How to create mosaic with search function

Hello,


I have a client requesting something I've never done; a mosaic. The issue is that the client wants each image to be searchable by name or some type of unique identifier so that their customers can find themselves on the mosaic.

The problem, as you might have guessed, is that a mosaic is typically just one large image of a bunch of smaller images.

I wanted to tell them it was impossible, but alas I found the site below:

http://thisisit-fans.com/

They do this technique somehow in Flash. Any idea how to do the same thing in php?

Thanks for your help!

Do you have any kind of image processing software on the server? If not, about the only thing you can do is some sort of array of the images by sizing them and maybe floating them into a div.

The most common image processing software on servers with php is Imagemagick and the GD library.

If you notice, the flash on that site reloads part of the image on demand (after you zoom), and that's really your problem. Doing something similar without Flash will either become a huge Javascript and probably Canvas problem, or an interesting series of PHP and Javascript/Ajax problems.

I guess you can provide a resized image, and use Javascript to replace the img tag on demand based on where the user clicked.

Whatever you choose, it's not going to be pretty, and as a professional PHP/Javascript developer of 10 years, it's not something I'd want to undertake.

If you notice, the flash on that site reloads part of the image on demand (after you zoom), and that's really your problem. Doing something similar without Flash will either become a huge Javascript and probably Canvas problem, or an interesting series of PHP and Javascript/Ajax problems.

I guess you can provide a resized image, and use Javascript to replace the img tag on demand based on where the user clicked.

Whatever you choose, it's not going to be pretty, and as a professional PHP/Javascript developer of 10 years, it's not something I'd want to undertake.

Thanks very much for the input. I am going to turn down the project -- or at the very least recommend avoiding the search function...