Alternatives to Frames
Can you provide a clear cut alternative to the frames version of fixed navigation?
Which would be good for a noob; PHP, CSS, Templates, or something else?
All I want is a left side navigation column for my pages and everywhere I look there's a bad rep for frames and I looked at PHP but that just seems very Chinese to this English reading hobbyist with its slightly different syntax style.
I also read that in some browsers an alternative to frames won't work for every browser.
Any suggestions?
Thank you.
Drink responsibly.. Capt. was here.
Renegade posted this at 09:31 — 11th July 2005.
He has: 3,022 posts
Joined: Oct 2002
You can do it very simply with CSS:
#navigation {position:fixed;
top:10px;
left:10px;
But, the problem is that it doesn't show up properly in IE so, you'll have to use Javascript with it as well...
Try looking at dynamicdrive.com or javascriptkit.com
CaptainMorgan posted this at 09:40 — 11th July 2005.
They have: 19 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
I wish to make it easy for most browsers, so maybe CSS is not a good idea then.
Ive checked out those sites. Where do I begin? Maybe you missed when I asked for clear-cut.
Thanks for the help.
EDIT: I had a JS menu navigation setup, but it simply took too long to load.. as is the case Ive found for most JS's.. am I doing something wrong?
Drink responsibly.. Capt. was here.
Megan posted this at 13:23 — 11th July 2005.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Are you trying to fix the navigation like a frame would while the rest of the pages scorll? Or are you just wanting to do something where you would be able to keep the code for the template in a separate file?
Like Renegade said, the only way to fix it on the side like a frame would is by CSS so if you really want to do this you'll have to put up with some browser inconsistency.
For keeping things in a separate file, includes by PHP or Server Side Includes are very easy to implement.
Megan
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CaptainMorgan posted this at 14:55 — 12th July 2005.
They have: 19 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
Ugh..
I found one script that is a real beaut. Stays in the same place on every page perfectly in IE...but in FF - yea right. I guess with scripts like this validation is non-existent. Ill find one eventually I think. I tried making one myself but it never came out right.. and I don't have PHP down yet.
Which leads me to my next question that Ill put here. If some things work in one browser but not in another, then what is the point of validation? I know it's to set an even playing field for standards.. but like what happened above - FF wouldn't show it, and Im sure as a result W3C doesn't like it either. I get the concept of validation, but in practice Ive yet to have a page that validated 100%. Ugh.. frustration setting in.. time to step away.
Drink responsibly.. Capt. was here.
Renegade posted this at 11:50 — 12th July 2005.
He has: 3,022 posts
Joined: Oct 2002
Look under menus, since that's what you want
Greg K posted this at 19:29 — 12th July 2005.
He has: 2,145 posts
Joined: Nov 2003
Well, when you feel you have the majority market share (M$), you think you can just change the rules and everyone will follow suite and obey your whim. And when you get non-pros who are self taught in the only browser they have ever seen (IE), they start doing all the things that work for that browser, even though they are not up to standard.
It is the way of the web. Unless you are sure all of your users will be using IE, or you don't care about the ones who don't, you as a webmaster have to deal with handling it. That is one past of being able to call yourself a webmaster.
-Greg
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