MapManager supports setting up layers to use the 'Auto Style' option, which can be specified in the 'Label & Style' tab in the Layer Property Editor. This setting provides that the actual style settings are retrieved from the data source on-the-fly when the layer is rendered. The OGR styles are attached to the features so each feature may be rendered with different styles within the same layer.
Currently only a few OGR data sources (like MapInfo .mif or .tab) have native support storing style information along with the data, however this can be extended for most of the data sources by adding the OGR style strings as an additional attribute field with the name 'OGR_STYLE'. The OGR Style strings must follow a special syntax as described in the following documentation: OGR - Feature Style Specification.
In the following topics we provide further information about the OGR style strings which could easily be displayed when selecting a feature in MapManager. When rendering a layer this style information is automatically mapped to layer styles. For more information about processing the auto styles see: Mapping OGR Feature Styles to Layer Styles. In order to support all the mapinfo brush, pen and marker (point) styles it may be required to define additional styles and fonts to be used by MapServer when drawing the features of the layer.