[postgis-users] postgis query error on mapserver

[Aaron Steele]

dear readers,

i'm running postgis (v0.8.2) with postgresql (v7.4.3) on red hat  
enterprise linux AS (v3) using apache (v2.0.50).

i've setup a postgis layer in my mapfile. mapserver queries against  
this layer give an error. i've heard about problems with mappostgis.c,  
but i have a pretty recent version (1.34.2.2, 2004/06/02). following is  
my mapfile DATA string along with the error:

DATA "the_geom from counties as foo using unique gid using srid=-1"

<error>
Content-type: text/html   msPOSTGISLayerGetShape(): Query error. Error  
executing POSTGIS SQL statement (in FETCH ALL): DECLARE mycursor2  
BINARY CURSOR FOR SELECT  
gid::text,AREA::text,PERIMETER::text,CNTY24K97#::text,CNTY24K97-:: 
text,name::text,NAME_CAP::text,NUM::text,FIPS_CODE:: 
text,asbinary(force_collection(force_2d(the_geom)),'NDR') from counties  
as foo WHERE gid = 78 -ERROR: syntax error at or near "::" at character  
108
More Help:
Error with POSTGIS data variable. You specified ''.
Standard ways of specifiying are :
(1) 'geometry_column from geometry_table'
(2) 'geometry_column from (<sub query>) as foo using unique <column  
name> using
SRID=<srid#>'

Make sure you put in the 'using unique <column name>' and 'using  
SRID=#' clauses in.

For more help, please see  
http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation.php

Mappostgis.c - version of Jan 23/2004.
</error>

any initial thoughts?

thanks,
aaron