Alternative to frames

Hi!

I'd like to know what the best alternative to frames is. Assuming I have a VERY large basic HTML page that I wish to split so that I have permanent navigation on the left, header on the top, and main text content in the remaining space (split into pages as I would if I were using frames - the idea is to prevent having to load this enormous html page all in one go).

As well as this, I'd like to reference specific text content from other parts of my website (which I don't think is possible with standard frames, if it is then please do tell me how!), so that I come to this page with the nav and header but the requested content already there.

I'm thinking PHP, but I don't know much about that and do not have time to learn it.

Suggestions please?

There's a few options with CSS. For one, you could do everything with DIVS - and put the long content into a div that's set with "overflow: scroll"

http://www.w3schools.com/Css/pr_pos_overflow.asp

Another option would be to code your nav and other elements to remain fixed ("position: fixed") keeping at a specific place(s) on the screen. Then your long content would be placed in as usual, and the user would scroll as usual. The fixed elements would always be visible.

As for linking to parts of the text content, the only way I can think of to do this is to use in-page links - for example, you could add '<a name="[key]"></a>' in appropriate places in the text, then link to those spots with '<a href="[page]#[key]">link text</a>.

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm really looking for a way to avoid having to load all of the text in at once.

Then you'll probably need to do it manually or use php to come up with someway to chop up the content, probably at defined places like chapters or something.

This could be a difficult one. How about using toggle buttons to categorise your information? Yes the information would be there, but more structured. Failing that (as much as I avoid using frames), you can't beat an iframe to tidy up the page.

mwdesign

Could you sum up the difference between frames and iframes for me, or is it complicated?

CSS, with Header, MainColumn, NavColumn and Footer will split it up nicely for you.
Then use SSIs to store the contents of the Header, NavColumn and Footer, that will leave you to deal only with the MainColumn.

Can SSI be used to load individual pages for the main column, without reloading an entire new page? Like with frames, but not using HTML frames.

Yes and no.
The end result is the same, the logic different.
You load the new HTML and it loads the old SSI's.

Frames and iframes (Inline frames) are pretty much the same. They call a url into the frame. The main difference is:

An iframe is manually sized, you input its width and height - so brings up the scroll bars if content is larger then the iframe.

A frame would size itself relative to the browser window.

mwdesign

So I would still not be able to link to my single frames (or iframes) page with targeted content in the main column? Instead of the default intro page, I mean.

You can put the frame wherever you like in your design as long as the proportions fit your design, an iframe will pull it to pieces if its over your column size.

mwdesign

That's not what I meant. I mean that if I have a page on my site that links to this page with iframe(s), can I say that I want a specific html page to appear in the main column iframe instead of the default intro page which would be there if I had just gone straight to the page with iframes normally?

Ah I see you want to target the iframe from another page but not have it load up its initial content but the new content you have specified from a link on another page. Thats more difficult but I think can be made possible with some javascript. Try this link:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/forums/a...p/t-12308.html