1. Installation and configuration of MapServer

One of the ways to realize WebGIS is to use Common Gateway Interface (CGI) technology. On the server side, through the CGI application program to connect WebServer and GIS spatial database, the client only needs to use the browser to query and analyze the spatial data. The famous open source GIS server-side tool MapServer uses CGI technology.

Compared with the many WebGIS solutions provided by commercial enterprises, MapServer is an open source project. This means that you can use MapServer for free and have the right to modify, copy, and redistribute it on your own. It should be pointed out that MapServer, as an open source project, is in continuous development, but in recent years, the function has been relatively perfect and the update is relatively small.

At present, the mainstream Linux operating systems, such as Debian, Ubuntu, Centos and so on, have MapServer versions above 7.0. The content of this book is based on MapServer version 7. 0 and later.

This chapter explains the installation and configuration of MapServer to understand basic usage and related tools, how to generate map images, and how to access them through Web. After you set up the MapServer, you need to tell it the location of all resources and make sure that all permissions are set correctly. Because more useful MapServer applications have more lines of code and contain many HTML templates, keep the application simple to make it easier to debug when errors occur.

• 1.1. Introduction to MapServer
  • 1.1.1. Development history of MapServer
  • 1.1.2. Characteristics of MapServer
  • 1.1.3. Components of MapServer
  • 1.1.4. Two modes of MapServer
  • 1.1.5. Comparison between MapServer and GeoServer
• 1.2. Install and configure MapServer
  • 1.2.1. Basic requirements for installing and configuring MapServer
  • 1.2.2. Detailed introduction of MapServer related class libraries
  • 1.2.3. Installation under Debian / Ubuntu system
  • 1.2.4. Installation under Windows system
• 1.3. Start using Mapfile
  • 1.3.1. Grammar
  • 1.3.2. “Maps” that do not use data
  • 1.3.3. The basic usage of Mapfile
  • 1.3.4. Draw content
  • 1.3.5. View the result
• 1.4. Release remote sensing images
  • 1.4.1. Conceptual differences between image, icon and picture
  • 1.4.2. Add remote sensing image
• 1.5. Labeling on remote sensing images
  • 1.5.1. Mapfile code
  • 1.5.2. Effect
• 1.6. Use DEM data in MapServer
  • 1.6.1. Effect after direct addition
  • 1.6.2. Use Processing
  • 1.6.3. Use CLASS
• 1.7. Usage process of MapServer
  • 1.7.1. Basic requirements of Mapfile
  • 1.7.2. Analysis of MapServer Map File format
  • 1.7.3. Structure of Mapfile
  • 1.7.4. Using MapServer CGI module to develop WebGIS
  • 1.7.5. Developing WebGIS with MapScript Module
  • 1.7.6. MapServer data processing flow
  • 1.7.7. MapFile file