[maplab-users] Connecting to server

[Jeff McKenna]

Hello Raghavan,

Great to hear that you've chosen to use MapLab.  MapBrowser allows for browsing
of data from "WMS" sources, as well as local layers (from a mapfile).  WMS, or
OGC Web Map Server, is a spec that allows for use of data from different
servers.  (I'll provide links later if you need a more technical description, my
opinion is that an example will explain this more clearly)

MapBrowser's "Manage Server" functionality allows you to add a WMS server and
browse a list of WMS layers that can be saved to your mapfile.  If you click the
"Manage Servers" icon in MapBrowser's toolbar you will see a new "Manage
Servers" window.  In that window you will see 2 sections: Available Servers, and
Server Properties.  I'll walk you through adding a server.  In the "Server
Properties" section enter the following URL into the "URL" text area: 

http://www2.dmsolutions.ca/cgi-bin/mswms_gmap?

This URL is the path to our WMS server here at DM Solutions.  Click the "Add
server to list" icon below the URL and you should see a "GMap WMS Demo Server"
branch in the tree menu on the left.  Expand that branch until you see a list of
clickable layers - these are the layers that we are providing through WMS. 
Click on the "provinces" link and you should see it added to your legend in the
top left.  Click the "Apply" icon above the legend and a Canadian land layer
will be added to your map preview.  IMPORTANT: you MUST have a projection object
set in your mapfile in order to view WMS layers.  You can now save your mapfile
by clicking the "Save" icon in the toolbar above, and your mapfile will be saved
with your new WMS layer. 

So now you can see that "Manage Servers" is used to add WMS servers, and browser
WMS data provided by WMS servers.  How do you know who is providing a WMS
server, and what are their URLs?  Well this technology is so new that there is
not really a good reference for a list of WMS servers currently available. 
Maybe a question sent out to the MapServer mailing list might help.

Here are a few WMS-related links:
- WMS FAQ: http://www.intl-interfaces.net/cookbook/WMS/faq/faqw.py?req=home
- mapserver-wms-client-howto:
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/doc36/wms-client-howto.html
- mapserver-wms-server-howto:
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/doc36/wms-server-howto.html


I hope this helps a little bit.  


Jeff



Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I am in the process of learning to use MapLab.
> 
> Could someone please explain me how I could add
> a server to the Mapbrowser. After clicking the
> "Manage Server" button in the Mapbrowser,
> I  entered the URL of the server as
> 
> http://my.server.com/
> 
> and I get the following error message
> 
> XPath error in xpath.class.php:436 XML error in given file
> http___203_159_29_98_.xml' on line 1 column 0. Reason:syntax error
> 


-- 

Jeff McKenna
GIS Specialist
DM Solutions Group Inc.
http://www.dmsolutions.ca/