Hello Lars,
My comments are inline below:
Lars Westerlind wrote:
Hello all,
we newly installed Mapserver as ms4w installation on windows; and we are
very satisfied.
great!
We got up and running very fast, even though we are not fluent in the
techniques
used (in Partiucar, Apache webserver). However, I want to share a few
small points that caused
unnecessary problems.
1. A suggestion where in the directory structure to put the mapfiles
would be appreciated. If there are
different meanings, give two or three scenarios. Also include the looks
of the URL reference to the mapfile.
You should download the MS4W addon packed named "PHP/MapScript Sample
Application" for an example directory structure. Here is my advice:
- place the application in /ms4w/apps
- /apps/yourapp/ should contain:
/data (your data files)
/docs (any relevant docs)
/etc (font and symbol files)
/htdocs (application files - often html, js, or php*)
/maps (your mapfiles)
2. Why not enclose a small working example with one simplest possible
mapfile and one shapefile set? And
perhaps another more advanced mapfile with some common techniques exposed?
MS4W tries to do that, by providing you working examples that you can
play around with.
3. Font handling caused me much problems. As it is a windows
installation, it could be at least a insall note / readme describing
where to search for the .ttf files. The Mapserver documentation doesn't
say anything about Windows, and in Windows you need not be very
aware of where to find the font files, so it took some time to find out.
It appears that the documentation is not very clear either;
I hade to create a fontset file and refer to it to get it work; the
documentation hints that font references could be written in the fontset
clause, but I didn't manage.
The best way to provide feedback on documentation (and make sure it is
recorded) is to file a ticket in the MapServer tracker
(http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/), using the "MapServer Documentation"
component. It would be great help if your ticket could contain
suggested text that should be added to the page you are referring to.
Thanks!
4. The default font handling (bitmap) was confusing as it appears to be
ascii based, where the
true type font appears to be Unicode/UTF-8 based. When doing the
correct 'encoding', the output was silly until I managed to handel the
true type fonts correctly.
Maybe to be included in your ticket's text?
5. I would suggest more examples in the documentation, especially around
mapfile editing. In examles you
would also get punctuation issues and such
Please do provide any examples that you think are relevant. You can
also post examples and anything that you feel is helpful to others on
the MapServer Wiki (see lower section of
http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/)...it's an easy way to add to the
documentation and help others quickly!
I think that was my most important points I think.
Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming! :)
-jeff
--
Jeff McKenna
FOSS4G Consulting and Training Services
http://www.gatewaygeomatics.com/
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