Proposal to implement Named Styles in MapServer

Mapfile Extensions

• Enable STYLE blocks at the top MAP level
  • Add a NAME directive to the STYLE block
  • Top-level STYLE blocks must be named

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• Provide a "named style" declaration in the LAYER block in the form of LAYER "name" (in addition to the existing LAYER ... END syntax)
  • The LAYER object gets instantiated with a copy of the named style from the top level
  • Referencing a non-existent STYLE by name throws an exception

• Add an INHERITS "style" directive to the STYLE block
  • Block styles that inherit from a named style are instantied as a copy of the named style before other declarations in the STYLE block are applied

MapServer StyleObj Extensions

• Add a "name" property
• Add a "global" property
• Add a "cloneStyle" function to mapfile.c

MapScript Extensions

• ...