1. MapServer #ProTipsFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14MapServer for Power UsersA collection of tips to streamline your mapping workflow

2. #Protip: Use OGR Output format forgenerating GeoJSONFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 3. WFS OGR Outputformat - GeoJSONFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14OUTPUTFORMATNAME "geojson"DRIVER "OGR/GEOJSON"MIMETYPE "application/json; subtype=geojson"FORMATOPTION "STORAGE=stream"FORMATOPTION "FORM=SIMPLE"ENDJust add: &request=getFeature&typename=myLayer&outputformat=geojsonExample: WFS Call - Returns XML WFS - Returns GeoJSON 4. #Protip: Simplify mapfiles withSCALETOKENFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 5. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14SCALETOKENsReduce Mapfile Clutter - Example: US HUC Codes - 6 layers -> 1 layerLABELITEM "HUCCODE"SCALETOKENNAME "%table%"VALUES"0" "HUC12 as HUCCODE, shape from USDA.WBDHU12""100000" "HUC10 as HUCCODE, shape from USDA.WBDHU10""700000" "HUC8 as HUCCODE, shape from USDA.WBDHU8""1500000" "HUC6 as HUCCODE, shape from USDA.WBDHU6""3000000" "HUC4 as HUCCODE, shape from USDA.WBDHU4""8000000" "HUC2 as HUCCODE, shape from USDA.WBDHU2"ENDENDDATA "SHAPE from (select %table%) using SRID 4326" 6. #Protip: Discover performance issues,problems, etc with DEBUGFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 7. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14DEBUGGING - Part 1 set DEBUG level at MAP and/or LAYER level can see GDAL/OGR debug info with CPL_DEBUGMAP...CONFIG "CPL_DEBUG" "ON"...LAYER...ENDEND use shp2img command line utility with-all_debug switch maximum debug info 8. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14DEBUGGING - Part 2 can execute problem query at the command line (and avoid using Apache/Web server)mapserv -nh QUERY_STRING= http://www.mapserver.org/optimization/debugging.html 9. #Protip: Preview layers immediatelywith built in viewerFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 10. Using Native OpenLayers Viewer(part1) added in MapServer 6.0 quickly view map output using JS/slippy interface required parameters for CGI request:FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14&MODE=map&TEMPLATE=OpenLayers&LAYERS=all 11. Using Native OpenLayers Viewer(part2) Notes:o Points to remote OpenLayers.lib out-of-the-box (version 2.10) http://www.mapserver.org/lib/OpenLayers-ms60.jsFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14o Can use own OL/template 12. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14Using Native OpenLayers Viewer (demo) 13. #Protip: Simply your mapfile (and yourlife) with INCLUDEsFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 14. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14MapFile INCLUDEs Used anytime you want to reuse something or make a change in one place to affect manyplaces Key places: LAYERs, connection strings, metadata, settings, paths, debug info Can be nested File can be given any extension (.lay, .inc) 15. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14INCLUDE Ideas: Empty INCLUDE for every level (makes easy to add something to every layer) For databases, CONNECTION info and PROCESSING "CLOSE_CONNECTION=DEFER" Standard LAYER METADATA Standard WEB METADATA / OUTPUTFORMATs Projection blocks: INCLUDE "latlon.inc" Standard Label style blocks (Mike) use includes for data layers by category, INCLUDE "include/dam_water_levels.inc",which includes 12 layers about Dams 16. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14Example Mapfile with IncludesMAPNAME mymapINCLUDE "include/paths.inc"INCLUDE "include/outputformats.inc"INCLUDE "include/web.inc"#LAYERSINCLUDE "include/base_layers.inc"INCLUDE "include/mid_layers.inc"INCLUDE "include/top_layers.inc"END#map 17. #Protip: Make your maps more colorfulwith COLORRANGEFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 18. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14COLORRANGE RFC 6 / RFC 108 / easter egg display a range of colors for a range of values useful for display of DEMs No Legend OutputSTYLECOLORRANGE 0 0 0 255 255 0 #black to yellowDATARANGE 0 to 2000RANGEITEM [pixel]END 19. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14Multiple COLORRANGEs (7.0)OPACITY 60CLASSSTYLECOLORRANGE "#0000ff00" "#0000ffff"DATARANGE 0 32ENDSTYLECOLORRANGE "#0000ffff" "#ff0000ff"DATARANGE 32 255ENDEND 20. #Protip: Reduce problems by followingsimple naming guidelinesFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 21. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14Naming Conventions Avoid, whenever possible, using LAYER NAMEs with spaces, special characters, numbers at thebeginning, or uppercase. LAYER NAMEs are Case Sensitive. Never use colons (:), they will betreated as namespace characters in the OGC output The issue is not MapServer, but often painful challenges downstream (URLs, OGC Specs,WMS/OWS, other applications, ) For Oracle, use all uppercase Column Names in the database (Oracle standard), can't startwith numbers, max 30 characters. For PostgreSQL, cant start with numbers, use lowercase, max 63 characters. 22. #Protip: Combine multiple pointfeatures into a CLUSTERFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 23. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14CLUSTERing Points Requires MapServer 6.0 or later Only for POINT layers Based on relative distance in pixels Query all clustered features withPROCESSING "CLUSTER_GET_ALL_SHAPES" 24. #Protip: Combine TILEINDEXes acrossmultiple projectionsFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 25. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14TILEINDEXes with SRS Support Requires GDALTINDEX from 1.11 or later, MapServer 6.4 or later call GDALTINDEX with -src_srs_name to add SRS field to index and -t_srs output projectiongdaltindex -t_srs epsg:3857 -src_srs_name SRS ti.shp imagery/naip/*.jp2 Also make sure to add a spatial index to the TILEINDEXo use OGR or SHPTREE to add Shapefile spatial index However, TILEINDEXes don't have to be shapefiles, can be other formats If path to TILEINDEX is not absolute, it will be affected by SHAPEPATH Only for RASTERS 26. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14TILEINDEXes with SRS SupportLAYERname naip16TYPE rasterPROJECTION"init=epsg:32616"ENDgroup "naip"TILEINDEX "tileindexes/zones/ti_zone16.shp"TILEITEM "PATH"STATUS OFFFILTERITEM "PROGRAM"FILTER "NAIP"METADATA"ows_name" "naip16"...ENDPROCESSING "OVERSAMPLE_RATIO=1.0"ENDLAYERname naip17TYPE rasterPROJECTION"init=epsg:32617"ENDgroup "naip"TILEINDEX "tileindexes/zones/ti_zone17.shp"TILEITEM "PATH"...16 total layersLAYERname naipTYPE rasterPROJECTION"init=epsg:3857"ENDTILEINDEX "tileindexes/naip.shp"TILEITEM "PATH"TILESRS "SRS"STATUS OFFFILTERITEM "PROGRAM"FILTER "NAIP"METADATA"ows_name" "naip"...ENDPROCESSING "OVERSAMPLE_RATIO=1.0"END 27. #Protip: Increase performance bysetting layer extentsFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 28. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14ows_extent METADATA set it to avoid MapServer calculating the extents of your data layer on each request Sometimes solves problems for certain formats (OracleSpatial layer through OWS request) 29. #Protip: Catch errors quicker andeasier with syntax highlightingFOSS4G Portland 09/11/14 30. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14Syntax Highlighting - EditorSublime 2 - https://github.com/richardsuematsu/sublime-text-2-mapserverUltraEdit - http://www.ultraedit.com/files/wf/mapserver.uewNotepad++ - https://github.com/AstunTechnology/MapserverSyntaxHighlightingVIM - http://mapserver.org/development/editing/vim.htmlEmacs - https://github.com/AxxL/mapserver-emacs-modeTextpad - http://www.textpad.com/add-ons/files/syntax/map_40.zip Code folding is very useful to find missings/extra ENDs in mapfiles Comment block macros are also very useful for mapfiles 31. FOSS4G Portland 09/11/14Thank you for using MapServer!@mapserving @michael_smith