Using HTML in Attributes

Overview

In this example we create some HTML code, which will open a URL in a new window, as a Layer’s attribute value.

Normally we would select the Link field in Studio and check the checkbox to generate a hyperlink for the field. Studio currently doesn’t support the creation of a hyperlink for a new tab/window directly but it does provide an opportunity to see how html can be stored in a layer’s field.

The following steps presume that you're using a table in PostgreSQL but this can work for other sources such as a Shape file or MapInfo tab file.

• Open PgAdmin, and use the SQL dialogue to create a column in your table.
  

• Populate the column with some HTML that includes the link with the target parameter.

• Alter the SQL in the MapServer .map file to include the myhtml column as myhtml_raw - this will ensure that the HTML is passed through without alteration.

LAYER 
 NAME "mylayer" 
 STATUS OFF 
 TYPE POINT 
 INCLUDE "datashare.inc" 
 DATA "wkb_geometry from (select *, myhtml as myhtml_raw from public.mytable) as foo using unique ogc_fid using srid=27700" 
 TOLERANCE PIXELS 
 CLASS 
   NAME "" 
   STYLE 
     SYMBOL "circle" 
     SIZE 14 
   END 
 END 
END

• In Studio include myhtml_raw to in the list of columns displayed.