Re: HTML: Associating Clickable Images

[Chet Ensign <Chet_Ensign%LDS -at- NOTES -dot- WORLDCOM -dot- COM>]

Nancy Hoft writes:

<-- I am creating an online library using MOSAIC and HTML.  ...
The user clicks on an image representing the type of documentation
he/she wants to read (reference doc or user doc).  Then the user
 clicks on the image representing the object he/she wants to read about
 (database, operating system, whatever...). ...
-->

Nancy,

What you are describing is very doable. We are working on some similar projects
here. There is a program called MAPEDIT by a Mr. Boudell that is out at a
number of Web sites. I don't have the list handy, but I get find it for you.

Basically, it is just like the SHAG editors you would use for a Windows
Help-style application. You take your image in the program, draw areas on it,
then associate those areas with URLs. When a user clicks on the area of the
image, they are switched to the specified document.

You may want to develop your "pathways" by means of individual HTML documents,
just to keep your transfer times down. If you are going to be including
graphics, loading a single document with a collection of tiny bitmaps is just a
nuisance on the user's end. Better to organize them into a collection of
smaller documents that load faster.

Forms and check boxes and things of that ilk are where you get into PERL-style
programming on the backend, because there , you are going to use a <FORM...>
element to collect and return values from your readers. You'll need to plug
them into some script that can take advantage of them. But simple navigation by
URL is no problem to implement.

Hope this gives you a start.

Best regards,

/chet

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Chet Ensign                          Phone: (908) 771-9221
Director, Electronic Publishing      Email: chet -at- lds -dot- com
Logical Design Solutions, Inc.       Email(home): censign -at- interserv -dot- com
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