we coud/would use the metadata information to generate a map  
file with all the required metadata & data elements set based on the  
metadata. SLD documents for different styles could also be stored  
with the metadata at that point. We would use XSL transformations to  
generate the (final) map files.

Greetings,
Jeroen
_______________________
Jeroen Ticheler
FAO-UN
Tel: +39 06 57056041
http://www.fao.org/geonetwork
12.34327°N 12.34327°E