Image map hotspots instead of PayPal add-to-cart buttons?

[poptoons]

My site has a page full of thumbnail images of books and posters, and I want the buyer to click on the individual images to put that item in the shopping cart.

How do I do that? I don't want any "button" anywhere... my site has image maps on each page, where you can click the thumbnails to see larger images, etc... and I'd like the order page to be the same way...

a hotspot instead of a Paypal button.

I only know the basics - I'm using GoLive to make my site... used to use PageMill - that was great - so easy!

But I can go in and tweak the code if I have to, as long as I get good directions.

Pleeeeeeeease help - - I can't find the answer anywhere online... this has GOT to be an easy fix, right?

[skier]

Right and the fix is easy, see  the image map example on this page, also note the tips.

Regards,

skier

[poptoons]

Hey thanks, now I just have a couple of questions:

What are the "notes" and "optional notes" in there? I don't know what all that means.

Also, once I make the hotspots on the image map, and then go into the html... where exactly am I pasting the code?

[poptoons]

oops- I looked at the wrong examples... so forget about that "notes" question.

So here are my two questions:

After making my image map and hotspots, when I go into the html, do I paste the new code right after the area shape coordinates, and start it with  href=  or do I paste the whole new thing that's in the example in another place?

And does the  <!-- Beginning of Client Side Image Map -->  and  <!-- End of Client Side Image Map -->   go in there, or is that just your instructions?

   *Sorry that I don't know more about this stuff.

[poptoons]

The image map example is for "add to cart"?

Is there an example for "view cart"?

Also, what does the    no_shipping=2    mean, if there's another place that has   shipping=   ?

Oh, and what is the "cancel" for, where it is after the "return" pages?

Is the "successful" page only there for a few seconds, before it returns to my specified page? What does THAT "cancel" do?

Thanks for your patience... if I can get this down right, then I can spend the next hundred hours putting the code into about a hundred places. Would a wysiwyg like GoLive have an easier way to attach the code to the image map hotspots, or do I just have to go into the html and "paste-n-edit" each dang item?

Oh hey- one comment: The html is written differently on my old site's Paypal buttons...

here's one line of it:  <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart">

It works fine, so I'm just wondering why it's different than your example, since I know nothing about it.

[skier]

Suggest checking out PayPal's Website Payments Standard Integration Guide from here.  The guide explains the usage of the various item button code variables and what the acceptable values are.

As for an image map version for an View Cart item button, the process is the same.  You start with the email version of the View Cart code, tweak it like a hyperlink and code in the same manor as the example I have for the item button.

Regards,

skier

[poptoons]

Okay, I don't know where exactly to put this new code in...

When I put it at the beginning of the image map, it shows up in front of it. I've tried several places, and it shows up in different places, but not INSIDE the hotspot or wherever it needs to work.

The html text order for my image map isn't the same as your sample, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Do I need to put it in an exact spot to make it work? Seems like it would go right after the hotspot coordinates, but that makes it show up completely in front of the whole image map!

I've read the integration guide over & over... it doesn't have answers for this.

Is there another place on PayPal that could show how this is done? Like an "IMAGE MAPS FOR DUMMIES" page?

[skier]

My example is the best you're going to get unless someone writes the code for you.   Basically, you can use any image mapping application, create you're image map using any URL you want just to build the code, then replace the "http" link with the email link version of the code.  You just need to tweak it like the example.   Note, this subject is more about understanding image maps than it is understanding PayPal's item button code.

Regards,

skier

[poptoons]

I created my PayPal buttons, took out the code for the PayPal button image, made my hotspot link to a URL, which I then deleted in the HTML and pasted in the code, like I was instructed.

Now, after the coordinates of the hotspot, it says this: href=<form target="paypal"... the the rest of it.

Is the href supposed to be in there?

And on the button-making page, it has a check-mark for using your own custom buttons, (which aren't as good as an image map) but they don't tell you how to do that... just a "www..." ???