Tamas,
thanks for your reply.
Tamas Szekeres wrote:
2008/1/19, Tom Kazimiers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
Hi,
I am relatively new to mapserver and am currently playing around to find
out what is possible and what is not.
Currently I develop an application which should be run on a mobile
device like a PDA. One aim is that there is something like a
"MapServer-Layer" which gives the opportunity to
1. get information which shapefiles and rasterdata is available on the
server
2. one should be able to choose one or more layers out of 1. which then
should be displayed according to position, zoom level, etc.
So in my opinion this implies that the mapfiles which hold information
about what layers can be displayed, in which order and so on could be
generated dynamically (which must also be possible if I want to change
the order). Is there already a way in mapserver (or an application) to
accomplish this?
If not the way to got would possibly be writing an application which
does the generation, right?
You can easily set up a map object and save the state of this object
as a mapfile using the mapscript API in various languages right now.
However I don't think mapfile is the most appropriate format to
exchange metadata between a server and the client application. Why
don't you use something more conventional like utilizing the WMS
GetCapabilities and GetMap services that mapserver can provide?
Ok, GetCapabilities and GetMap seem to be something like I was looking for.
Still it would be nice if you could clarify something. Currently, as I
understand, the steps I have to take are:
1. Set up a mapfile with all the shapefiles and rasterdata files I want
to be offered to the client side (the PDA).
For this I do not need to build a "MapServer Application, do I?
2. I have to query the MapServer with GetCapabilities for the offered
layers. Is the path to the mapfile in the URL relative to the MapServer
binary?
3. On the client side I have to choose which layers I want to be shown
and prepare a request with GetMap
4. In return I get an image I can display
Are those steps correct?
What if I want to change the order of the layers?
Maybe I have misunderstood something, but mapfiles are not available for
all the applications or the whole mapserver, but are available to the
belongig application? Therefore it is unlikely to find something like
this already in mapserver, but maybe in an available application.
Mapsever + mapscript fully support reading or writing mapfiles and
provide API to do such things for various applications and platforms,
but mobile devices and PDAs are not supported at the moment.
Good to know - but if I would take the way with the creation of mapfiles
I think I should create a MapServer application to which I make a
request from the PDA and which serves me the resulting image.
Thanks in advance,
Tom
