Ruby MapScript API extensions

This gem extends the SWIG MapScript API of UMN MapServer with Ruby-like iterators and other API methods.

Installation

ruby_mapscript requires the MapScript API library to be installed. On Debian/Ubuntu systems:

sudo apt-get install libmapscript-ruby

A Mapserver binary (CGI) is not required for executing ruby_mapscript code.

To use the gem, add it to your Gemfile or install it manually:

gem install ruby_mapscript

To use ruby_mapscript, require the gem and include Mapscript in your class/module or globally:

require "rubygems"
require "ruby_mapscript"
include Mapscript

ruby_mapscript provides a Ruby-like iterator interface to MapScript collections:

map = MapObj.new('test.map')
map.layers.each do |layer|
  puts layer.name
end
mapimage = map.draw
mapimage.save('test.png')

With the generic SWIG API iterating would look like:

0.upto(map.numlayers-1) do |i|
  layer = map.getLayer(i)
  puts layer.name
end

ruby_mapscript iterators include Enumerable which gives you the same methods as Ruby Arrays and Hashes:

wms_layers = map.layers.select { |layer| layer.connectiontype == MS_WMS }

To run a MapScript based WMS server as a Rack application create config.ru:

require "ruby_mapscript/mapserver"

run RubyMapscript::Mapserver.new('test.map')

and call:

rackup config.ru

To include a WMS server in a Rails application, require "ruby_mapscript/mapserver" and add a line to your routes.rb:

match "/wms" => RubyMapscript::Mapserver.new('test.map')

If you get:

cannot load such file -- mapscript (LoadError)

when you run 'rake test' or try to use ruby_mapscript in a rails application, the following might solve the problem (on Debian/Ubuntu systems):

find where mapscript.so is hiding:

sudo updatedb
locate mapscript.so

it could be something like:

/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/x86_64-linux/mapscript.so

add the path to your config/environment.rb, like this:

$: << '/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/x86_64-linux'

or add it to your Rakefile, like this:

Rake::TestTask.new do |t|
 t.libs << 'test'
 t.libs << '/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/x86_64-linux' # this line added
end