Flash presentation of these steps: Mapping Your Data

• Install MapServer. Once installed on a local machine, mapserver is visible from http://localhost/cgi-bin/mapserv. (This presentation assumes mapserver is already installed.)

• Datasets -- Download data
• Create project in QGIS
  • Open Dataset
  • Style data layer:
    • Choose 'graduated color'
    • Choose a field (POPULATION)
    • Create 5 classes
    • Create range for each class
    • apply style
    • Tweak colors as neccesary to achieve desired look
• Save project
• Export Map File from project
  • Choose qgis project location
  • Choose mapfile location
  • Enter a name and default size
• Browse to MapServer, and add 'mode=map&map=/Location/Of/File/On/Disk.map' to the URL
• If you get an image:
  • Download mapserver-lite.html from this wiki page.
  • Change the URL to point to http://localhost/cgi-bin/mapserv
  • Change the parameters to include your map file location.
  • Open mapserver-lite.html in your browser

Tools needed:

• MapServer
• QGIS
• Any Text Editor
• Browser
• PYTHON 2.5+ (http://www.python.org/download/) -- This is needed for the MapServer export plugin within QGIS. Will not work in windows without Python installed. Python 2.5.1 fixes this issue.