Image Map Editor needs testing

[c010depunkk]

A while ago a friend of mine was working on a website for the RPG Final Fantasy. He was using html image maps to interlink the maps, outline areas, and place shops/quests/etc. After watching him try out a large number of crappy freeware image mappers and using up the trial periods on a couple better image mappers that costed way too much, I decided to try and write a decent freeware version myself. After a couple weeks of coding and beta-testing I now have a first release version finished.

It's written in C# (requires the .NET Framework 2.0) and I'm releasing it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. I'd appreciate it if you all could check it out, test it, and give me feedback about bugs, improvement suggestions, and (compliments). It is available for download at http://www.c010depunkk.com/?page=ImageMapEditor. I hope it will be useful for at least a few people, so enjoy.

[Ryan Fait]

Interesting. Image maps are a rather out of date, though.

[c010depunkk]

huh? check out http://www.ff12maps.com and say that again. Are there alternatives using css or javascript?

[karinne]

By using css only?

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/imap.html

[c010depunkk]

yea, yea. Stu and his divs.

Hello, people, i wanted feedback on the program, not the concept. Comments about the fact that image maps are out of date don't really help me. Even if you can't believe it, there are people who use this kind of thing and I'm trying to help them. TX!

[Ryan Fait]

Don't be insulted by my comments. I know image maps are still in use, but they're far from Web 2.0. I'm big into accessibility and usability, and, unfortunately, image maps don't do either of those. I'm on a Mac so I can't test your program out, but it's neat that you spent the time to actually make a program to meet your needs. I wish I could do that

[c010depunkk]

Yea, ok man. No stress.

By the way, if you want a program that does a specific task then feel free to contact me and i'll give it a bash.

[bruno89]

can you get a program to make me a website just by thinking about it ? couse some of the ideas i have are great but when i jot them down they never look as good ... lol ill pay you all the money i have *pulls out wallette* here have 23p

[Ryan Fait]

Haha, I'd pay top dollar for that, too.

[moojoo]

While I like that you did this and some will indeed find it useful, most apps i.e. Homesite, Dreamweaver etc have image map tools already integrated. Now if you could make one to do image maps with css stylee I would be all up on promoting that.

[c010depunkk]

do you have an example for me? All I'd have to do is change the code where I generate the html. But, as far as I can tell, css image maps only support rectangles. Right? Wrong?

[Ryan Fait]

Yeah, for all general purposes, rectangles only. You could technically have a whole bunch of small rectangles to make a circle, but that would just be stupid.

[c010depunkk]

Ok, I'll give it a bash and add a mode for generating the current map as an image map with css. I'd appreciate some examples of validated code.

[Ryan Fait]

Basically, you would need just a few things. You'd need the size of the container "the image" in terms of image maps and the sizes and positions of the rectangles inside it. This is a basic example:

Code: Select all

.image {
  position: relative;
  width: 400px;
  height: 300px;
  text-indent: -5000px;
}
.box {
  position: absolute;
  display: block;
}
.box1 {
  left: 20px;
  top: 40px;
  width: 10px;
  height: 10px;
}
.box2 {
  left: 80px;
  top: 220px;
  width: 10px;
  height: 10px;
}

<div class="image">
  <a href="#" class="box box1">Link to box 1 (this text is hidden: SEO purposes only)</a>
  <a href="#" class="box box2">More SE text</a>
</div>

You'd have to add a background image to .image, but that's a good outline to start with anyway. Good luck, and when you finish this, I'll definitely download it!

[c010depunkk]

A lot of people use the <dl> and <dt> tags to make css image maps. Which version better?

[Ryan Fait]

Unordered lists would be okay, but I cannot imagine a definition list ever being used in an image map...

[c010depunkk]

Which characters are illegal in a css class name?

[moojoo]

eh http://www.newguyinennis.com/samples/imagemap-sample/ not the end all but functional, I should modify/update it.

[Ryan Fait]

I don't believe you can start a class or ID with a number. I also don't use capital letters, but some people do. Just stick to lowercase letters.

[unsinkable]

It's ok lol can't find anything wrong with it apart from some of the help contents won't load but probably just my computer lol apart from that it is good.