Mapping Hacks

Build Interactive Web-Based Map Applications #91

Chapter 8, Building the Geospatial Web

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HACK

Adding a Point

You can add a point directly in the map file to indicate anything you wish.

You can even specify points via URLs, through a database, or from another

file. Here, we will specify just one point, for my favorite local coffee shop

with free Wi-Fi. First, let’s define the symbol that will mark our point. Add

this section before the final

end tag in your map file:

symbol

name "coffee_wifi"

type ellipse

filled true

points 2 1 end

end

This creates a symbol named coffee_wifi as an ellipse that is twice as wide

as it is tall. This does not control the absolute size at which the symbol will

be displayed; that will be determined by the size parameter in the layer that

uses the symbol.

Figure 8-11. MapServer and the streets of Pittsburgh