RE: Server side image maps

Hi Jim,

You have a reasonable point, there is no reason to use a serverside imagemap
in the King County example you cite.

Serverside imageamaps are used for one of two reasons:

1. Historical - serverside images were common before browsers supporeted
imagemaps. This has not been the case for quite a while.
2. Dynamic content - when the  resulting link is based on "computations", it
needs to be server based. The common example of this is linkshare programs

Hope this helps.

dc

---------------
David M. Clark
16 Harcourt Street, #2I
Boston, MA  02116
617-859-3069 : 401-679-0239 (eFax) : 617-290-3410 (cell)
http://www.davidsaccess.com
david@davidsaccess.com

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On Behalf
Of Jim Thatcher
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 6:15 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Server side image maps

Can anyone explain why a web site developer would choose a server side image
map like the one at http://www.metrokc.gov/ over a client side image map? I
am assuming the developer knows accessibility and the requirement for
equivalent text links. What are the advantages of server side image maps? I
had always thought that it had something to do with unusual regions. But the
client side map at http://support.dell.com (WITHOUT alt text on the areas)
illustrates the fact that you can get as exact as you want with the regions.

Jim
jim@jimthatcher.com
Accessibility Consulting
http://jimthatcher.com
512-306-0931

Received on Thursday, 30 November 2000 19:11:03 UTC