Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of LabelEncoding

Timestamp:

Aug 10, 2010, 12:30:45 PM (14 years ago)

Author:

jmckenna

Comment:

--

LabelEncoding

@@ +1 @@
+= Display of International Characters in !MapServer Labels =
+
+== Credit ==
+
+The following functionality was added to !MapServer 4.4.0 as a part of a project sponsored by the Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA), in Japan.  Project members included: Venkatesh Raghavan, Masumoto Shinji, Nonogaki Susumu, Nemoto Tatsuya, Hirai Naoki (Osaka City University, Japan),
+Mario Basa, Hagiwara Akira, Niwa Makoto, Mori Toru (Orkney Inc., Japan),
+and Hattori Norihiro (E-Solution Service, Inc., Japan).
+
+== Related Links ==
+
+* !MapServer ticket:858
+
+== Requirements ==
+
+ * !MapServer >= 4.4.0
+ * !MapServer compiled with the libiconv library
+
+== Description ==
+
+A MAPFILE LABEL parameter, named ''ENCODING'', can be used to convert strings from its original encoding system into one that can be understood by the True Type Fonts.
+The ''ENCODING'' parameter accepts the encoding system as its parameter.
+
+This uses GNU's libiconv ( http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/ ) so theoretically, every string with an encoding system supported by libiconv can be displayed as labels in MapServer as long as it has a matching font-set.
+
+== Step 1: Verify ICONV Support and MapServer Version ==
+
+Execute ''mapserv -v' at the commandline, and verify that your MapServer version >= 4.4.0 and it includes ''SUPPORTS=ICONV'', such as:
+
+{{{
+   > mapserv -v
+
+     MapServer version 5.6.5 OUTPUT=GIF OUTPUT=PNG OUTPUT=JPEG OUTPUT=WBMP OUTPUT=PDF OUTPUT=SWF OUTPUT=SVG 
+     SUPPORTS=PROJ SUPPORTS=AGG SUPPORTS=FREETYPE SUPPORTS=ICONV SUPPORTS=FRIBIDI SUPPORTS=WMS_SERVER 
+     SUPPORTS=WMS_CLIENT SUPPORTS=WFS_SERVER SUPPORTS=WFS_CLIENT SUPPORTS=WCS_SERVER SUPPORTS=SOS_SERVER 
+     SUPPORTS=FASTCGI SUPPORTS=THREADS SUPPORTS=GEOS SUPPORTS=RGBA_PNG SUPPORTS=TILECACHE INPUT=JPEG 
+     INPUT=POSTGIS INPUT=OGR INPUT=GDAL INPUT=SHAPEFILE
+}}}
+
+== Step 2: Verify That Your Files' Encoding is Supported by ICONV ==
+
+Since !MapServer uses the libiconv library to handle encodings, you can check the list of supported encodings here: http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/
+
+Unix users can also use the ''iconv -l'' command on a system with
+libiconv installed to get the complete list of supported encodings on
+that specific system. 
+
+== Step 3: Add ENCODING Parameter to your LABEL Object ==
+
+Now you can simply add the ENCODING parameter to your mapfile LAYER object, such as:
+
+{{{
+  MAP
+   ...
+   LAYER
+     ...
+     CLASS
+       ...
+       LABEL
+         ...
+         ENCODING "SHIFT_JIS"
+       END
+     END
+   END
+  END
+}}}
+
+One of the benefits of having an "ENCODING" parameter within the LABEL object is that different LAYERS with different encoding systems can be combined together and display labels within a single map.  For example, labels from a Layer using Shapefile as it source which contains attributes in SHIFT-JIS can be combined with a Layer from a PostGIS database server with EUC-JP attributes.
+A sample Mapfile can look like this:
+
+{{{
+  LAYER
+    NAME "chimei"
+    DATA chimei
+    STATUS DEFAULT
+    TYPE POINT
+    LABELITEM "NAMAE"
+    CLASS
+      NAME "CHIMEI"
+      STYLE
+        COLOR 10 100 100
+      END
+      LABEL
+        TYPE TRUETYPE
+        FONT kochi-gothic
+        COLOR 220 20 20
+        SIZE 10
+        POSITION CL
+        PARTIALS FALSE
+        BUFFER 0
+        ENCODING SJIS
+      END
+    END
+  END
+
+  LAYER
+    NAME "chimeipg"
+    CONNECTION "user=username password=password dbname=gis host=localhost port=5432"
+    CONNECTIONTYPE postgis
+    DATA "the_geom from chimei"
+    STATUS DEFAULT
+    TYPE POINT
+    LABELITEM "NAMAE"
+    CLASS
+      NAME "CHIMEI PG"
+      STYLE
+        COLOR 10 100 100
+      END
+      LABEL
+        TYPE TRUETYPE
+        FONT kochi-mincho
+        COLOR 20 220 20
+        SIZE 10
+        POSITION CL
+        PARTIALS FALSE
+        BUFFER 0
+        ENCODING EUC-JP
+      END
+    END
+  END 
+
+== Step 4: Test with the shp2img utility ==
+
+ * see http://mapserver.org/utilities/shp2img.html