[Users] Displaying Classes with KML

[Jason Woolard]

hi Stefan,

I've had pretty good luck using the extractStyles: true, 
extractAttributes: true in OpenLayers.Layer.Vector to preserve the KML. 
Although I'm not sure I've had a mix of too many colors and classes in a 
single KML.

As for shp2kml utils I use ogr. You may already be aware since you are 
familiar with MapServer but there is a nice compiled exe called FWTools 
(http://fwtools.maptools.org/) that allows you to access a bunch of 
GDAL/OGR utils without having to build from source. This will do shp to 
kml. If I need to edit the kml it's pretty easy to parse and update with 
Python and one of the XML libs.

It's not open source but pretty low cost, Global Mapper 
(http://www.globalmapper.com/) will also do shp2kml.

Good luck.