1.
Template File Reference
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| Author: | Frank Koormann |
|---|---|
| Contact: | frank.koormann(at)intevation.de |
| Last Updated: | 2005/07/27 |
1 Introduction
Templates are used:
- to define the look of a MapServer CGI application interface and
- to present the results of a query.
They guide the presentation of results, either a query or a map, to the user. Templates are almost always HTML files although they can also be a URL (e.g.. http://www.somewhere.com/[ATTRIBUTE]/info.html). URL templates can only be used with simple QUERY or ITEMQUERY results so many substitutions defined below are not available for them. Simple pan/zoom interfaces use a single template file while complicated queries often require many templates. Templates often use JavaScript to enhance the basic interface.
1.1 Notes
All CGI parameters can be referenced in template substitutions, MapServer specific parameters as well as user defined ones. In principle parameters are handed through by the MapServer 1:1. This feature is essential for implementing MapServer applications.
The reference below only lists special template substitution strings which are needed to obtain information modified by the MapServer, e.g. a new scale, query results, etc.
Template substitution strings are case sensitive.
Attribute item substitutions must be the same case as the item names in the dbase file.
ArcView and ArcInfo generally produce dbase files with item names that are all uppercase. Appropriate URL encoding (i.e. ' ' to '+') is applied when templates are URLs.
Some substitutions are also available in escaped form (i.e. URL encoded).
As an example this is needed when generating links within a template. This might pass the current mapextent to a new MapServer call. [mapext] is substituted by a space delimited set of lower left and upper right coordinates. This would break the URL. [mapext_esc] is substituted by a proper encoded set.
2 Format
Templates are simply HTML files or URL strings that contains special characters that are replaced by mapserv each time the template is processed. The simple substitution allows information such as active layers or the spatial extent to be passed from the user to mapserv and back again. Most often the new values are dumped into form variables that will be passed on again. The list of special characters and form variables is given below. HTML templates can include just about anything including javascript and java calls.
2.1 General
[version]
The MapServer version number.
[id]
Unique session id. The id can be passed in via a form but is more commonly generated by the software. In that case the id is a concatenation of UNIX time (or NT equivalent) and the process id. Unless you're getting more requests in a second than the system has process ids the id can be considered unique. ;->
[host]
Hostname of the web server.
[port]
Port the web server is listening to.
[post or get variable name], [post or get variable name_esc]
The contents of any variables passed to the MapServer, whether they were used or not, can be echoed this way. One use might be to have the user set a map title or north arrow style in an interactive map composer. The system doesn't care about the values, but they might be real important in creating the final output, e.g. if you specified a CGI parameter like myvalue=.... you can access this in the template file with [myvalue].
Also available as escaped version.
[web_meta data key],[web_meta data key_esc]
Web object meta data access (e.g [web_projection]
Also available as escaped version.
[errmsg], [errmsg_esc]
Current error stack output. Various error messages are delimited by semi-colons.
Also available as escaped version.
2.2 File Reference
[img]
Path (relative to document root) of the new image, just the image name if I MAGE_URL is not set in the mapfile.
In a map interface template, [img] is substituted with the path to the map image. In a query results template, it is substituted with the path to the querymap image (if a QUERYMAP object is defined in the mapfile.
[ref]
Path (relative to document root) of the new reference image.
[legend]
Path (relative to document root) of new legend image rendered by the MapServer.
Since version 3.5.1 a new HTML Legend template is provided by MapServer. If a template is defined in the mapfile the [legend] string is replaced by the processed legend as. See the HTML Legend howto for details.
[scalebar]
Path (relative to document root) of new scalebar image.
[queryfile]
Path to the query file (if savequery was set as a CGI Parameter).
[map]
Path to the map file (if savemap was set as a CGI Parameter).
2.3 Image Geometry
[center]
Computed image center in pixels. Useful for setting imgxy form variable when map sizes change.
[center_x], [center_y]
Computed image center X or Y coordinate in pixels.
[mapsize], [mapsize_esc]
Current image size in cols and rows (separated by spaces).
Also available as escaped version.
[mapwidth], [mapheight]
Current image width or height.
[scale]
Current image scale. The exact value is not appropriate for user information but essential for some applications. The value can be rounded e.g. using JavaScript or server side post processing.
[cellsize]
Size of an pixel in the current image in map units. Useful for distance measurement tools in user interfaces.
2.4 Map Geometry
[mapx], [mapy]
X and Y coordinate of mouse click.
[mapext], [mapext_esc]
Full mapextent (separated by spaces).
Also available as escaped version.
[minx], [miny], [maxx], [maxy]
Minimum / maximum X or Y coordinate of new map extent.
[dx], [dy]
The differences of minimum / maximum X or Y coordinate of new map extent.
Useful for creating cachable extents (i.e. 0 0 dx dy) with legends and scalebars
[rawext], [rawext_esc]
Raw mapextent, that is the extent before fitting to a window size (separated by spaces). In cases where input came from imgbox (via Java or whatever) rawext refers to imgbox coordinates transformed to map units.
Also available as escaped version.
Useful for spatial query building.
[rawminx], [rawminy], [rawmaxx], [rawmaxy]
Minimum / maximum X or Y coordinate of a raw map/search extent.
The following substitutions are only available if the MapServer was compiled with PROJ support and a projection is defined in the mapfile.
[maplon], [maplat]
Longitude / latitude value of mouse click. Available only when projection enabled.
[mapext_latlon], [mapext_latlon_esc]
Full mapextent (separated by spaces). Available only when projection enabled.
Also available as escaped version.
[minlon], [minlat], [maxlon] [maxlat]
Minimum / maximum longitude or latitude value of mapextent. Available only when projection enabled.
[refext], [refext_esc]
Reference map extent (separated by spaces).
Also available as escaped version.
This template has been added with version 4.6 on behalf of an enhancement request. See the thread in the MapServer bug#1102 for potential use cases.
2.5 Layer
[layers] | [layers_esc]
All active layers space delimited. Used for a "POST" request.
Also available as escaped version.
[toggle_layers] | [toggle_layers_esc]
List of all layers that can be toggled, i.e. all layers defined in the mapfile which status is currently not default.
Also available as escaped version.
[layername_check | select]
Used for making layers persistent across a map creation session. String is replaced with the keyword "checked", "selected" or "" if layername is on. Layername is the name of a layer as it appears in the mapfile. Does not work for default layers.
[layername_meta data key]
Layer meta data access (e.g. [streets_build] the underscore is essential).
2.6 Zoom
[zoom_minzoom to maxzoom_check|select]
Used for making the zoom factor persistent. Zoom values can range from -25 to 25 by default. The string is replaced with the HTML keyword "checked", "selected" or "" depending on the current zoom value.
E.g. if the zoom is 12, a [zoom_12_select] is replaced with "selected", while a [zoom_13_select] in the same HTML template file is not.
[zoomdir_-1|0|1_check|select]
Used for making the zoom direction persistent. Use check with a radio control or select with a selection list. See the demo for an example. The string is replaced with the HTML keyword "checked", "selected" or "" depending on the current value of zoomdir.
2.7 Query
The following substitutions are only available when the template is processed as a result of a query.
[shpext], [shpext_esc]
Extent of current shape plus a 5 percent buffer. Available only when processing query results.
[shpminx], [shpminy], [shpmaxx], [shpmaxy]
Minimum / maximum X or Y coordinate of shape extent. Available only when processing query results.
[shpmid]
Middle of the extent of current shape. Available only when processing query results.
[shpmidx], [shpmidy]
X or Y coordinate of middle of the extent of the current shape. Available only when processing query results.
[shpidx]
Index value of the current shape. Available only when processing query results.
[shpclass]
Classindex value of the current shape. Available only when processing query results.
[shpxy formatting options]
The list of shape coordinates, with list formatting options, especially useful for SVG.
The default template [shpxy] returns a comma seperated list of space delimited of coordinates (i.e. x1 y1, x2 y2, x3 y3).
Available only when processing query results.
Available attributes (h = header, f=footer, s=seperator):
cs=
Coordinate seperator, default is comma (",").xh=, xf=
Characters to put before and after the x coordinates (defaults are xh="" and xf=" ").yh= yf=
Characters to put before and after the y coordinates (defaults are no characters).ph=, pf=, ps=
Characters to put before and after and seperators between feature parts (e.g. holes, defaults are no characters).sh=, sf=
Characters to put before and after a feature (defaults are no characters)precision=
The number of decimal places to output for coordinates (default is 0).proj=
The output projection definition for the coordinates (default is none), a special value of "image" will convert to image coordinates.As a simple example:
[shpxy xh="(" yf=")"] will result in: (x1 y1),(x2 y2),(x3 y3)
[tileindex]
Index value of the current tile. If no tiles used for the current shape this is replaced by "-1". Available only when processing query results.
[DBASE item name],[DBASE item name_esc],[DBASE item name_raw]
Item name from the attribute table of a queried layer. Only attributes for the active query layers are accessible. Case must be the same as what is stored in the DBASE file. ArcView, for example, uses all caps for shapefile field names. Available only when processing query results.
By default the attributes are encoded especially for HTML representation. In addition the escaped version (for use in URLs) as well as the raw data is available.
[Join name_DBASE item name],[Join name_DBASE item name_esc], [Join name_DBASE item name_raw]
One-to-one joins: First the join name (as specified in the mapfile has to be given, second the tables fields can be accessed similar to the layers attribute data. Available only when processing query results.
By default the attributes are encoded especially for HTML representation. In addition the escaped version (for use in URLs) as well as the raw data is available.
[join_Join name]
One-to-many joins: The more complex variant. If the join type is multiple (one-to-many) the template is replaced by the set of header, template file and footer specified in the mapfile.
[metadata_meta data key], [metadata_meta data key_esc]
Queried layer meta data access (e.g [metadata_projection]
Also available as escaped version.
For query modes that allow for multiple result sets, the following string substitutions are available. For FEATURESELECT and FEATURENSELECT modes the totals a re adjusted so as not to include the selection layer. The selection layer results ARE available for display to the user.
[nr]
Total number of results. Useful in web header and footers. Available only when processing query results.
[nl]
Number of layers returning results. Useful in web header and footers. Available only when processing query results.
[nlr]
Total number of results within the current layer. Useful in web header and footers. Available only when processing query results.
[rn]
Result number within all layers. Starts at 1. Useful in web header and footers. Available only when processing query results.
[lrn]
Result number within the current layer. Starts at 1. Useful in query templates. Available only when processing query results.
[cl]
Current layer name. Useful in layer headers and footers. Available only when processing query results.
3 Example Template
A small example to give an idea how to work with templates. Note that it covers MapServer specific templates (e.g. the [map], [mapext]) and user defined templates (e.g. [htmlroot] or [program]) used to store application settings.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>MapServer Template Sample</title>
</head>
<body>
MapServer Template Sample<br>
<!-- The central form the application is based on. -->
<form method="GET" action="[program]">
<!-- CGI MapServer applications are server stateless in principle,
all information must be "stored" in the client. This includes
some basic settings as below.
The example is based on the pan and zoom test suite:
http://maps.dnr.state.mn.us/mapserver_demos/tests36/ -->
<input type="hidden" name="map" value="[map]">
<input type="hidden" name="imgext" value="[mapext]">
<input type="hidden" name="imgxy" value="149.5 199.5">
<input type="hidden" name="program" value="[program]">
<input type="hidden" name="htmlroot" value="[htmlroot]">
<input type="hidden" name="map_web_imagepath" value="[map_web_imagepath]">
<input type="hidden" name="map_web_imageurl" value="[map_web_imageurl]">
<!-- A table for minimal page formatting. -->
<table border=0 cellpadding=5>
<tr>
<!-- First column: Map and scale bar -->
<td align=center>
<!-- The map -->
<input type="image" name="img" src="[img]"
style="border:0;width:300;height:400">
<br>
<!-- The scale bar-->
<img src="[scalebar]" alt="Scale Bar">
</td>
<!-- Second column: Zoom direction, Legend and Reference -->
<td valign=top>
<!-- Zoom direction -->
<b>Map Controls</b><br>
Set your zoom option:<br>
<select name="zoom" size="1">
<option value="2" [zoom_2_select]> Zoom in 2 times
<option value="1" [zoom_1_select]> Recenter Map
<option value="-2" [zoom_-2_select]> Zoom out 2 times
</select>
<br>
<!-- Legend -->
<b>Legend</b><br>
<img src="[legend]" alt="Legend"><br><br><br><br>
<!-- Reference map -->
<input type="image" name="ref" src="[ref]"
style="border:0;width:150;height:150">
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
</body>
</html>
4 About This Document
4.1 Copyright Information
Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, Frank Koormann, Steve Lime.
This documentation is covered by the same Open Source license as the MapServer software itself. See MapServer's License and Credits page for the complete text.
4.2 Disclaimer
No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and other content at your own risk. As this is a new edition of this document, there may be errors and inaccuracies that may be damaging to your system. Although this is highly unlikely, the author(s) do not take any responsibility for that: proceed with caution.
[scale] parameter inaccurate and not useful for end user