Yes, you do have to have to have a static map file, in order to initialize 
mapscript (your choice of PHP, Perl, or TCL). Your Mapfile can be nearly empty, 
it works best if you include some useful default values so your code doesn't 
have to set all the configuration details of the mapfile. 

You could do what you want very easily with mapscript, check out the 
documentation on the mapserver site.

Chris

Quoting ttsai@pobox.com:

> I will ask this on the mapserver list as well.
> 
> Let's say I have the Census street level and other features data
> in PostGIS.  I also have two lat/lon pairs.  Is it possibly to have
> PostGIS/MapServer do the following, dynamically:
> 
> 1) show the street level data with labeling of the street names
> 2) pinpoint the two lat/lon locations
> 3) automatically set the extent to include both lat/lon locations within
> about 80% of the frame
> 
> it seems that I have to have a static .MAP file the last time I played
> with MapServer, which defeats the purpose.  Any pointers?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Tim
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