What kind of script or application is behind this menu?

Question

I just clicked on this link from an ad on Google:

http://www.actsministrieschristianevangelism.org/home_page.html

And I got to looking at the menu bar at the top of the page, which I clicked on, and it looks like there are different page links for each header item on the menu, but when you click on the menu, the entire image looks like it's a single image linked to another page, just like, for example, when you click on the button at the bottom of this page on Y!A. Any idea what kind of script this is and how I might find one like it? I looked at the source code for the above URL but couldn't tell.

Answer 1

It looks to me like its just an image map with clickable areas.

I am not sure why they run it as cgi? It does use a script to map the areas, which is not really the best way these days, using CSS would be cleaner and would yield faster results. In fact using a CSS map you could actually change the content area when the user hovers then take them to that page on click!

Image maps as menus are easy to build and yes the whole image is used. You simply "map" live areas that become clickable and can send the user to different areas. usually you see these with actual images and not just a text image but they can be done with any large or small image.
Here is a couple of great CSS tutorials on them.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/cssmaps/
and a great demo with a full article on how to do it
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/imap.html
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/articles/imagemap/index.html

With the power of a CSS map, not sure why you would want to use the old java script or manual mapping methods!

Answer 2

No, the javascript is for the image rollovers (the small graphics spread all over the homepage) - not the navigation.

The navigation at the top is a menu map or sometimes called an image map. It's one large image, but each section corresponds to a different URL. It was probably created via their web host, although programs like Dreamweaver help make them very easily. Here's some info on how those are created and linked to

http://www.verio.com/support/documents/view_article.cfm?doc_id=3911

Joyce
http://www.DesignByJoyce.com/

Answer 3

You can try using Flash. What you need to do is to make all the text in individual file and click play so it will create a "play" file. Which include the menu bar which will be in an individual file.
Once you are done, create a new file and import all the "play" files in it. Add scripts and control. When you export this file, the menu bar will stay the same, but the others (Flash will play the "play" files) will change as the users click it.

Answer 4

Its a Java Script based menu and here is the code


just call rollover function using onload event and create images accordingly.
However if you know CSS(Cascaded Style Sheet) then you may create a lighter menu with same look and feel.

HTH.

Answer 5

ministries! call sos maybe they might know!