Strange Mouseover behaviour - Bug?

[leemcg]

Hello

I have been investigating what happens when you use MouseOvers - using the layer name in the web address, because I have been having some problems with my website:

www.pearlcottage.co.uk (still work in progress, builders say it's finished so maybe some photos this weekend).

If you go to House Layout, you'll see that the mouseovers mostly work, but sometimes seem to go a bit wrong.

I think I have narrowed down the problem, the question is is this a bug, or a feature? And is there anything I can do to get around it?

The problem seems to be caused when the pop-up layer is on top of the mouse over area, then the mouseover area is expanded to include the popped up bit.

I doubt that's very clear, so the attached files will show it. Each should be turned into a web page.

In the first one the mouseovers work perfectly.

But once you have the objects which are on the pop up layer, on top of the mouse over area, then the mouseover area gets extended.

This means that a mouse position can cause different layers to be popping up depending on the previous movements of the mouse. This has been very confusing for the people I've had test the website so far.

Am I going mad?
Is this a bug?
Is there any way around it?

Regards

Lee

[Egg Bramhill]

Lee, I haven't got the time to look at your xar files but when I view the site in IE and FF the mouse-overs work perfectly.

[amoore]

The popups also work fine in Opera.

BTW, you still have lorem text in the popup for the shower on the ground floor.

[leemcg]

Lee, I haven't got the time to look at your xar files but when I view the site in IE and FF the mouse-overs work perfectly.

They do mostly work, yes, but sometimes they get a bit left behind. Try moving very slowly from Bedroom 2 through Shower Room to Utility Room and onto Kitchen Diner.

If you do big bold movements, moving off the map inbetween (like I would) it's fine. But if you make more nervous movements, it can be a bit strange. I watched my mother-in-law using the site last night, and she ended up clicking because nothing was happening on some rooms.

BTW, you still have lorem text in the popup for the shower on the ground floor.

Yes, there's a bit still to be fixed. That text should be in red, like all the bits I still have to edit/fix. Thanks

Regards
Lee

[Egg Bramhill]

Ah, I see what you mean. If you select the shape and Ctrl+Shift+W to open the Web Address dialogue window, you can select either "Rectangle surrounding object" or "Shape of object". But this makes no difference if you're using it for html export. It just uses a rectangular shape regardless. So if you mouse over any of the pale coloured rectangular areas it activates the link, but of course there's problems with overlapping hot spots.

Xara must know this because they've added "imagemap exports only" to this option.

[amoore]

If you do big bold movements, moving off the map inbetween (like I would) it's fine. But if you make more nervous movements, it can be a bit strange. I watched my mother-in-law using the site last night, and she ended up clicking because nothing was happening on some rooms.

Got it. Earlier, I thought I had seen something involving Bedroom 1 and Bedroom2, but I can't reproduce it. However, as you say, moving very slowly or hitting in exactly the right place can cause you to highlight two rooms or skip one.

That text should be in red, like all the bits I still have to edit/fix.

So it is. Nice site, BTW. Nice house, too.

[leemcg]

I'm not sure it's quite just about rectangle bounding boxes. In my first example, I get pretty much pixel perfect mouse overs for the diamonds. It's only when the pop-up obscures the mouse over.

In fact I've thought about how this could be desirable behaviour...

If you have a mini photo, you want to mouse over to make it bigger, and you make it bigger on top of the mini-photo. You can no longer see the old photo, so where is the intuitive place to move the mouse to get rid of the large version - it's off of the large photo, not off of the small one you can't see.

(I have to find some terminology that makes explaining this easier!!!)

So I'm guessing it's deliberate. Maybe there is a hidden registry option to turn it off. Please....

Regards
Lee

[Egg Bramhill]

In my first example, I get pretty much pixel perfect mouse overs for the diamonds

I don't get pixel perfect mouse overs in your 1st file, it works as a rectangle surrounding the diamonds. For example mouse in from well outside any shape, an obvious area of no hotspots, but deliberately aviod actually mousing over any of the coloured diamonds but over an imaginary rectangle that surrounds the diamonds (i.e. The areas with transparent rectangles in my image above) . They trigger the url action.

[leemcg]

I don't get pixel perfect mouse overs in your 1st file, it works as a rectangle surrounding the diamonds. For example mouse in from well outside any shape, an obvious area of no hotspots, but deliberately aviod actually mousing over any of the coloured diamonds but over an imaginary rectangle that surrounds the diamonds (i.e. The areas with transparent rectangles in my image above) . They trigger the url action.

That's curious. I can definitely move my mouse a couple of pixels around the diamonds and nothing happens. Maybe it's a browser thing. I'm only using IE 6 here at work, but I'm sure I've seen essentially the same behaviour on Opera at home.

I guess that makes it hard for you to observe the more worrying effect I am describing! But thanks for trying anyway.

Regards
Lee

[covoxer]

Hi Lee,

The problem seems to be caused when the pop-up layer is on top of the mouse over area, then the mouseover area is expanded to include the popped up bit.

Correct. This also includes multi level pop-ups (when you place mouse over object on the pop-up layer, which pops another layer up etc.). This is absolutely necessary bahaviour if you want to implement multilevel pop-up/drop-down menu or the like. The popped menu list is supposed to stay visible as long as you hover over it, not dissapear as soon as you leave the button that has activated it.
This is also true for any other kind of interactive pop-ups (containing any kind of link) as they would be useless othervise.

This means that a mouse position can cause different layers to be popping up depending on the previous movements of the mouse. This has been very confusing for the people I've had test the website so far.

Correct. You have to consider this in your design to avoid unexpected behaviour.

Am I going mad?

No.

Is this a bug?

No.

Is there any way around it?

Rework design if you don't like this.

If you have a mini photo, you want to mouse over to make it bigger, and you make it bigger on top of the mini-photo. You can no longer see the old photo, so where is the intuitive place to move the mouse to get rid of the large version - it's off of the large photo, not off of the small one you can't see.

Yes. You can also hide any pop-up simply clicking on it, no need to mouse out.

So I'm guessing it's deliberate.

Yes.

Maybe there is a hidden registry option to turn it off. Please....

Sorry, no.