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Running the Examples

You can read all examples from this User's Guide. All program texts will open in a separate window, and the bullet will run the example in a third window. However, the best way of studying them is putting them in a program editor and running them from your own WebServer with MapServer and Mapclient installed. That way you can read the explanation and at the same time experiment with your own small changes. Please do the examples in the order they appear here; you won't understand much of the later pages if you haven't grasped what happens in the preceding ones.
You are advised to use Mozilla 1.3 or up. It has a very good JavaScript console (under Tools/Web Development), which should be always open when you are creating MapClient applications. The Javascript debugger is also quite good, although event driven programs like MapClient are notoriously difficult to debug. Finally, future developments, e.g. multi-server approach and standalone applications, will be done for Mozilla only. There are lots of security issues involved here that simply cannot be tackled by Internet Explorer. At the moment however, MapClient is fully IE compatible.
MapClient should be extremely easy to use for basic usage. The shortest applications only take a few dozen lines, and yet the full functionality of MapServer can be accessed from them. It can be used for advanced windowing applications, but also to create legacy web pages like those generated by FrontPage or DreamWeaver. A good working knowledge of JavaScript is required, especially of its object oriented features. Practical experience with the Document Object Model is also a must.
The essential JavaScript reference is "David Flanagan: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, O'Reilly 1998", IMO one of the best computer books in existence. Just read it through carefully and then put it next to your computer. The other "Definitive Guides" from O'Reilly on Apache, CSS, HTTP and Web Security, are also always within my reach. The essential DOM reference can be found at
.. Finally, everyone should switch to Mozilla and install the sidebars from
. They offer complete documentation for HTML, JavaScript and the DOM. I would be lost without them.