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What plugins or tools are available to conveniently export a GIS view to a html clickable hypermap?

Since 2005 or so we use a commerial plugin for ArcGIS,

We have a working example of the output here. At this time, this is good enough, but it requires a few manual postprocessing steps, which should be reduced. Besides, the annual license for the plugin is considered a nuisance from a corporate accounting standpoint.

Now we are wondering if there are better alternatives.

Here are our requirements

  • Export a GIS view map to a bitmap, Correctly export it without distortions and with valid html, preferably with style information extra (in css), no proprietary attributes inside the html...
  • Export point features to clickable <area> elements. Make the points clickable, but also make the labels clickable.
  • Export as a single bitmap, do not convert to tiles
  • Export without a sidebar (only export the map, not the layer selection frame and other stuff such as trademark infos, "created with" footers in the bitmaps, etc.)
  • Aesthetic alignment of labels next to points
  • Label alignment configurable, set preferences and priorities image-wide (try to put label to the right of a point. If there is a collision with another label, then put label at the top of a point, etc)
  • Possibility to re-align + re-format labels individually after semiautomatic/algorithmic alignment steps have completed
  • it's ok when based on free software. However, if we switched to this software, it should be able to import ArcGIS 9 project files.
  • easy to use, preferably gui-based

3 Answers 3

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Unfortunately, it won't import your ArcGIS project files, but QGIS has the HTML Image Plugin that may do what you want. Perhaps if you set up a QGIS project once, and just refreshed the data behind it, it would work for you? It may not meet all of your criteria, but I'm not sure anything will.

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I haven't used this ArcScript before, so I'm not sure which of your criteria it does or does not meet, but it sounds like a good starting place. And, of course, being a script you should be able to customize it to your heart's content.

Edit: Here's another potential candidate.

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  • For those who come here searching for similar answers... the latter candidate points to arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=13796, which is a VBScript from 2005. The first link in this answer points to a VBScript for ArcGIS 9, last updated in 2007.
    – LarsH
    Dec 3, 2012 at 22:16
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Additional: the first link given by @nmpeterson has the following note at the bottom of its description:

I am no longer using or updating this script. I have implemented a very effective, and more reliable solution which is available here:

http://cosmotron.org/2007/01/generating-html-image-maps.html

The newer solution linked to is no longer there, but can currently be accessed at this URL via the Wayback machine.

It works very differently. Instead of starting with an ArcGIS project, it starts from an image (with a unique color for each clickable region) and a CSV table that maps from colors to href and title (rollover text). So you would still need a way to get the specialized image files, and the CSV files.

The script does not place labels, as in the OP's requirement.

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