CLIENT – SIDE IMAGE MAPS

Although server – side image maps were in common use in the early days of the web, their weaknesses led Netscape to add support for client – side image maps to version 2.0, which was released in March 1996.Becasue they were vastly superior to server – side image maps , soon all the other browser makers added support for them as well. Client – side image maps address the problems with server – side image maps by eliminating the need for a special image map program on the server. Instead, they manage all the image map processing locally in the web browser itself.

Later I this lesson, you’ll learn how to creaeclient – side image maps.

IMAGE MAPS AND TEXT – ONLY BROWSERS

Because of the inherently graphical nature of image maps, they  work well only in graphical browsers. Lynx, the most popular text – based browser, provides limited support for client – side image maps. If you load a page in Lynx that contains a client – side Image map, you can get a list of the links contained in the image map.

CREATING CLIENT – SIDE IMAGE MAPS

As mentioned previously, client – side image maps offer several improvements over server-side image maps. The most significant improvement is that the line doesn’t need to be processed on the server. All modern browsers process the image map locally on the users’ computers.

GETTING AN IMAGE

To create an image map, you’ll need an image (of course), this image will be the most useful  if it has several discrete visual areas that can be selected individually. For example, use an image that contains several symbolic elements or that can be easily broken down into polygons. Photographs generally don’t make good imageless because their various elements tend to blend together or are for unusual shapes. Figures 7.18 and 7.19 show examples of good and poor images for image maps.

FIGURE 7.18 A GOOD IMAGE FOR AN IMAGE MAP.

FIGURE 7.19 A NOT – SO – GOOD IMAGE FOR AN IMAGE MAP.