Generating SLD dynamically using php in Geosever

Question

I am fairly new to Geoserver and I have a question before I launch into something bigger than me: if i replace the XML code in the SLD style sheet inside geoserver with some PHP which generates the SLD dynamically (i.e. from a database query), will it work? How does Geoserver handle the SLD stored as style?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

No, that won't work. Geoserver is expecting an SLD, so it will fail parsing any PHP code you insert there.

What you can do is generate the SLD outside of Geoserver and pass it over when requesting the map from Geoserver. In OpenLayers it works like this:

var sld = '<StyledLayerDescriptor version ="1.0.0" ...> more xml here </StyledLayerDescriptor>';  

wms = new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS.Post(
   "name",
   "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms",
   {
      'layers': 'myNs:layername',
      format: 'image/jpeg',
      sld_body: sld
   },
   {
      unsupportedBrowsers: []
   }
);

More info: Dynamic Styling and Filtering of a Geoserver WMS Using OpenLayers.Layer.WMS.Post

---

Update: You can find a lot of SLD examples in Geoserver's SLD Cookbook.

Answer 2

Underdark, I tried what you had suggested with no success. The layer style doesn't change at all, although there is not error. Can you please take a look at my script?

map_sld_style

Javscript OL

        var map;

    function init(){
        map = new OpenLayers.Map("map");

        var dyn_sld = '<map_sld_style>';

        var states = new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS.Post(
            "states", "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/topp/wms",
            {
                layers: 'states',
                format: 'image/jpeg',
                sld_body: dyn_sld
            }, {
                unsupportedBrowsers: []
            }
        );

        map.addLayers([states]);

        map.setCenter(new OpenLayers.LonLat(-110, 45), 6);

    }