[mapserver-users] Dimension default doesn't work and documentation is patchy

[Stefan Schantz]

Hello everybody,
I have setup a mapfile with 4 dimensions. As long as I have the 
dimension parameters in the request, it works fine. But if the dimension 
parameter are missing, the default parameters won't be used. What is 
wrong with my mapfile?

mapfile:
(...)
     METADATA
         "wms_title" "DWD Prognose Luft"
         "wms_abstract" "Darstellung der Ausbreitungsrechnung in der 
Luft; Der Layer muss über die Variablen VID (Vorgangs-ID), MGR_ID 
(Messgrößen-ID), RIE (relatives Intervallende) abgefragt werden, 
ansonsten werden die Defaultwerte verwendet"
         "wms_enable_request" "*"
         INCLUDE "../../include/general/standard_extent_welt.map"

         "wms_dimensionlist" "MGR_ID,RIE,VID"
         "wms_MGR_ID_item" "MGR_ID"
         "wms_MGR_ID_extent" "373, 870, 384"
         "wms_MGR_ID_units" "none"
         "wms_MGR_ID_default" "373"

         "wms_RIE_item" "RIE"
         "wms_RIE_extent" "0, 6, 18, 30, 42, 54, 66, 78"
         "wms_RIE_units" "hour"
         "wms_RIE_default" "18"

         "wms_VID_item" "VID"
         "wms_VID_extent" "10000000/9999999999"
         "wms_VID_units" "none"
         "wms_VID_default" "984092599"

         "wms_timeitem" "TIME"
         "wms_timeextent" "2012-01-01 00:00/2012-12-31 00:00"
         "wms_timedefault" "2012-03-12 00:00"

         "default_MGR_ID" "373"
         "default_RIE" "18"
         "default_VID" "984092599"
     END


By the way I think, there is a documentation error:
In the documentation http://mapserver.org/ogc/wms_dimension.html under 
"Setting Up a WMS Layer with dimension support" the parameter 
"wms_[dimensionname]_units" is also mandatory, otherwise I didn't get it 
work.


Best regards,
Stefan