frames and meta tag

conflict and resolution

[shenanigans]

Hi, im making my first real online page for a band, nothing crazy html/css wise, but i put some time into interactive graphics. Ive heard the meta tag can get messy with frames, but I want to keep frames to avoid reloading the banner and menu on every page. I was thinking of making the index free of frames, put the meta search tag on that, and have a link to load the frameset from this home page. So, I have a homepage that loads into the frameset, and Im only putting the meta tag on the homepage. Is this gonna work for me?

[tangor]

If your banner is the same each page, don't worry about reloads... browsers will cache that file for the session. The menu is negligible in load time, another no worry. You need not worry about meta tags for the frameset (we're talking real frames, not iframes). Put your meta tags on each of the target pages for the frameset and you're good to go.

[shenanigans]

well I created the menu in fireworks, its got rollovers, estimated 56k load time was over 30 seconds, will this also cache?. Perhaps its still considered negligible? thank you

[piatkow]

That's big for a menu. I think Tangor was assuming something a little more basic.

[rocknbil]

Welcome aboard shenanigans.

If this is a new site, please take a step back and consider something.

<frameset rows="20%,*">
<frame src="navigation.html">
<frame src="some-page.html">
</frameset>

What happens if "some-page.html" gets indexed in the search engines and someone clicks a link to it?

The page displays out of context of the frameset without navigation back to your site.

Some things may have changed over the years that make this irrelevant, but I don't think so . . .

There are two really good ways to avoid this. The first is Server Side Includes (SSI) and requires no programming. The second is to use PHP includes, with a global header include. SSI requires no programming experience, but basic PHP with header includes is simple to learn as well.

Both give you the same result as a frameset, one file to edit to modify navigation, minus the problem mentioned. Additionally when you click links, the address bar changes, which makes it easier for users to bookmark and remember URL's (although browsers have come a way in that regard, bookmarking a framed page usually gets the correct framed pages.) Both are so easy to implement there is no real reason to use frames.

Yes the banner will reload on every page, but as mentioned, you need to optimize it and it will cease to be an issue. The benefits far outweigh the savings in load time.

[shenanigans]

well then, thank you for the prompt responses, they will certainly aid me in my deciding factor, and I appreciate sources besides my xhtml book