ismap functionality...

Wayne Allen (wa@mcc.com)
Thu, 30 Dec 93 14:23:17 CST

I recently attempted my first use of the ismap feature to explore it's
possibilities. The very first thing I tried was making a bookmark map,
allowing access to home, help, and search pages, as well as "up" (a
parent document) and "top" (goto top of page). Of couse, these last
two are not possible, as I now know. Using the same map on multiple
pages and parameterizing the URL mappings *or* having relative mappings
is not possible because the mapping is done by the server without
context.

One could have relative mappings (I think) if the client provided the
server with the context URL in the coordinate request, *or* if the
client expanded relative forwarding addresses in its current context,
but X-Mosaic, for example, doesn't seem to do this.

I can see some advantages in having the server do mapping, but I think
URL mapping should also be specifiable in HTML, so the client
can do more sophisticated (not to mention efficient) mapping. For
example, the following:

<A HREF="http://machine/htbin/imagemap/sample">
<img src="sample.gif" ismap>
</A> <P>

might have an alternate representation which could be completely
interpreted by the client without involving (twice!) a (possibly very
busy) server:

<map src="sample.gif" rect="http://somewhere/something.html 0,0 65,15"
rect="parent.html 66,0 120,15"
rect="#TOP 180,0 200,15">

I'm sure there has been some discussion of this in the past, and I'm sorry
I missed it. Am I laboring under some misconceptions? Are there good reasons
why the client should not do mapping?

Thanks for any replies...

--
 wa | Wayne Allen, EINet - wa@mcc.com		 	 FAX: (512)338-3897
    | MCC/ISD, 3500 West Balcones Center Dr, Austin, Tx 78759 (512)338-3754