Colin, > Other than those pages, I couldn't find much that would really help me > learn about MapScript and Perl. Maybe I'll just follow along with the > PHP example at the following URL and hope the API is similar. It looks > like the Perl MapScript module follows MapScript's C API; perhaps the > PHP module does, too?
I'm not a Mapscript user but I believe that is true. Mapscript comes with serveral language bindings (including Perl) and they are all automatically generated , so I would expect they are the same (allowing for language differences). > Is there a MapScript API reference buried somewhere that I could read? > And, also, a map file API reference? I'm really quite lost when it > comes to map files. On the New Users page there are links to the MapScript API (Section 2). the map file reference is under the "Documentation" -> references link, but it's tough to build a working map file from scratch using just the doc. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND the advice in Section 5.2 Get the Demo Running. Looking at (and tweaking) the map file in the demo will be a big help in understanding what can be done. > > Make sure you read the New User page: > > http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/new_users. > > I would like my first step to be putting a static image on a web site. > The image would be generated by Perl and returned to the browser as a > simple image/png. > > The method I have in mind follows. > > Each user has a set of airports and routes with which they are > concerned. This set of airports and routes could change as frequently > as every 30 seconds. So, for each map generation request, I would > dynamically create a map file and store it as TEXT in my PostgreSQL > database, along with some unique ID. Then, I would output an <img /> > tag to the browser that includes the unique ID of this > dynamically-generated map file: > > <img src="/foo/mapImage.pl?id=1234" /> > > mapImage.pl sees id=1234, pulls map file 1234 out of the database, uses > the MapServer back-end to generate a map, then outputs this map as an > image/png. I think mapImage.pl ends up being pretty simple: create a > mapserver object, pipe the map file text to it, and get the png it > generates. Is that it, or am I thinking too narrowly here? > Depends. You could just use Perl+Mapscript to general the png file then and there. I think if you use MapScript there is no requirement to have map file; all the elements a supplied by making function calls in Perl to mapscript then asking for the graphic to be generated (but the scripting users would know more about that). Brent _______________________________________________ mapserver-users mailing list mapserver-users@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users
