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MapServe

Version: 1.5
Author: Kelly Campbell
Requirements: System 7, MacHTTP 2.0 or later
Cost: $20 (shareware)
Pros: easy-to-set up for MacHTTP
Cons: doesn't allow automatic quitting
Remote location: <URL:http://www.spub.ksu.edu/other/machttp_tools/mapserve/mapserve.html>
Tricks location: <URL:http://152.1.24.177/teaching/archives/mapserve1.5.sit.hqx>

MapServe is an easy-to-setup imagemapping program. It is run as an ACGI (asynchronous CGI) program and consequently allows your WWW server to process other requests while MapServe is processing its own.

To use MapServe you must first create your graphic and create an imagemap configuration file. These processes were described earlier. The next step is to save MapServe somewhere in your WWW server's directory structure. Preferably, you would save MapServe is the same location where you save other application-type files (.CGI, .ACGI, .script files).

In order to run MapServe, you must create a preferences file. This is done by choosing Preferences from the File menu. Doing so you will be prompted for two things. First, you will be prompted for the location of your WWW server. This is easy enough. Just click the "Set Path" button and locate your server. This preference is important if you have or have not used relative URLs in your imagemap configuration file(s). Second, you will be prompted as to whether or not you want MapServe to return the IP address (or Internet name) of MapServe's host computer, or whether you want your WWW server to do this. This option is helpful if you have turned off the DNS setting in MacHTTP or WebSTAR and you want the remote client application to know your host computer's Internet name instead of just its IP number.

Making MapServe do its thing is now a matter of adding the ISMAP tag to your graphic and making the image hot by surrounding the entire IMG tag with an anchor. For example:

<a href="../scripts/mapserve.acgi$mapserve.map"><img src="../graphics/mapserve.gif" ISMAP></a>

This HTML will first display a graphic (mapserve.gif). Since its specification concludes the ISMAP attribute, the client application knows the extract point locations when the graphic is clicked on and append them to any URLs sent to the server. Furthermore, when the end-user clicks on the graphic, it will send a URL to the server calling the program mapserve.acgi and specifying the mapserve.map imagemap configuration file.

Mapserve works very well. Its configuration file is necessary, but does not have to be created on the same computer hosting the MapServe. (Although, it is in your best interest to do so.) Furthermore, Mapserve has been enhanced to work well with WebSTAR and some of WebSTAR's special features. The only drawback to MapServe is that it does not support the option to quit after it has done its processing.

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Eric last edited this page on September 26, 1995. Please feel free to send comments.