Geodatabase tables

[Frank Warmerdam]

Steve Pashby wrote:
> Hello, 
> 
> I'm trying to render a road map using a personal geodatabase and have some 
> event tables (or am going to ... when i get round to it !) However, i'm not 
> entirely sure how you reference the tables in the mapfile. 
> 
> I know in the LAYER definition you would put ...
> CONNECTIONTYPE ogr
> CONNECTION "path/to/the/geodatabase, feature_class"
> But how would you render whats in a specific table ?  (ie, I'm trying to show 
> the location of poor road surfaces in a table called Poor_surface_condition)
> 
> Has someone else done this before and if so could you please post some of your 
> code so i can see what to do. 

Steve,

I would encourage you to use instead:

CONNECTIONTYPE ogr
CONNECTION "path/to/the/geodatabase"
DATA "feature_class"

I'm not sure how Daniel or others feel about it, but I like to think of the
syntax where the table/layer name is put into the CONNECTION string as
deprecated in favor of the above format.

Addressing your actual question, I'm not sure why you seem to be
distinguishing between "feature_class", "layer", and "table".  OGR will
use the names of spatial tables (tables with a Shape column) as layers.

I have a vague sense there is a distinct thing called a feature class in
the personal geodatabase, but OGR ignores this concept entirely (assuming the
concept exists).

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
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and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org