The [scale] is basically useless for user consumption for the reasons you mention so I don't use it. The only reason it exists is for development use so that you, the developer, can see what scale mapserver is computing for a given map. That helps tune the minxscale/maxscale (denom) parameters.
Steve >>> John Maurer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 02/25/08 8:37 AM >>> Hi, I read on the MapServer Web site in the "Template File Reference" page at: http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/docs/reference/templatereference/templatereference/view that you can use "[scale]" in your HTML template to enable MapServer to do a template substitution for the denominator of the scale of the currently displayed map, as in the following example: Scale = 1:[scale] However, the scale that is reported is obviously wrong in every case that I've tried. As I have read elsewhere on this user list, the fundamental problem is that using scale ratios (e.g. 1:5015) to express the scale of digital maps is meaningless unless you can also specify or control the resolution of the output device (screen or printer). Since MapServer has no knowledge of the resolution of the user's screen, this [scale] parameter is only useful for the developer who needs to set min or max scale parameters in the map file but not useful for the end user and is in fact misleading for the end user. Or am I missing something? If this is correct, then the "Template File Reference" should be updated accordingly. I also read somewhere on this user list that MapServer assumes a default 72 dpi screen resolution, which would also be good to mention in this "Template File Reference." Lastly, it's recommended to display the [scale] parameter in the "Beginning MapServer" book (p. 72), so there seems to be some confusion surrounding the use of this parameter. Thanks for any help. Cheers, John Maurer -- John Maurer Web/Database Applications Engineer National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) University of Colorado at Boulder http://cires.colorado.edu/~maurerj ------------------------------------ "Without geography, you're nowhere!" _______________________________________________ mapserver-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users _______________________________________________ mapserver-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users
