Important notes when upgrading to MS4W 5 from MS4W 4

REQUIREMENTS.txt

• always first follow the instructions in the file /ms4w/REQUIREMENTS.txt to install the updated "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable" on your server

SWIG MapScript

PHP

• test PHP MapScript at the commandline by executing:

  setenv.bat
  php -dextension=C:/ms4w/Apache/php/ext/php_mapscript.dll -r "echo msGetVersion();"
  

• as of MS4W 5.0, there is no external file to include in your PHP scripts (the constants and functions are wrapped inside the MapScript PHP extension instead)
• see the updated example scripts here on the Wiki, such as:
  • query example: MS4W 5.x
  • new layer example (WMS layer, polygon + opacity, point): MS4W 5.x
  • WMS wrapper example: MS4W 5.x
  • setOpacity() example: MS4W 5.x
• quickmap.php has also been updated (see locally at /ms4w/Apache/htdocs/quickmap.php)
• be aware that with the MapServer 8 release, many deprecated things have been removed and will now throw an error. For example, there is no longer a setMetaData() function for a Layer, in ​SWIG MapScript. Instead here is a working example:

  <?php
    $oWMSLayer->metadata->set("wms_name", "popplace");
    $oWMSLayer->metadata->set("wms_srs", "EPSG:3978");
    $oWMSLayer->metadata->set("wms_server_version", "1.1.1");
    $oWMSLayer->metadata->set("wms_format", "image/png");
  ?>
  

Python

• test Python MapScript at the commandline by executing:

  python -c "import mapscript; print (mapscript.msGetVersion())"
  

• quickmap.py has been included in /ms4w/msplugins/mapscript/python/ (follow the instructions at top of file)
• the GDAL Python utilities can be called at the commandline such as:

    setenv.bat
    gdal_merge --help
    gdal2tiles --help
  

PROJ

• Apache's conf & setenv.bat now set PROJ_LIB to PROJ's new location:

    \ms4w\share\proj;\ms4w\share\proj\grids
  

  If your mapfiles set a PROJ_LIB (which is not recommended, as MS4W's Apache does this for you) you will have to update your PROJ_LIB value
• MS4W 5.0 includes PROJ 8.2, which contains many changes, allowing to dynamically pull in various grids, to improve accuracy
  • see settings in /ms4w/share/proj/proj.ini
  • since we are involved in displaying maps over the internet, we should likely have these grids locally on the server
    • execute the following to install the grids (into /ms4w/share/proj/)

        setenv.bat
        proj-install-grids.bat
      

Removed Mapfile Parameters

The following (formerly deprecated) mapfile parameters will now cause errors in your mapfile, you MUST REMOVE them:

1. DUMP TRUE

Instead, you can configure querying of your layer by using METADATA instead, such as:

LAYER
  ...
  METADATA
    "wms_title" "Populated Places"
    "wms_include_items" "all"
    "gml_include_items" "all"
    "gml_featureid"     "ogc_fid"	
  END #metadata
  ...
END #layer

2. OPACITY

3. COLOR at the LAYER-level

Instead it must be inside a STYLE object:

LAYER
  ...
  STYLE
    COLOR 120 120 120
  END #style
END #layer

map2img