Visited map

Dada78

I just need a suggestion on something. I have a united states map like this one.

http://www.texascampingforum.com/2006/images/visited/states_map_blank.gif

And I have made a form where a user can check a box next to the state they have visted and it fill the state in like this.

http://www.texascampingforum.com/2006/images/visited/tx.gif.

Then they will be able to right click and save the image to display in thier blog, website, forum sig, etc. Now I was curious if thier is a easy way to fill in the states once one is selected or am I going to need to fill in each state and make a map with 500 different combinations depending on the users selection? The rest of it should be pretty easy, just not sure how to go about filling in each state like this, any suggestions?

-Thanks

bpat1434

Couldn't you theoretically create 50 graphics: each an outline of a state?

Then, just inside a program figure out their exact X and Y coordinates

Then dynamically create their image based upon their selections? And if the state is selected, you replace white (#fff) with green (#090)? Would that work?

Dada78

Yea that was another option I was debating and I could do it that way. Only problem with that is I don't have my graphics programs yet or even know how I would create that. It was something I did think of and it would be the easiest way if I could figure out how to make those maps.

Another option I was thinking I could do if possible is create a US map with only one state filled in and depending on their selection it would just layer the maps. I am not sure if that can be done or not. Setting up the code to display the selected map is the easy part now that I know how arrays work now. Only if I could figure out how to fill in the states.

-Thanks

krotkruton

I would say that no, without something slightly more powerful than Paint, there is no simple way to do this without 500 different images.

With something better than Paint, it is easy enough to take that map, use the fill tool, fill in a state, then erase all the other lines on the map. Set the matte to transparent and leave the image size and you should have a layer with just one state filled in. I would assume that it shouldn't be too hard to layer these images on top of each other to create a map with multiple states filled in. I would guess that it would be more difficult to find the x and y coordinates of each image then it would be to create 50 full sized images, but using coordinates would not require loading 50 large images, so its a bit of a tradeoff there.

I would suggest you find some type of software that lets you make the background transparent, because that is all you need. There might actually be a way to do it in Paint, but I don't think so. Other than that, there should be some free software out there that has that capability. We aren't talking serious image manipulation here, what you need should be pretty easy to produce.

Dada78

Yea I have the US map saved with each seperate state filled in. I think I get what you are saying and that might just work. You are saying just having the outline of the US map and each state being transparent. Then the value for each state would be just the fill without the lines so when you select multiple states it will just show the fill as the base map would contain the lines, etc. correct?

-Thanks

krotkruton

That's exactly what I was saying.

Come to think of it though, it wouldn't matter if you had the lines on each mapping since all of the lines would just overlap in the end anyway (although I think the extra lines would make the files slightly larger). Either way would work as long as everything is transparent except the lines and the one state you want filled in.

Dada78

Ok after a little more research I had found out that this is done with JSP 2D graphics API. Unfortnately JSP is the one thing more server doesn't have. So does anyone know 2D graphics API that can be done in PHP or PERL?

-Thanks