[GIS] MapServer: How to display and style a Text layer

labelingmapserverstyletext;vector

I'm trying to display a text layer using MapServer, but I'm kind of confused how to get it to display properly.

When opening the .TAB file in a GIS application (in this case, MapInfo Profressional) the labels show up correctly. They all show up in the correct location with varying sizes and angles.

When looking at the output of MapServer for this layer, there are the following problems:

The layer is blank unless I set STYLEITEM "AUTO" for the layer. If I try to set the style manually, the settings seem to be ignored.

When displaying the layer using STYLEITEM "AUTO", all of the labels are rendered in the same font size and with no rotation.

Excerpt from the .map file is below (I've excluded other layers):

        MAP
        NAME    mymap
        IMAGETYPE   PNG
        EXTENT          259997 100002 399997 160002
        SIZE        550 450
        SHAPEPATH   "./"
        CONFIG "MS_ERRORFILE" "/var/log/mapserver/mymap_error.log"
    WEB
            LOG '/var/log/mapserver/mymap.log'
            METADATA
            WMS_TITLE   "My WMS Title"
            wms_srs     "EPSG:27700"
            wfs_srs     "EPSG:27700"
            wfs_title   "WFS Test"
            wfs_enable_request  "*"
            ows_enable_request  "*"
            wfs_onlineresource  "http://[AN IP]/maps/vectors/mymap&"
            ows_onlineresource  "http://[AN IP]/maps/vectors/mymap&"
            wfs_maxfeatures "50"
        END #METADATA
    END #WEB

    PROJECTION
        "init=epsg:27700"
    END #PROJECTION

LAYER
        NAME "Mastermap_Text"
        DEBUG 2
        METADATA
                "wfs_typename"          "Mastermap_Text"
                wfs_title               "Mastermap_Text"
                wfs_srs                 "EPSG:27700"
                gml_include_items       "all"
                gml_featureid           "PRN"
                wfs_enable_request      "*"
                ows_enable_request      "*"
        END #METADATA

        TYPE ANNOTATION
        STATUS OFF
        DUMP    TRUE
        CONNECTIONTYPE OGR
        CONNECTION "/path/to/maps/vectors/Mastermap_Text.tab"
        STYLEITEM "AUTO"

        PROJECTION
            "init=epsg:27700"
        END #PROJECTION

        CLASS
            NAME "Mastermap_Text"
        END #CLASS
END #LAYER

When trying to view this layer, I'm using an URL similar to:

http://[AN IP ADDRESS]/maps/vectors/mymap?LAYERS=Mastermap_Text&FORMAT=image%2Fpng&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&SRS=EPSG%3A27700&BBOX=328800,146642,329680,147522&WIDTH=256&HEIGHT=256

As states, the above .map file results in an image of the text labels being generated, but they are all the same font size and they have no rotation.

If I remove the STYLEITEM "AUTO" line and add a STYLE block to the CLASS (with COLOR and SIZE attributes), I get a blank image.

Similarly, adding a LABEL block with the respective styles also doesn't help.

What am I doing wrong?

Edit to add images:

Mastermap_Text layer viewed using MapInfo Professional
Mastermap_Text layer viewed using MapInfo Professional

Mastermap_Text layer rendered by MapServer when using the above URL
Mastermap_Text layer rendered by MapServer when using the above URL

Mastermap_Text layer generated by shp2img: shp2img -m mymap.map -o test.png -l Mastermap_Text
Mastermap_Text layer generated by shp2img

Best Answer

As Julien pointed out in a comment, you should make sure you have defined a valid FONTSET and reference one of its fonts in your layer. Indeed, the images you are showing are using BITMAP labels (which are the default if not overridden in the mapfile), which do not support rotation.

Here's a minimal set of keywords you might want to try:

map
 ...
 fontset "fonts.lst"  #make sure your fonts.lst file references an "arial" entry
 ...
 layer
  ...
  styleitem "auto"
  class
   ...
   label
    type truetype
    font "arial"
    ...
   end
  end
 end
end
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