Interacting with images

[Arekanderu]

Hello All!

I will describe a small problem of mine and i am hoping that somebody can give me an elegant solution.

[What I want to do]

I am developing a PHP application which it will output at the user a small image with various objects on fixed positions on the image. The user will then be able to drag the mouse on a object, click on it and output information about it. e.g object type, sizeetc. The info for each object are stored in a MySQL db.

[The question]

As you understand i want to dynamically load the information for each object each time a user "clicks" on a object . What i am having trouble with is HOW am i going to put clickable stuff inside a static image ( the map ) and through PHP will be able to output some useful info to the user. In addition, the image should also be drawn dynamically since i want to show at the user which object is at the moment ocupied by being red ( this info will also be at the DB ). I know that you can do this through GDI but how am i going to do it if i want to combine it with the other thing.

If my question isn't that clear or if you think i can help more understanding it please let me know.

I have found couple solutions which i do not like so it would really save me some time if anyone has any suggestions. I do not mind using other stuff inside my PHP code ( e.g jscript ) in order to get where i want.

Somebody did suggest me map tag of HTML but i want something more dynamic.

Cheers and thanks for any replies!

[Barand]

If you use a form image

[code]<INPUT type='image' src='myimage.php' name='myimage'>[/code]

Then it will behave like a button, submitting the form when clicked.

To process

[code]$xpos = $POST['myimage_x'];

$ypos = $POST['myimage_y'];[/code]

You now have the coords of the mouseclick within the image. If you know the positions of the objects in your image then you can determine which object was clicked.