Hi Dan, Could you not create a new-shapefile of your points and then add this 'name' in the Map-layer. Then add the new-shapefile to the map through a dummy-layer. I used similar to retrieve a shape-object from an existing shapefile and then: 1) Get shapeobject from existing-shapefile (through its index) 2) Put it in new-shapefile 3) Create dbf-file with name of new-shapefile 4) Clear new-shapefile 5) Add new-layer to map-object (default of this layer is set to OFF) 6) Show new-layer 7) Draw the map (now includes newly created shapefile ;-) ) In part 1) yours would differ. Her you create the shape-object (points) from the SQL-database. Part 3) is needed, because mapscript does not make a dbf-file. Erwin