Re: When is it appropriate to use HTML frames?

Hi,

I'm new to the AS/400 list, but I've done some web development so I thought 
I'd chime in here since I know more about HTML frames than I do about the 
AS/400. ;-)

Frames are generally avoided for several reasons when building sites. They 
are definitely in the HTML spec, so there isn't anything really "wrong" with 
using them. Many major sites use frames, as you've noted.

The problems people have been telling you about stem from a few key issues; 
mainly, when search "bots" and spiders make their way through the site, many 
of them index the information found within each frame, and store that in the 
search engine results. Therefore, when your site's page comes up in the 
search engine, the link unfortunately pulls up the frame, and not the main 
page containing the frame. This can be confusing for a lot of people, 
especially
if you rely heavily on the frames for navigation.

You luckily have several options that have been developed as alternatives to 
frames, that will achieve similar (if not better) results. One is to use 
Cascading Style Sheets, which can give the same appearance as a frames page, 
but all the information is stored on each page. Another is to use SSI 
(Server Side Includes) to include the navigational bar within each of your 
web pages. You can find out more about those two options at 
http://www.webmonkey.com

Anyway, I summarized, and there are a couple other gotchas associated with 
using frames that I can't remember right now, but it would be wise to look 
at your options. Good luck!

-Mark Beihoffer
aka dragonfly_blue
http://www.dragonflydynamix.com

P.S. My site uses frames ;-)



>From: "Nathan M. Andelin" <nathanma@haaga.com>
>Reply-To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
>Subject: When is it appropriate to use HTML frames?
>Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 08:22:25 -0600
>
>A few weeks from now I'll be starting on the development of a new web
>application.  I've been leaning toward using "frames" in the user 
>interface.
>
>However, I've noticed the trend in the last year or so that web sites have
>been moving away from the use of frames.  Also, I noted a comment from Brad
>Stone a couple weeks ago about "beginners" getting caught up with frames.
>
>On the other hand, MS uses frames in several of their web applications.
>Frames are part of the HTML spec.  Both IE and Navigator have supported
>frames for several versions now.  So, why not use frames?
>
>
>
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