Query and Retrieval of MapServer
================================

In this chapter, you will explore the query capabilities of MapServer
and familiarize yourself with its Mapfile and template requirements. To
gain knowledge of these capabilities, you will build a query application
that uses most of the query power of MapServer.

The following sections describe the concepts necessary to understand the
query process that operates on MapServer. Although the detailed usage
and syntax are described, the function of this section is mainly as the
main component of an overview.

Map browsing can only rely on MapServer to provide the basic functions
of Web mapping services. In addition, MapServer also provides powerful
spatial and attribute query functions.

In CGI mode, HTML templates are widely used to build queries and
organize the information returned by queries, which usually involves
complex interactions with map files, templates, and MapServerCGI
programs.



.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   using-cgi-mechanism