creating an image automatically

[vikingGirl]

I need to create an image that is also a map, ie. contains all the info necessary for the html map tag. But this image needs to be created directly from a database. I have no idea how to even get started... does anyone have any tips?

[Fang]

Is it an image blob in the database?

[vikingGirl]

It's not an image blob. What I need to do is create a genetic linkage map as an image, so the info in the db will be positions along the chromosome, so each db record will contain an integer that describes how far down the line that position is, for example if the chromosome is 250 long, the positions might be 10, 15 , 19 etc, each one will be a separate record. So basically I need to generate an image that is a straight line with tiny squares at the positions provided by the numbers in the database, but that image also needs to have the links at these positions provided by the html map tag.

[Fang]

You can draw images in php (http://nl2.php.net/gd) and generate the html map.