Server-Side vs. Client-Side Imagemaps

Server-Side vs. Client-Side Imagemaps

Server-Side Imagemaps are interpreted on the server the page is on. When the Imagemap is clicked, the X,Y coordinates are sent to a program running on the server. The program then determines the corresponding link and tells the browser where to go. The data for this program is almost always a simple text file, and the two most common Server-Side Imagemap standards are NCSA and CERN.

Client-Side Imagemaps are interpreted by the Web browser. The Imagemap data is included in the HTML file. When the Imagemap is clicked, the browser processes the data without interaction by the server.

Most current browsers support Client-Side Imagemaps, including Netscape and Internet Explorer. Server-Side Imagemaps are much older than Client-Side Imagemaps, although Client-Side Imagemaps are much more efficient in a number of ways. New users to Imagemaps can easily tell what flavor of Imagemap they're looking at by looking at the browser's status bar while the mouse is moved over it:

Client-Side Imagemaps have been supported since Netscape v2.0 and Internet Explorer v2.0. They are becoming very popular because of the following reasons:

• They provide a visual indication of there the link will go.
• They can be created and tested without a web server (http protocol) needed.
• They can be portable regardless of the server type.
• The browser processes the corresponding link instead of the server. This saves a lot of time, especially on a slow or lagged server.