Remotely calling image map html

is this possible?

[JamesR]

Image map html can be a bit bulky, especially if it is for nav on every single page. Is there a way to put this code off the page and call up it like you would remote js or regular images?

[lorax]

I'm not sure I understand but what it sounds like you're asking for would be a server side include?

[JamesR]

That might be what I am asking for :) I have not used ssi before. On a traditional image map, there is html coding on the page itself that defines what coordinates on the image itself are hotlinked to what page. I know that this method is faster than the server option, but it puts extra lines of code on each page, especially if you have a lot of hotspots on the image. I was just wondering if you could call it externally. Maybe SSI is the only option.

[lorax]

Well you could use SSI - but it would still add the code to your pages when the server parses the page.

My guess is that even if you were able to write a script to reduce the code in your pages the code itself would take time to load and run and may do more damage to download times than before. My instinct is telling me you're better off either using SSI or sticking with the image map code for each page. I'd love to be proved wrong on this though.

[jatar_k]

I looked it up in my trusty o'reilly book and I do not believe you can have it set up externally.

ssi wouldn't work because the code would still be present in the page code, not like external js.
Since maps don't have a source attribute I wouldn't think you could have it externally.

[Marcia]

James, you're talking about client-side image maps. Have you checked out server-side image maps? I don't know how those work and haven't seen much on them, but I do know they're pre-processed.

Added:

I checked the source code on one of their samples here (uglyyy) and can't see any image map code except to call a cgi script. An old tutorial:

[hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu...]

Two Perl scripts for them:
[hotscripts.com...]

[lorax]

Ah Marcia, I think you found it.

You can also find more info about server side image maps at W3C and at webmonkey.

[JamesR]

thanks Marcia, I new I came to the right board :) This one is getting flagged.