Blog : JavaScript Image Maps

JavaScript Image Maps

An image-map is an image with clickable regions.

HTML Image Maps

From our HTML tutorial we have learned that an image-map is an image with clickable regions. Normally, each region has an associated hyperlink. Clicking on one of the regions takes you to the associated link. Look at our simple HTML image-map.

Adding some JavaScript

We can add events (that can call a JavaScript) to the <area> tags inside the image map. The <area> tag supports the onClick, onDblClick, onMouseDown, onMouseUp, onMouseOver, onMouseMove, onMouseOut, onKeyPress, onKeyDown, onKeyUp, onFocus, and onBlur events.

Here's the HTML image-map example, with some JavaScript added:

Example

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function writeText(txt)
{
document.getElementById("desc").innerHTML=txt;
}
</script>
</head>

<body>
<img src="planets.gif" width="145" height="126"
alt="Planets" usemap="#planetmap" />

<map name="planetmap">
<area shape ="rect" coords ="0,0,82,126"
onMouseOver="writeText('The Sun and the gas giant planets like Jupiter
are by far the largest objects in our Solar System.')"
href ="sun.htm" target ="_blank" alt="Sun" />

<area shape ="circle" coords ="90,58,3"
onMouseOver="writeText('The planet Mercury is very difficult to study
from the Earth because it is always so close to the Sun.')"
href ="mercur.htm" target ="_blank" alt="Mercury" />

<area shape ="circle" coords ="124,58,8"
onMouseOver="writeText('Until the 1960s, Venus was often considered a
twin sister to the Earth because Venus is the nearest planet to us, and
because the two planets seem to share many characteristics.')"
href ="venus.htm" target ="_blank" alt="Venus" />
</map>

<p id="desc"></p>

</body>
</html>