# interactive maps



## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

i'd like to create a simple interactive map for a website i've been asked to enhance...(stylistically....i'm pretty much just plain old stupid when it comes to the technical end of a website)

did a google search yesterday, and found some expensive (out of budget...which is limited to my time only) software that sounds like it'd do the trick....checked some of the html on maps that were available at their sites, and it appears they take the map region and either overlay something similiar to a grid, or somehow assign points to all the boundaries/points of interaction

so i though i'd ask here and see if anybody might have experience or leads 'bout this....anybody have any thoughts/help on the creation of interactive maps?


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## GCDude (Apr 1, 2005)

have u looked at google maps? theres a free(subject to T&C's) api thats just been released. http://www.google.com/apis/maps/index.html

its pretty easy to use. I've just altered my website that shows pub crawls in towns in the UK  www.barcrawl.co.uk

if you generate a map, u can see all the javascript in the source of the page.

edit: oh and u should of probably posted this in webdevlopment!


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

thanks GC!!! :up: i will check out your link, and get a mod to move this


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

Hey iltos! 

Your wish is my command!


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## GCDude (Apr 1, 2005)

sorry i should of posted a direct link to the page:-

http://www.barcrawl.co.uk/crawlselector.asp

to get the map, choose a city, then two diff pubs, then click go. Then on the results page, u 'should' get a nice map to study!


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

GCDude said:


> sorry i should of posted a direct link to the page:-
> 
> http://www.barcrawl.co.uk/crawlselector.asp
> 
> to get the map, choose a city, then two diff pubs, then click go. Then on the results page, u 'should' get a nice map to study!


i keep getting an error on page flag 

i wanted to thank you tho, 'cause you got me over the hump of thinking and into the doing....i've found out that what i was really looking for was rollover capabilites, and, being the neophyte that i am, eventually discovered that image ready has them.....

which brings me to my next point of confusion....i've now got a layered topo map of CA with fixed county lines, with six of the layers identifying the regions i'm working with by a 40% transparent color, allowing surface features of the topo map to "bleed through"

my next step, as near as i can figure, is to slice out the regions, and prepare another layer for the "on" position of each (which i'm thinking will be the opaque version of the color currently semi-transparent)...

....but

i cannot find (or simply don't understand all the functions in the menu) anyway to organize those slices as slices....it seems to me the same thing as just creating another layer....yet all my research talks about slices, 'cause they limit file sizes and speed load times

so it seemed like a good time to stop experimenting for a bit and ask...

if just adding more layers to the current photoshop doc is a good place to start, or if i need to understand slices better before i proceed....

any thoughts?


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

iltos said:


> i keep getting an error on page flag
> 
> i wanted to thank you tho, 'cause you got me over the hump of thinking and into the doing....i've found out that what i was really looking for was rollover capabilites, and, being the neophyte that i am, eventually discovered that image ready has them.....
> 
> ...


Seems like no matter what options I choose, I get this error too!



> No Pubs score high enough to be included in this crawl


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## GCDude (Apr 1, 2005)

Sorry havent got back til now, been a bit busy. Ok fixed a few problems with the site (some of the pubs had apostrophes in name/address and these caused a few problems! should of spotted this much earlier!!). As for the "No Pubs score high enough to be included in this crawl", leave the "Select Min Pub Rating:" drop down at 1 and u have to select two different pubs. I do need to actually add some text in to tell u this  

As for your slices question Iltos, i cant quite work out what u are currently doing. Is it that you have a photoshop image (of CA), with a number of layers indicating certain things? and you want to be able use this on a website? I dont think u can do this, you will need to have an image for each 'layer', you will then need to split the images up, so when someone rolls over an area you just load up that area, not the whole map.


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

GCDude said:


> As for your slices question Iltos, i cant quite work out what u are currently doing. Is it that you have a photoshop image (of CA), with a number of layers indicating certain things? and you want to be able use this on a website? I dont think u can do this, you will need to have an image for each 'layer', you will then need to split the images up, so when someone rolls over an area you just load up that area, not the whole map.


  sounds like you got it, GC...creating a series of images seems to be the way this gets done....gonna experiment with it this morning....i'm still hoping that once i figure out this first part, that the "on" positions of the rollovers (which would be a single region in CA), can themselves include rollovers (a city, for example), including links....

but my vision is so far beyond my expertise that its pathetic


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## GCDude (Apr 1, 2005)

it should be doable i believe though, u should be able to use some onmouseover type events i think. let us know how u get on and if u have any more questions, there's probably other people here who can have more answers.

oh and google maps can do some of these things, btw. there is a mouseover event in there i believe, so u could have a google map, but when someone goes over a marker (eg a city ), u could load up a new map or one of your images.

best of luck


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

GCDude said:


> it should be doable i believe though, u should be able to use some onmouseover type events i think. let us know how u get on and if u have any more questions, there's probably other people here who can have more answers.
> 
> oh and google maps can do some of these things, btw. there is a mouseover event in there i believe, so u could have a google map, but when someone goes over a marker (eg a city ), u could load up a new map or one of your images.
> 
> best of luck


thanks gc....the mouseover events seemed to be a key to this....i got the thing done

then screwed everything up 

the file is intact, but my only means of displaying this thing to the larger world is via my earthlink websites....i already have a regional website for this program online....or i did until yesterday, and than is one of my current issues 

i had created a test site for this map, so that when it was done, the people who want to see this could take a look....apparently, the way earthlink organizes my different sites is to cache everything in a series of directories that is umbrella-ed under the first site i created (that regional site i just mentioned)

i downloaded IPSwitch to transfer the code and images to the earthlink test site, created a folder for the test files (the map), and uploaded the files to earthlink.....

something got lost....neither my original website (the regional one, which has been up and running for a couple of years), or the test site (for the map) can be found (page not found error)

but everything is still there....using earthlink's website builder software interface, i can still see both sites.....even edit them (if i wanted to), and publish them again....but they don't ever get there

you'll notice its says beginner in my experience tag on tsg....feels more like idiot today  ....i get the feeling i somehow messed up the hierarchy in my earthlink directories when i used IPSwitch and created the folder for the map files

HELP!!!....at this point, i just wanna get the regional site up and running again...its for a kid's program and it gets a lot of visits in the late summer.

dunno if this would be helpful or not, but here's its URL
http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

That's a Dir index, is that what you intended?


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

bassetman said:


> That's a Dir index, is that what you intended?


no, bman....that's the problem....there's a seven page website somewhere that won't show itself....

and i have no idea why that is


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

What directory are you putting the stuff in?

I.e. Root, Home etc?

BTW is there an index.html file in said dir?


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

bassetman said:


> What directory are you putting the stuff in?
> 
> I.e. Root, Home etc?
> 
> BTW is there an index.html file in said dir?


 

well, see....that would be the problem  ....like i said, i have no idea....it's seems obvious to me that i messed up the directory structure...but since i have no idea what it was (should be), i can't tell you where anything belongs

does that mean i have to rebuild the whole thing? or can i repair the directories....and if so, i can i figure out the right directory structure

sorry to be so obtuse, bman....i really appreciate you takin the time to help me on this, but i be basically lost :down:


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

iltos said:


> well, see....that would be the problem  ....like i said, i have no idea....it's seems obvious to me that i messed up the directory structure...but since i have no idea what it was (should be), i can't tell you where anything belongs
> 
> does that mean i have to rebuild the whole thing? or can i repair the directories....and if so, i can i figure out the right directory structure
> 
> sorry to be so obtuse, bman....i really appreciate you takin the time to help me on this, but i be basically lost :down:


THis SHOULDN't be horrible! 

Worst case you backup all your files, rebuild and then re-upload.
Plz check the support page for your host and let me know what they say, or post the URL here!


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

the "support" page for the trellix software interface is just a bunch of FAQ's....we'll get no help from that....the interface is very self contained, for the most part allowing the user to edit a page within strict parameters....

only if your willing to play with html code in the "web gem" option can you do anything like the interactive map.....

but i took a look at the url i posted earlier (the one with the "Parent directory" (that brings the "page not found error"))

the other directories are intact....the "calomer" gives back the html file and the images for the map.....the "calomertest" gives back the test website, with the html loaded (i think), but not the images (that's the other problem, but not significant right now).....and the "site content" gives back the files and images that are cached on the earthlink server

fwiw here's the source code for the page....looks lean to me....like i've any idea what it would look like otherwise  


> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
> 
> Index of /~la_odyssey
> 
> ...


i don't know what the html tags mean, but i'm guessing if the index of /~la_odyssey was there, it would help

so.....are these the necessary index files?....each one is a page of the website



> index.html
> id1.html
> id4.html
> id2.html
> ...


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

Having not really read your post, you are not going to give me the URL for support?


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## GCDude (Apr 1, 2005)

right so where are the index.html, id1.html, id2.html.... etc these need to be uploaded, and if u want the index.html to appear straight away (rather then the 3 directories), the index.html needs to go into your root (http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey)


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

GCDude said:


> right so where are the index.html, id1.html, id2.html.... etc these need to be uploaded, and if u want the index.html to appear straight away (rather then the 3 directories), the index.html needs to go into your root (http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey)


thanks, gc.....this is starting to get a little clearer 

in IPSwitch, there is a folder on la_odyssey labelled simply */*....the root folder, yes?

within it, there are four folders...bin, dev, etc, webdocs

within webdocs are the three folders that show up beneath the parent directory when you go to http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey (where the regional website used to be)

one of those three folders, the "calomer test" link under the parent directory, is the test site, and it contains the index.html and the page id's for the test site....that site is still on the web

a long way to explain that it's getting a little clearer 

ok...when i preview each page of the regional website (the one i'm trying to put back up on the web) using the trellix interface, i can view the html code for each page....i saved each page of code in notepad and titled each one to correspond with its file name on the interface

is my next step to create a folder using IPSwitch in the webdocs folder called la_odyssey and transfer those code files from my computer to that folder?

maybe i'm just afraid of the power of my own ignorance (not wantin to mess things up further)....seems like i should just do it and see what happens, but.....

this is my current confusion....the pages that do load on the web (the calomertest pages) have a little IE icon in front of them....the text file pages i'd be transferring for the regional website have a little text file icon in front of them....

am i missing something?


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

bassetman said:


> Having not really read your post, you are not going to give me the URL for support?


sorry bman....take a look, and tell me what you think
http://support.trellix.com


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## GCDude (Apr 1, 2005)

iltos

if u want your index.html page to appear, when u go to http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey then your index.html needs to go in the webdocs folder.

if u want the 4 folders to be shown whilst youre working on it, then move the index.html, id.... to the directory you want.

looking at http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/
the images are trying to be got from:-
http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/images/rwd1.gif
which should direct to
webdocs/calomertest/images/rwd1.gif in your dir structure, and the images there?


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

GCDude said:


> iltos
> 
> if u want your index.html page to appear, when u go to http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey then your index.html needs to go in the webdocs folder.
> 
> ...


aw' right, gc....we're half way there!!!  
..thank you so much...
 bear with me while i get stupid again, tho

the regional website's home page is back up http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/ ....its index.html is in the webdocs folder, as per your instructions....its external links work, but the internal links (menu, etc) are not yet happening....i put the html files for the other pages both in the webdocs folder (first) and then created a ~la_odyssey folder and put them in there (trying to be smart and do like the calomer test folder......

but in the end, not so smart....and confused once again....in the status bar, i get a javascript error (regardless of which of the two folders the files are in...Setpage(2,0)....for the second page...(3,0) for the third, etc.

where should those dang id2.html, etc (the files for the rest of the pages) go anyway?...or am i supposed to set that java SetPage line of code = to the id file for the page? (just a stab in the dark)

same with the calomertest site...the background map loads, but its interactivity is lost....actually, i might know why that is .....so let's stick with the regional site.


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

You are getting there!  Put your other files in the same dir unless you have a URL like /secondarydir


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

Oh dude, you are using JAVA Script!


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

bassetman said:


> Oh dude, you are using JAVA Script!


not intentionally bman...i'd never make this more complicated for myself if i had a choice  ....methinks its a function of the trellix software...the code is lifted off the pages from the interface.

this is from the home page's code


> [TR]
> [TD]javascript:SetPage(2,0)[/B]]*The Program*[/TD]
> [/TR]


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

iltos said:


> not intentionally bman...i'd never make this more complicated for myself if i had a choice  ....methinks its a function of the trellix software...the code is lifted off the pages from the interface.


duh...i do believe i finally figured this out...i think 

i just have to change all the SetPage script errors to the correct html files....should only take...well more time than i have right now


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

thank you, gc and bman....the regional website is back up :up:  .....your patience with my "beginnerness" and clear, concise statements were greatly appreciated...and without a doubt made the website's resurrection possible...kept me from pullin my hair out and/or going (more) bonkers,too...not to mention teaching me a little bit in the process  

but i've still got the problem with the calomertest site....i had thought that maybe i hadn't saved the entire html code, and that was the reason for the partial success....but i was wrong....the code file and the images are all sittin in the calomertest folder...but the page only loads the background image....none of the slices or rollovers

my first question is....could the file be too large?.....i tested it in imageready after each region was done (previewing it IE), and it didn't take too long to assemble it until i got to regions six and seven....neither of which has a whole lot more data than the others, but definitately pushed the limits of my laptop

my second question is....could the calomertest folder (currently in the webdocs folder) be the problem?....should i just dump it and leave the code and image files in webdocs?....i still don't get how this heirarchy thing works with two different websites lumped together in one documents folder


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

iltos said:


> thank you, gc and bman....the regional website is back up :up:  .....your patience with my "beginnerness" and clear, concise statements were greatly appreciated...and without a doubt made the website's resurrection possible...kept me from pullin my hair out and/or going (more) bonkers,too...not to mention teaching me a little bit in the process
> 
> but i've still got the problem with the calomertest site....i had thought that maybe i hadn't saved the entire html code, and that was the reason for the partial success....but i was wrong....the code file and the images are all sittin in the calomertest folder...but the page only loads the background image....none of the slices or rollovers
> 
> ...


First off, thank you! 



> ....my first question is....could the file be too large?.....


That should inly effect laoding time!



> ...but the page only loads the background image....none of the slices or rollovers


Please post URL again for inspection.



> ?....i still don't get how this heirarchy thing works with two different websites lumped together in one documents folder...


Me either!


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## GCDude (Apr 1, 2005)

no probs iltos,

i assume youre talking about

http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/

well to start with it loads in a reasonable time for such a large image.

the 2 websites are in diff directories though arent they!?
your LA Odyssey one at (http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey) is in webdocs
and this map one is at (http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/) in in webdocs/calomertest/

i might be missing something, but looking at the source i dont see any rollover events, only for the 3 menu options to the left side, how are u meant to be rolling over the map images and showing another image/slice?


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

GCDude said:


> no probs iltos,
> 
> i assume youre talking about
> 
> ...


yes, gc, two different directories....which is at it should be, now that the sun's up 

no you're not missing anything....i looked at the code again, and you're right, the rollovers aren't there.... 

so it appears my laptop doesn't have the memory to assemble the entire preview in a browser for me to save the code and the images to a desktop folder for upload (i thought i had checked the preview as each region was completed, but....wrong again!!!....my daughter reminds me that i never checked the preview with either of the last two regions included...)

it also appears that imageready has the menu items for saving codes and images without the preview, but when i looked at them last night (late) none it made any sense...or rather, there were choices i just don't understand

any thoughts on a good place to start sortin this out?


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

I can see the rollovers on the menu, but I still don't know where the map is!


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

bassetman said:


> I can see the rollovers on the menu, but I still don't know where the map is!


a topo map of california should load, bman...it doesn't load for you?  ....

trouble is, the menu bar is the small stuff....the rollovers i'm lacking are on the map itself


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

iltos said:


> a topo map of california should load, bman...it doesn't load for you?  ....
> 
> trouble is, the menu bar is the small stuff....the rollovers i'm lacking are on the map itself


IOK, I can see the map here http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/ what effect do you want on rolloever of the map?

Image mapping may be and option for you!


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

bassetman said:


> IOK, I can see the map here http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/ what effect do you want on rolloever of the map?
> 
> Image mapping may be and option for you!


i've already got the whole thing done in imageready

imageready has two options....one is to preview the file in a browser, which assembles to code and the images in a nice tidy package that i can save to my desktop....

problem there is that my laptop doesn't have the memory to do it....

it also (looks like, anyway) has menu options for saving the images and the code directly, without the preview...but don't know enough about the choices it give me to do anything


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

so....an update

i took out a rollover from each of the slices...cut the file down to just under 3megs, and i was able to preview it IE, and save the code and the images

used IPSwitch and uploaded both to the calomertest folder

something's working, 'cause the spaces for the images load with the red x....but that's all i get.

now what?


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

iltos said:


> so....an update
> 
> i took out a rollover from each of the slices...cut the file down to just under 3megs, and i was able to preview it IE, and save the code and the images
> 
> ...


 what happened? I get all red X's too!


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

bump


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## GCDude (Apr 1, 2005)

erm this is looking the same as previous isnt it, except the images are no longer found. looks like images should be http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/images/shasta15.gif

which = webdocs/calomertest/images/shasta15.gif if nothing has changed. are these images here?


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

GCDude said:


> erm this is looking the same as previous isnt it, except the images are no longer found. looks like images should be http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/images/shasta15.gif
> 
> which = webdocs/calomertest/images/shasta15.gif if nothing has changed. are these images here?


thinking this whole thing was about the folder hierarchy (again)...the gif image folder and the code are now in webdoc/calomertest/map....

it makes no difference....what does seem apparent is that the trellix "web gem" interface, which allows me to enter code directly to a location on a page, is not at all happy with a simple cut and paste of the code....it locks up

i thought in my no longer blissful ignorance that maybe the code was somehow larger than need be (it's 12,000 lines  )....maybe there was some redunancy or something.....so i downloaded the 30 trial of dreamweaver and ran a check on the tags (they're ok), and a check on browser compatibility.....

got this back



> Error The leftMargin attribute of the BODY tag is not supported.
> Netscape Navigator 7.0
> line 672
> 
> ...


two questions, then

1.since i'm running IE6, could this be a part of the problem?

2. and if so, how do i fix it?


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

iltos said:


> thinking this whole thing was about the folder hierarchy (again)...the gif image folder and the code are now in webdoc/calomertest/map....
> 
> it makes no difference....what does seem apparent is that the trellix "web gem" interface, which allows me to enter code directly to a location on a page, is not at all happy with a simple cut and paste of the code....it locks up
> 
> ...


I wonder if this will help you?
http://validator.w3.org/


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

bassetman said:


> I wonder if this will help you?
> http://validator.w3.org/


"help", huh?  .....not exactly, if you mean make things clearer  

...but it was educational :up: i learned why firefox is so loved by so many .....seems to strip off a layer of bs between the machine and its user....when i cut and paste the map code into earthlink's trellix "web gem" feature, firefox doesn't lock up....it tells me that there is script (mine) on the page that is messing with mozilla....

and your link gave me back some more errors....so i've started to look at the code for other pages, to try and sort it out.....validator is about standards, something that the trellix software doesn't seem too concerned about  .....my regional website works just fine with zero margins preset by trellix....

but the code i copied from the imageready preview in IE has some tags that are all messed up.....i wonder what will have if i preview my imageready doc in firefox?

i'll let you know.

thanks, bman :up:


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

YW!  o


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

well it's working, but like an old car badly in need of a tune up

http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest

as usual, i've no idea why

when i load it into imageready's browser preview mode (both IE and firefox), it works seamlessly....on this site, it's erratic as all get out.

as i posted earlier, i ran the page through validator (and now dreamweaver) to check for errors....i get back lots of "margin this and that not supported by's", but the regional site i put together years ago with the same trellix software works like a charm, and gives back the same errors...(just lop off the "calomertest" if you wanna take a look)

so it must be something in the code

any thoughts?


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

actually, i just noticed it loads and displays much, much better in firefox than IE.....


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

bump.....still wondering if there's some way to get this test map to display in IE the way it displays in firefox
http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

iltos said:


> bump.....still wondering if there's some way to get this test map to display in IE the way it displays in firefox
> http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey/calomertest/


bumpty bump


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

I wish I could help you!


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

ok...lemme try a different approach....

is this a really stupid question, about the difference in display in different browsers?


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