Linking to specific frames in a frameset

[Duncan]

Hi guys, I have a site in which I am using framesets so that I only need to update one page for contents instead of many copies. This works fine from within the site. However, I can't figure out how to give someone a link to a specific page and have that show up within the frameset as I designed it.

How can I link someone to a specific file and have it show up within a given frameset?

Site is www.nmhf.org

Duncan

[sde]

this is one reason why you don't see that many framed sites anymore.

it might be time to learn a little php =) you can solve your problem with this tutorial:

http://codenewbie.com/tutorials/726.html

[redhead]

This is what I ended up doing once I tried to solve this specific problem without access to PHP.

write a deciding function i javascript to enterpret the URL and find the page given after the '?' in the URL ie: www.domain.com?mypage
Have it do the following:
1) isolate the "mypage" from the URL
2) write the entire <frame ...> definition and put the "mypage" instead of the normal src for the main part.
So in your frameset page, you have a call to this javascript function instead of having a static frameset.

[Duncan]

Man, I don't know what php is, but the include code is pretty slick. I'll work with it tonight. So, what I would do is to make all pages with the repeating header and side navigation panes, and then use the include tag to lock and direct their hyperlinks?

What about "shared borders"? Is this another way around it?

Duncan

[sde]

yeap, that's about it. does your web host support PHP? most do now a days.

if you run into trouble implementing it, post in the php forum.

php is pretty cool. you can browse around the other php tutorials to get an idea of things it can do.

[Duncan]

Thanks, Stan. I'll keep you posted. in the meantime, I need to redesign my site without frames.

Duncan

[Epsilon]

Frames generally suck and are way overused. There are very few cases where framed sites actually made good use of their frames.

An exception could be the inline frame (or <IFRAME> in HTML). The inline frame is actually pretty useful.

The difference is standard frames are generaly used simply to keep the navigation links at the top, or the left, or wherever. An inline frame can use your regular site template, but the content (which can be dynamic) appears within the area you have defined for the frame.

I've used it a lot. Look up 'iframe' on Google to find out more.

[Duncan]

Epsilon,

It's hard to believe that if one wants to change the navigation or header panes that they have to go through all the pages in the site instead of just working on one template, but I suppose that's the way it is. I have seen iframe and it does look pretty slick.

So, like I said, I suppose I need to make up a page template and then copy it with different content for the whole site, Right?

Duncan

[sde]

try php

once you see how it works, you'll never look back.