Web Mapping Illustrated

Data Format Guide

The rest of this document is the data format guide. This guide is structured to show the fundamentals of each MapServer-supported data format. Each section discusses one format, ranging from one to several pages in length. The sections typically start with a summary of the most important information about the format, followed by examples of file listings, connection methods, ogrinfo usage, and MapServer map file syntax examples.

Each section has been designed to stand alone, so you may notice that certain warnings and comments are repeated or redundant. This is intentional. Each format is presented in rough order of popular use, based on a survey of the MapServer community.

The following formats are included:

• ESRI shapefiles (SHP)

• PostGIS/PostgreSQL database

• MapInfo files (TAB/MID/MIF)

• Oracle Spatial Database

• Web Feature Service (WFS)

• Geography Markup Language (GML)

• VirtualSpatialData (ODBC/OVF)

• TIGER/Line files

• ESRI Arc Info coverage files (ADF)

• ESRI ArcSDE database (SDE)

• Microstation design files (DGN)

• IHO S-57 files

• Spatial Data Transfer Standard files (SDTS)

• Inline MapServer features

• National Transfer Format files (NTF)

Tip

The MySQL spatial database isn't covered in this guide at this time due to lack of familiarity by the authors. Future contributions by MySQL users are welcome in this guide.