Showing points on my image map.

Question

This is my scenario in brief:

I am making a restaurant's website.

The restaurant owner will upload his restaurant's plan view image.(example: http://cache.smartdraw.com/examples/content/Examples/SmartDraw/Floor_Plans/Restaurant_Plans/Family_Restaurant_Plan_L.jpg) Then he will mark on the image were the tables available for booking are. These coordinates will be saved in my database.

The user on the other hand will be able to click on these points(tables) and book a table. The image map coordinates will be created dynamically according to the points that were submitted by the restaurant owner. Therefore I cannot have an image with icons already on it.

Is there a way with which I can display some sort of icon on the image map where the coordinates are? In order to make the points visible for the user.

Answer 1

You usually start with an image that has icons on it, and then make the coordinates of those icons into links with "area". You could make the links first, but then you would have to alter the image by photoshopping other stuff in. It's easier to just start with an image with icons.

Answer 2

I can think of a few options:

1. Generate the image map on your server, using something like GD for PHP, and place the icons where you want them
2. Use Javascript/CSS to position the icons where you want the in the HTML page
3. Use Flash to dynamically generate the icons