Introduction
MapServer is an open source and free software for rendering maps, images, and vector data on the web. MapServer was originally developed by the University of Minnesota (UMN) ForNet project in cooperation with NASA and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Presently, the MapServer project is hosted by the TerraSIP, a NASA sponsored project between the UMN and consortium of land management interests (http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu).
MapServer can be compiled on many platforms and operating systems, but in this tutorial, I will focus on unix like system, especially Linux.
Prerequisites
Operating system used in this tutorial is Linux Fedora Core 7 with Apache (httpd-2.0.55), PHP (php-5.2.3), and PostgreSQL(postgresql-8.2.4) already installed using manual source installation (not using default rpm package). Required libraries that already installed are libpng, libjpeg, libtiff, and zlib. Installation manual for those softwares and libraries are beyond the scope of this tutorial. Continue reading »
