
UMN MapServer Extension for Thuban
===================================

   *** ATTENTION: ***

   The installation instructions here are detailed, so I hope everybody
   can install the extension. People who are experienced will know
   most of the commands, but everybody should be able to use
   this extension.



Summary
--------------------

This extension for Thuban allows you to handle UMN MapServer .map-files.



Requirements
--------------------

To use the UMN MapServer extension you need:

    UMN MapServer python-mapscript

The extension was tested with UMN MapServer 4.0 and 4.2, 
older versions may not work.



Installation
--------------------

1. You need to build and install python-mapscript if you haven't installed yet.

    Download the UMN MapServer (http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/dload.html)
    or use one on your system. The mapscript is included in the source package.

    Unpack and compile the UMN MapServer and use the following optional
    parameters:

    proj: include projection support
    gdal: include raster support
    tiff: include tiff support

    In some cases gdal is not necessary and mapscript can install without
    gdal support.
    A detailed install instruction can be found on the UMN MapServer Homepage.
    (http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu)

    Go to the directory where the UMN MapServer source code tar-ball exists:

        tar -zxf mapserver-4.2.0.tar.gz

    Go to the new created directory:

        cd mapserver-4.2.0 

    Configure an make the UMN MapServer

        ./configure --with-gdal --with-proj --with-tiff
        make

    Now we can compile and install the python mapscript

        cd mapscript/python/
        python setup.py build

    Some warnings are ok during the build of python mapscript

    At last we either install mapscript as root:

        python setup.py install

    or (if you don't want to pollute your system with circumventing
    the package installation system) you may set something
    like this (not that the exact path depends on your system and
    where you place the mapserver sources) for testing the stuff
    temporarily:

        export PYTHONPATH=~/mapserver-4.2.0/mapscript/python/build/lib.linux-i686-2.3

2. Add the umn_mapserver extension import statements to ~/.thuban/thubanstart.py
    if you run thuban directly from the source directory the statement is:

        import Extensions.umn_mapserver.mf_import
        import Extensions.umn_mapserver.mf_export
        import Extensions.umn_mapserver.mf_handle

    More about how to use an extension 
    see README in thuban/Examples/simple_extensions.

3. Start Thuban and use the extension.



Usage
--------------------

The usage of the extension is very intuitive, so you will see what you can do
while you are using the extension ;)
