WinChartViewer.ImageMap

`[C#]`	`public string ImageMap {get; set;};`
`[VB]`	`Public Property ImageMap As String`

Gets or sets the image map that defines the hot spots on the chart image.

WinChartViewer expects the image map to be in HTML image map format comprising of HTML <AREA> tags. However, it is not necessary to know HTML image map to define the hot spots. The BaseChart.getHTMLImageMap method can be used to automatically generate image maps for charts.

The advantages of using HTML image map format is that it is easy for developers to customize the hot spots.

For example, one can create custom buttons in the chart image by drawing custom text boxes, and then create custom image maps to define the text boxes as hot spots. These custom image maps can be appended to the image maps generated by BaseChart.getHTMLImageMap using simple string concatenation.

WinChartViewer will process the various attributes of the HTML <AREA> tags as follows:

Attribute	Description
coords	This attribute defines the position and shape of the hot spot.
href	The URL specified in this attribute will become the attributes of the hot spot. The path portion of the URL will become the path attribute, and the attributes/values of the query parameters will become the attributes/values of the hot spot. When a hot spot event occurs (eg. MouseDownHotSpot), the hot spot attributes will be passed to the event handler as a WinHotSpotEventArgs object.
title	This attribute defines the tool tip text to display when the mouse moves over and stops on the hot spot.

For an <AREA> tag that has no href attribute, or an href attribute with an empty path (but can still contain query parameters), or the path starts with the "~" character, the hot spots so defined will be considered as "silent" hot spots. Other hot spots are "normal" hot spots.

For a "normal" hot spot, the mouse cursor can change when it is over the hot spot. For example, the mouse cursor can change from a "pointer" to a "hand" so that the user knows it is over a hot spot. The mouse cursor is configurable using WinChartViewer.Cursor and WinChartViewer.HotSpotCursor. .

For "silent" hot spot, the mouse cursor will not change. "Silent" hot spots are usually used in hot spots that are for showing tool tips only and not intended to be clickable.