using ogr2ogr to create pt shp file from dbf w/ lat-lon fields

[Frank Warmerdam]

Emilio Mayorga wrote:
> Thanks, Frank!! I got it to work on a Windows box with GDAL/OGR 1.2.5
> (from FWTools 0.9.6). BTW, I think the MapServer or OGR documentation
> regarding VRT access from file data sources (like this case) is
> lacking. The ovf file I created is included at the bottom, with two
> layers that correspond to two dbf files. The layer name is the base
> file name of the dbf file, w/o the extension. The data source is the
> path to the folder. Anything different I tried didn't work. I'll try
> to edit the MapServer document "Virtual Spatial Data (ODBC/OVF)" to
> include this example.

Emilio,

Well, there are indeed many deficiencies in GDAL/OGR and MapServer
documentation.   The assistance of you, and other community members
is critical in improving the documentation, so thanks for your willingness
to dig in!

> Now I have a different problem. I'm running MapServer 4.0 on a Linux
> box with OGR 1.1.9. I read that OVF was introduced in OGR 1.2.0 (and
> in fact, my ogr2ogr line can't handle the ovf file!). Given my old
> MapServer, do you think it'd be safe to upgrade GDAL/OGR to the latest
> version without upgrading MapServer (I don't want to deal with all the
> dependencies just yet)?

Note that while OVF (which I call OGR VRT) support may have been
introduced in 1.2.0, there were also numerous fixes and improvements
in the facility right through to 1.3.1.

To answer your question, I believe MapServer 4.0 should work just fine
with GDAL/OGR 1.3.1.  While I respect your need to manage risk in upgrading,
it is generally hard to support people using significantly old versions
of the software.  When answering I certainly never thought you might
be running such old versions of MapServer or GDAL/OGR.   So, I would
encourage you to upgrade to the latest stable release of things when
you can if you are hoping for assistance, or bug fixes.

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