Status Bar for Image Map links

[Tehnsuko]

Hey all.

So, I've got a link from an image map, and all is well and good; however, I'd like to customise the status bar message because the link that's currently showing up is rather messy.

I know what you're thinking - why not just use the bog-standard onMouseOver="window.status='blah'; return true" , etcetera?
Well, quite frankly, because it just doesn't seem to work with image maps. Works great with regular image or text links, but not maps. No, siree.

So what does work?

[sde]

that's odd, .. according to w3c, area tags should support onClick, onDblClick, onMouseDown, onMouseUp, onMouseOver, onMouseMove, onMouseOut, onKeyPress, onKeyDown, onKeyUp, onFocus, and onBlur.

JavaScript Image Maps

have you tried doing something other than setting the status to verify that onmouseover is triggering?

[DJMaze]

Did you try a real browser instead of that terrible thing named IE and M$ thinks that that is a browser?

[Tehnsuko]

Actually I'm using Avant; however, in the interests of whoever might visit the site, I'd rather like it to work in IE as well as all the spankin' new ones...

And, yes, onMouseOver does work otherwise - oddly, too, if I omit the onMouseOut attribute, the status bar still displays the link when hovering but then continues to show the desired status bar text when the pointer is away from the link.

Hmm.

[sde]

show us an example of your code.

[DJMaze]

Avant is the same engine as IE

avantbrowser.com/support.html says:
[quote]Avant Browser is a standalone application designed to expand services provided by Microsoft Internet Explorer.[/qoute]

So try something like Firefox, Opera and Safari

[Tehnsuko]

Originally Posted by DJMaze

try something like Firefox, Opera and Safari

This somewhat ignores the point I made a couple of posts ago: I'd rather have it work in everything instead of just ignoring anything to do with IE.

Anyway, here's an example:

<map name="map" >
  <area shape="polygon" href="link.html" coords="515,46,524,46,530,44,542,46" onMouseOver="window.status='Status Bar Message'; return true" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true">
</map>

Like I stated in my original post, I'm just looking for something to make it work in image maps; the code I'm using works fine with regular image or text links. I'm probably after some kind of Javascript bypass.

[DJMaze]

Originally Posted by Tehnsuko

This somewhat ignores the point I made a couple of posts ago: I'd rather have it work in everything instead of just ignoring anything to do with IE.

Not really. If it works in any browser except the ones that use IE as engine (iRider, Crazy, NetCaptor, Maxthon, Avant, etc., etc.) then you know the engine is at fault and that it will be useless to attempt to get it working for IE.

Keep in mind the latest IE engine is way old (1998), because after 1998 it only received security and png work arounds.

[Belisarius]

I'd suggest trying it out in FireFox simply because it has a very good debugger - and you can get more debugging tools as extensions. You might get more feedback on what's going on in FireFox, and that might explain why you're getting odd functionality.

Frequently I'll do initial development and testing in FireFox, and then check compatability in IE - Internet Explorer just really sucks for development because it tells you almost nothing about the errors it's encountering. You're right, in that you need to support it, but I usually try Opera and FireFox first just because they give better feedback, and if I get it working in both of those, then chances are (though not always) it'll work in IE.