Dynamic Image Maps Crash Internet Explorer IE6 & IE7

We have been working on a couple of projects that use dynamic image maps. We had an issue that crashed IE6 and IE7 when a certain combination of links were clicked on. The scenario is that a user is presented with a map of Australia and clicks a state. We take that click, and return […]
Last updated: March 12, 2012

We have been working on a couple of projects that use dynamic image maps. We had an issue that crashed IE6 and IE7 when a certain combination of links were clicked on. The scenario is that a user is presented with a map of Australia and clicks a state. We take that click, and return a map and imagemap of the state they clicked on. Then you click a region and keep drilling until there are no more maps.

The map of Australia, with each state mapped has 7 areas. The 7th area, in order, is Tasmania. Clicking on Tasmania uses ajax to put a map of Tasmania on the screen, and map Tasmania into 5 different areas.

The Issue:

When you click on the 7th area of the Australian map, Tasmania, IE gives focus to that area (area #7). Ajax correctly resets the image to the Tasmania map, rewrites the new 5 areas for Tasmania, then crashes. The problem is that IE was focussed on area 7 when you click on the map, but the new area map only has 5 areas, so IE freaks out and crashes.

The Solution:

There are several suggested solutions to this, most involve rewriting the code to use a new image map each time. The solution that seems to work easier for us was to change IE’s focus before we start doing the funky ajax stuff – change the focus to the first form field before doing anything else and it now seems to work. Note: If you are looking for solutions to this problem sometime in the future, make sure to be clear – the problem is the number of areas in your image map, NOT the number of co-ordinates in your map. Roughly half the people I found talking about it didn’t seem to get this and headed off in the wrong direction.

Duncan Isaksen-Loxton

Educated as a web developer, with over 20 years of internet based work and experience, Duncan is a Google Workspace Certified Collaboration Engineer and a WordPress expert.
Login
Log in below to access your courses.
Log In With Google
Forgot Password
Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you instructions to reset your password.