[mapserver-users] Passing a mapfile via CGI

[Bob Basques]

Actually, I'm working on that very capability in another project right now.  A bit more comprehensive in the details.  Exact functionality you just described though. 

bobb 



>>> Brent Fraser <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> wrote:


It would make an interesting user extension in GeoMoose:
 - Based on some GUI trigger (a button?), request a list of layers from a URL (hey, a "getCapabilites" style service!), and populate/replace the layer list in the catalog.

That would be cool...

Best Regards,          
Brent Fraser 

On 4/16/2012 2:07 PM, Bob Basques wrote: 


Yeah, the problem is, the list of GPSs is variable. 


It's all in POSTGIS now, and by GPS name. 


bobb 




>>> Brent Fraser <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> ( mailto:bfraser at geoanalytic.com ) wrote:


I guess my solution would be to put the trails in a PostGIS table:

Trails:
id    name    geometry
1    trail A    234523452345
2    trail B    5879567876454

Use one map file with a FILTER "name='%trail_name%'".  Now use http://.../mapserv?trail_name="trail A" to have mapserver do the variable substitution in the mapfile.

The bigger problem is generating the GUI layer list with the pointers to the mapserver URLs.  A script/database generated mapbook in GeoMoose, or JavaScript list for use with OpenLayers, etc...

 
Best Regards,              
                        
Brent Fraser
 

On 4/16/2012 1:41 PM, Bob Basques wrote: 


Individual trails, one layer per GPS to allow user control of visibility. 


bobb 




>>> Brent Fraser <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> ( mailto:bfraser at geoanalytic.com ) wrote:


Well, in this application I don't care about a feature's real-world attributes (only the  geometry and their feature "class"), so I'm able to pack all polygons into one table.  I then join the polygon table to the feature class table to get the color, etc. 

Are you representing each GPS trail as a separate layer?  So the user can turn individual trail on/off in a layer control?

 
                                  
Best Regards,
 
                        
                  
                    
Brent Fraser




On 4/16/2012 1:07 PM, Bob Basques wrote:


Hmm, interesting apporach, reminds me of my ealier days with Oracle (before Oracle Spatial, where each feature type needed it's own table structure . . .  Have to do some more thinking on this one.


I'm trying to render a predefined list of layers (from the user) of a set of GPS trails that are BEGIN  and END indexed.


bobb




>>> Brent Fraser <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> ( mailto:bfraser at geoanalytic.com ) wrote:


Bob,

  What kinds of things are you trying to do with layers?  Are the layers vectors?  Maybe there's a different way...

I'm in the midst of an implementation where the vectors are held in PostGIS in three tables (point, line and polygon) and joined to a "feature definition" table (to supply rendering values).  I use one map file with three layers  (point, line, polygon) and pass a FILTER variable to get my different layers which are then rendered. 

Here's a snippet from the polygon layer:

        CLASS
            STYLE # Polygon Fill
                SYMBOL       [polyfill_symbol]
                COLOR        [polyfill_fillcolor]
                ANGLE        [polyfill_angle]
                SIZE         [polyfill_hatchgap]  # e.g Hatching gap
                WIDTH         1 # [polyfill_hatchthick]  # Hatching line thickness (column binding doesn't seem to work)               
#                OPACITY      50 # [attribute]  # warning: there is no OPACITY for LABEL so don't bother.
            END
            STYLE # Polygon Outline
                SYMBOL       [geom_symbol]
                OUTLINECOLOR [geom_outcolor]
                SIZE         [geom_width]    # for "simple" (?) symbols
                WIDTH        [geom_width]    # for complex symbols
            END # Style
            TEXT             ([gid])
            LABEL
                TYPE         TRUETYPE
                FONT         [label_font]
                ANTIALIAS    TRUE
                COLOR        [label_fillcolor]
                OUTLINECOLOR [label_outcolor]
                BUFFER       1
                POSITION     cc        # [ul|uc|ur|cl|cc|cr|ll|lc|lr|auto]
                PARTIALS     TRUE
                SIZE         [label_height]
            END  # LABEL

        END # class

While this method is suitable for rendering, it will be a problem if you want store variables for use in an identify operation (or maybe not; I wonder if a template name can be bound to a database column...)

 
                      
                  
                
Best Regards,



          
              
          
          
        
              
      
Brent Fraser






On 4/16/2012 10:22 AM, Bob Basques wrote:


All,


Did anything ever develop from this idea?  I need to generate a variable length list of layers pro grammatically.


I'm not finding anything from a quick search of things related to passing a MAPFILE via the CGI call.  I want to be able to generate a MAPFILE, or chunks of it, on the fly.  A possible solution (maybe scary security wise) would be to use a param like "INCLUDE_<someID>=", to pass in MAP fragments to an existing MAPFILE.  I need to essentially add layers.


Another thought I had (Ok, it's a bit odd, I'll admit . . .) would be to have MapServer build it's own MAPFILE as a TEMPLATE output, but I'm not coming up with a way immediately of passing the resulting MAPFILE to Mapserver in the end.


bobb










          

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