[ms4w-users] msEvalRegex(): Regular expression error. String () failed expression test.

[Anthony Gangemi]

Hi MS4W Users,
This is my first question to the mailing list and after my foray into
MS4W, I've now hit my first major stumbling block. My system
configuration is Windows XP Pro (SP2), MS4W v1.5.5 with MapLab 2.2.1 and
Chameleon 2.4 add-on packages. This base installation works well.  
I'm currently doing the exercises from Bill Kropla's book "Beginning
MapServer: Open Source GIS Development". Whilst this book has a slant
towards Unix\Linux systems, I can easily make the slight adjustments in
the HTML templates and mapfiles to suit the Windows file system.  Things
like the need to include absolute file paths etcetera. I've been able to
use Bill's source code in the book and so far I've achieved success in
running the chapter 2 and 3 application examples. They are are fairly
simple exercises that complement the concepts discussed in the early
chapters of this book.
Now I'm at Chapter 4 of the book and I'm trying to execute it's
application example. After making some adjustments to the source code, I
strike this error message which is returned to the browser (using IE6). 
msEvalRegex(): Regular expression error. String () failed expression
test. 
It looks to be stumbling over an issue with Regular Expressions in the
mapfile and I cannot see the problem at this stsge.  Hopefully somebody
else has experienced this problem and can provide a solution and/or
guidance. 
As a reference, all the source files and map layer's I'm using is listed
below.  

Beginning MapServer --> the book's sample application source-code:
http://www.apress.com/ApressCorporate/supplement/1/443/1590594908-2868.z
ip

Chapter 4
Original Source Code    -->
http://www.usq.edu.au/users/gangemia/mapserver/Chapter4_Code_Original.zi
p
My Adjusted Source code -->
http://www.usq.edu.au/users/gangemia/mapserver/Chapter4_Code_Adjusted.zi
p

MapLayer Source: http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html
citiesx020.tar.gz -->
http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/nationalatlas/citiesx020.tar.gz
roadtrl020.tar.gz -->
http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/nationalatlas/roadtrl020.tar.gz
statesp020.tar.gz -->
http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/nationalatlas/statesp020.tar.gz
hydrogm020.tar.gz -->
http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/nationalatlas/hydrogm020.tar.gz
urbanap020.tar.gz -->
http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/nationalatlas/urbanap020.tar.gz

Regards, 

Tony Gangemi 
University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia
Faculty of Engineering and Surveying
Email: gangemia[at]usq.edu.au

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