An Introduction to MapMarker

These pages are intended as an introduction to and a guide to using "MapMarker".

What Is MapMarker ?

MapMarker is an interactive mapping tool. It allows the user to load an image - currently *.xbm and *.rppm - onto a canvas widget, and by using the tools provided a variety of shapes can be "laid over" the image. This is done in a very similar format to many drawing packages.
The idea is to create a series of shapes over areas of the image that correspond to any hotspots, applying a piece of annotation text - a comment - to each object and an associated URL.
For example, if the image were that of a particular floor of a building, rectangles could be created covering the area of each room and some information about the room could be added in the annotation part (i.e. room-number).
Once all shapes have been created and annotated, the coordinates of the shapes can be read into a file - *.map - which can be used by the imagemap server.

An additional feature is that the mapfile you create can be used to mark the image. This has been included as an optional mode in which MapMarker can be used. It simply means that you do not have to mark up the image graphically. Instead, it gets done for you, and it lets users know which parts of a particular image have been marked.
It is recommended that you read the documentation concerning which mode is best to use, before switching this option.

MapMarker is based on John Ousterhout's tk package.
It is used to create ISMAP files for use with the imagemap mechanism. These files allow inline images to be inserted on web pages, that respond to user interactions. Depending where the user has clicked in the diagram, different documents can be called.
You can also find some documentation on how to make imagemaps here.

What You Need To Run MapMarker

To run MapMarker you will need tcl7.3/tk3.6.
If you wish to use colour images you will need them as rppm files and must have the photo widget as part of your "wish".
Mapmarker uses imfile to calculate image sizes. This is available from :
```
    ftp://sdsc.edu/pub/sdsc/graphics/imtools 
```
in the imtools package if you don't have it already.
The imconv program is used as part of the image-conversion process. This is available as part of the imtools package.
Finally, it uses a program written in C by Peter Murray-Rust, called editimage. The executable is included as part of the package.

A Step By Step Guide To MapMarker

How to Set-up and Run MapMarker

Features of MapMarker.

MapMarker : A Tutorial.

An example screen (a gif file).

Recommmended method of working

Examples

A guide to making your first mapfile.

About.

Thanks

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Gudge.

"In this span of time, we're just babies." DP-1993