Geoserver 2.4.3 / OpenLayers - setting zoom level dynamically

Question

Expected user behavior is that when user selects the County from a drop-down, the map should zoom to its max extents. I am using SQL View (Postgis on 9.3) and since I do not know the bounds, I gave the Max Bounds of the FL State. Not able to create layer without giving bounds. Can the boundaries be inferred from the SQL? The SQL for the view is as shown below:

   select ST_XMin(b.geom) as xmin,ST_YMin(b.geom) as ymin, ST_XMax(b.geom) as xmax,
   ST_YMax(b.geom) as ymax, a.zcta5ce10, a.geom
   from us_zip a, tl_2013_us_county b
   where b.statefp='12'
   and lower(b.name)='%COUNTY_NAME%'
   and ST_contains(b.geom,a.geom) order by zcta5ce10

If it is not possible, I'm thinking of getting the max bounds for the selected county before invoking the OpenLayers map.

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly, your view already returns the bounds for a county. What you need to do is change the map itself, correct?

You should take a look at the map object's zoomToExtent() method. Since you have the min/max for both X and Y, you can pass that in as an array.