I want to use frames but know I shouldn't!

mykl · #1 (**permalink**) Oct 11th, 2007, 12:49

The reason I want to use frames (DON'T SHOUT AT ME

i'M POSTING THIS TO AVOID THEM - I now know why they are sinful!

) is because you can have a single navigation item used on every page of your site so if you add a page you only need to update one file to put a link on every page. My friends tell me this can't be done with CSS but I read elswhere that it can. So my question is: how? Please treat me like an idiot as I know virtually nothing about CSS and am technologically cursed.

MikeHopley · #2 (**permalink**) Oct 11th, 2007, 12:53

Use php includes instead. Unfortunately this requires setting up a web server on your own computer.

CSS cannot do this.

karinne · #3 (**permalink**) Oct 11th, 2007, 12:56

By using includes ... you can use PHP or SSI

If your server supports PHP, here's how you do it.

Put your navigation in another file and call it nav.inc. The extension doesn't matter here. It could be .php, .html, .checkit, etc....

So in this nav.inc you have

HTML: Select all

<div id="navigation">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="/services/">Services</a></li>
        <li><a href="/portfolio/">Portfolio</a></li>
        <li><a href="/contact/">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

Now, you main page you must rename to .php so ... index.html becomes index.php, and you just need to add the php include() statement to add your navigation

PHP: Select all


<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html lang="en-US">

<head>
    <title>Some title</title>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
    
</head>

<body>

<div id="branding">Company X</div>

<?php include('nav.inv') ?>

<div id="content">bla bla bla</div>

<div id="siteinfo">copyright bla bla</div>

</body>
</html>

karinne · #4 (**permalink**) Oct 11th, 2007, 12:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeHopley

Unfortunately this requires setting up a web server on your own computer.

CSS cannot do this.

Only to test on your computer. You don't *need* to set up your computer as a server ... just upload it to your hosting server.

MikeHopley · #5 (**permalink**) Oct 11th, 2007, 13:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by karinne

Only to test on your computer. You don't *need* to set up your computer as a server ... just upload it to your hosting server.

That's true; I'm assuming that most designers want to test a lot, rather than continuously upload.

karinne · #6 (**permalink**) Oct 11th, 2007, 13:20

Unless you work directly off the server

moojoo · #7 (**permalink**) Oct 11th, 2007, 15:41

there are ways to do this without PHP as well. As I think someone said SSi would work as well although I personally prefer PHP.

Code: Select all

<!--#include file="foo.html" -->

mykl · #8 (**permalink**) Oct 11th, 2007, 18:40

Ok, thanks guys - i'll have to look into that some other time as there are more urgent things to do. I can't beleive you replied so quickly!

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I want to use frames but know I shouldn't!