Chapter 11. Publishing Interactive Maps on the Web

MapServer is typically used through a web server such as Apache or IIS. Any web server that supports CGI applications can use MapServer. The web server passes along the map-related requests and returns the results to the browser. Chapter 4 describes how to compile or download binary versions of the MapServer CGI program called mapserv. This is the main MapServer program discussed in this section. The mapserv executable, not the command-line tools described earlier (Chapter 10), is used for web server applications. When this book refers to "integrating MapServer with a web server," it means using the mapserv executable (mapserv.exe on Windows) with a web server.

MapServer also has a scripting environment called MapScript. MapScript provides application programming interfaces for several programming languages. This is covered in Chapter 14. If you are a programmer and want to incorporate MapServer functionality into an application, MapScript is for you.

The CGI version of MapServer discussed in this chapter is for those who want MapServer up and running right away, without programming.