Forum Moderators: mack
I know the use of frames has many negative consequences - including trouble with search engines, bookmarking pages, etc etc etc.
But I wonder - what about using an iframe to hold a navigation bar?
I've just finished a 52-page HTML site using Dreamweaver Templates and a javascript drop-down menu - however I've realized that if I make a change to the menu, I have to reupload all 52 pages. If I had the navigation in an iframe, I'd only need to upload it once.
Can anyone comment on this idea?
I think SSI's might be a better solution. It uses the same concept you want, but the page is served as one using a script to 'nail on' the header each time a page is requested.
53 pages shouldn't take too long though unless you use dial-up for uploading files? That must be a nightmare!
Thanks for your comments!
I've thought about SSI, however they seem very confusing! I've done maintenance on a collegue's site which includes SSI navigation, and to be honest was scared and confused the whole time! I'm okay with HTML and the Dreamweaver built-in javascripts, but SSI has my head spinning. To compound things, I think where this particular site is hosted (for example), SSI is unavailable (it's a special Internet/Hosting webspace for New Zealand schools).
Meanwhile, I do have broadband however my 52-page site is set up for use with Macromedia Contribute, so for each file I put online it takes forever also checking in/out.
Oh well!
Mack.
First of all - SSI isn't complicated. It's just a line of code and an external file. There are some excellent tutorials out there with easy solutions. Google is your friend in this case.
Secondly - most Unix servers offers SSI as standard configuration. I've got SSI to work where the host didn't advertise with this function.
All you need to remember - on the page you are including - you do not need to use the <HTML>, <BODY>, and <HEAD> tags since they will be pulled from the "main page"
Once you use these - you will love them. I use them for headers & footers as well (since clients tend to change these quite often as well).
-Corey
One major obsticle with using iframes for navigation is, do se spiders follow links within an iframe? Not 100% sure about that but worth looking into.
A while back, I took on a site which used iframes for navigation, and it was nothing but trouble. There were large parts of the site which were unindexed (as the spiders couldn't find the links in the iframe), and certain framed menu pages were indexed in their own right, meaning that come visitors were entering the site on a page with just the menu and no content.
Server-side includes are the only way to go, either with SSI or with a more powerful alternative such as PHP or ASP (which will give you much more latitude in the future for further automating your page generation).
