[mapserver-users] I've been accused of not using things the way they were intended, but . . . can a getcapabilities request be run through the MapServer TEMPLATE for output?

[Basques, Bob (CI-StPaul)]

Brent,

Pretty much as you describe . . .

I want a list of layers but in my own form (Not OGC), specifically, I've used a TEMPLATE in the past to output LISP code that I can run in AutoCAD as an executable, sort of a poor man's importer for raster images.  This has been working for over a decade now, but each layer has to be set up individually in the current architecture.  The next leap forward would be to read a layer list from (??) the web as a service, and have the list pop out as a LISP construct for use in AutoCAD for choosing of layers.  Right now we hand build a somewhat static dialog in AutoCAD to do this.

The bigger goal, is to be able to add to the MapServer / GeoMoose data stores and have the new content appear automatically in the AutoCAD session as a new list item.  I can write a intermediate helper app to read our GeoMoose MapBook for example and then send back the AutoLisp construct, but I was wondering if there were a way around this intermediate piece, but with a TEMPLATING capability.  In the end it's probably more flexible to go the helper app route, but . . .???

Bobb


From: Brent Fraser [mailto:bfraser at geoanalytic.com]
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 11:20 AM
To: Basques, Bob (CI-StPaul)
Cc: mapserver-users at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [mapserver-users] I've been accused of not using things the way they were intended, but . . . can a getcapabilities request be run through the MapServer TEMPLATE for output?

Bob,

  I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to do (on the mapserver side or the Autocad side!).  Do you want mapserver to return a list of layers (when sent an OGC GetCapabilities or equivalent non-standard request) in a format of your choosing, similar to the way template-driven output (http://mapserver.org/output/template_output.html) returns feature info in a custom format ?


Best Regards,

Brent Fraser
On 1/28/2013 8:02 AM, Basques, Bob (CI-StPaul) wrote:
All,

So, I was thinking about adding support for Raster pulling from AutoCAD work sessions directly.  We've had this capability in place for a number of years using MapServer calls to each layer individually.  I'm researching the idea of rebuilding the importing routines but with the added functionality of reading a getcapabilities call to flesh out the listing of the available layers in the server.  Yes I know there is a FDO provider in AutoCAD, but that is only available in Map and Civil, not regular AutoCAD (or ARCH, still??) Versions which we also support.

First thought was to build a XML parser as a separate web service, that would make the call(s) to mapserver.  This would output the data in a AutoCAD readable form such as AutoLISP.  Another thought was to read our GeoMoose MapBook, an XML file, for listing out the available layers behind MapServer, this has the advantage of using our existing tools and methods for access the data and it would be completely automated with the GeoMoose MapBook becoming the master data catalog.

Whatever comes of this will also be eventually morphed into a Feature importer (WFS, etc) as well, which we also already have in place, but in a manner that could be improved.

So, back to the question, can a XML return from MapServer be passed through a TEMPLATE to change the output?

Thanks

Bobb





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