title: ASP.NET Charting - MapAreas null when returning chart as binary data
body: <p><strong>My objective</strong>: return coordinates and shapes so that I can roll my own custom hover text to a .NET Charting image.  This would be no problem if I were using the ASP.NET control (which renders both an image tag and an HTML <code>&lt;map&gt;</code> tag; however, I'm in the MVC world so I'm returning the chart as a binary image.  Here's the gist:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public virtual FileStreamResult Chart()
  {
      //Set up chart
      Chart Chart1 = new Chart();
      Chart1.RenderType = RenderType.ImageTag;
  
      Chart1.ChartAreas.Add(new ChartArea("First"));
  
      //Add some lovely data
      Series s = new Series();
      s.Name = "Tasks";
      s.Points.AddXY("Task 1", 5, 8);
      s.ChartArea = "First";
      s.ChartType = SeriesChartType.RangeBar;
  
      //Add a tooltip - This **should** make the MapAreas collection populate.
      s.ToolTip = "Hello World";
  
      Chart1.Series.Add(s);
  
      if (Chart1.MapAreas.Count == 0)
          CryRiver(); //Always executed. :*(
  
      //Output image as FileStreamResult
      //...
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>The Problem:</strong> No matter what I do, I cannot get the <code>MapAreas</code> collection to contain anything.  I believe this to be because the coordinates don't get populated until the image actually renders.</p>
  
  <p>How do I get at the coordinates of the map areas for the charted data when rendering an image as binary?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>