Image Maps - Am I Showing My Age???

[Clayton]

I'm using WordPress (a php-based CMS) to handle my website. When I asked at the WordPress forum about image-mapping I received only one reply and it was 'way off base. Is this technique still in vogue? Maybe it's something that php can't handle?

I want to define areas of a bitmap that when hovered over and clicked, lead to another page. It was so long ago that I last used it, it had to be in PageMill but anyway, are server-side image maps still supported???

[iamback]

Originally Posted by Clayton

I'm using WordPress (a php-based CMS) to handle my website. When I asked at the WordPress forum about image-mapping I received only one reply and it was 'way off base. Is this technique still in vogue? Maybe it's something that php can't handle?

Nothing to do with PHP: it is a programming language and can generate any code you like (even PHP ).

Originally Posted by Clayton

I want to define areas of a bitmap that when hovered over and clicked, lead to another page. It was so long ago that I last used it, it had to be in PageMill but anyway, are server-side image maps still supported???

Client-side would be easier, but why do you need one? Do you really need non-rectangular hotspots (like the shapes of provinces on a map)? If all you need is rectangular areas it's much easier to do it with clickable images on a background image, and can be made more accessible as well.

Put differently: why do you need a map at all? Won't ordinary links (or image links) do the job?

Where you really do need an image map, the next question would be how to integrate that with WP, but it should not be very different from embedding an image (plus a piece of plain HTML code for the map). A WP forum would be able to tell you how to do that, but would likely not be the right place to ask how to create an image map.

[Clayton]

Originally Posted by iamback

Client-side would be easier, but why do you need one? Do you really need non-rectangular hotspots (like the shapes of provinces on a map?

Yes. Exactly.

[Steve Rindsberg]

Here's an example of a client side image map:

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_map.asp

[Clayton]

that's a super link!

Now I know what the <noscript> tag does (although my need-to-know finally went away).

[Claidheamdanns]

I did an image map of the US, and so yes, image mapping is still used and needed. The site that I did it for recently went away, when the organization using it dissolved. I probably still have the coding for it, if you would like to borrow it.

[norm101]

Here are some links to creating image maps using CSS:
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/imap.html

This one is my absolute favorite:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/cssmaps