Unable to launch MapServer through MS4W - gis

Question

I have installed the MS4W map server and when I try to launch the site in the localhost it takes me to the below landing page. I am unable to see the map getting loaded in the page.
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Besides using the setup.exe installer from https://ms4w.com, you can install MS4W manually as well, using the .zip available there; you can use the steps below to verify your installation either way:
make sure that you installed/extracted MS4W into a root of a drive (for example,
you should have a resulting directory structure such as:
C:/
ms4w
Apache
apps
...
open a command prompt window (use Windows search, enter "cmd", and make sure to
choose "Run as Administrator"
now in Command Prompt, enter:
cd c:/ms4w
then setup the MS4W environment with:
setenv.bat
which should let you know that the MS4W environment is ready:
GDAL, mapserv, Python, PHP, and commandline MS4W tools path set
now we can install the Apache web server:
apache-install.bat
which should display a successful message such as (notice the text "The Apache MS4W Web Server service was started successfully") :
Installing the 'Apache MS4W Web Server' service
The 'Apache MS4W Web Server' service is successfully installed.
Testing httpd.conf....
Errors reported here must be corrected before the service can be started.
The Apache MS4W Web Server service is starting.
The Apache MS4W Web Server service was started successfully.
if you have errors, you can check the Apache logs at C:/ms4w/Apache/logs
you can also verify that MapServer is ready at the commandline, with:
mapserv -v
which should display MS4W information such as:
MapServer version 7.6.0-dev (MS4W 4.0.3) OUTPUT=PNG OUTPUT=JPEG OUTPUT=KML SUPPORTS=PROJ SUPPORTS=AGG SUPPORTS=FREETYPE SUPPORTS=CAIRO SUPPORTS=SVG_SYMBOLS SUPPORTS=SVGCAIRO SUPPORTS=ICONV SUPPORTS=FRIBIDI SUPPORTS=WMS_SERVER SUPPORTS=WMS_CLIENT SUPPORTS=WFS_SERVER SUPPORTS=WFS_CLIENT SUPPORTS=WCS_SERVER SUPPORTS=SOS_SERVER SUPPORTS=FASTCGI SUPPORTS=THREADS SUPPORTS=GEOS SUPPORTS=POINT_Z_M SUPPORTS=PBF INPUT=JPEG INPUT=POSTGIS INPUT=OGR INPUT=GDAL INPUT=SHAPEFILE
TIP: try to now execute other MS4W tools at that same commandline, such as gdalinfo --formats or shp2img etc. (basically you can call any tool now, that lives in C:/ms4w/tools, without ever having to change directory there)
now you are ready to goto your localhost, so open your web browser (Firefox, Chrome, IE) and type: 127.0.0.1 <enter>
you should see the MS4W homepage now in your local browser, with a sample map as well (that is actually a fully configured WMS service served from your local machine, serving Spatialite data), such as: https://ms4w.dev/