[WEB4LIB] Using framesets

[Michael Mayo]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Floyd Ingram" <floyd at coatopa.com>
> I am seeking pros and cons on using creating frames (or framesets)
for a
> website.
> What are the pros?
> What are the cons?

    There are two main reasons why you would want to use frames; speed
and ease of administration.

    The main reason people use frames is the speed advantage.  Instead
of loading 3-4 page elements every time the user takes an action, only
1 page element needs to be sent to the user.  Furthermore, the load on
your server has now been  / 3, allowing you to serve more pages and
further increasing the site's responsiveness.  This can be useful for
high-volume dynamic sites where most of the time is taken up serving
the dynamic content.  It's not so useful for static sites.  An example
of a site that uses frames this way is http://games.swirve.com/earth/
(free registration)

    A secondary use of frames is ease of administration.  If you have
many pages in book-like format (links to sections listed in one area;
actual sections displayed in another), maintaining the "links to
sections" parts can be difficult.  Frames can make this easier by
separating the navagation and content elements of the page.  Of
course, the "correct" solution in this case is to use a content
management tool or SSI.  But, if you can't use either, frames are a
possible last resort. An example of a site that uses frames this way
is http://www.pcguide.com.

    There are many disadvantages to using frames; decreased usability,
poor degradability (users who have turned frames off or with
non-frames browsers won't see anything at all unless you make a
non-frames version of your entire site - 2x the administration just to
use frames!), and problems with search engines.  For these reasons,
it's a good idea to avoid frames unless you need them for one of the
above reasons (speed or administration).

                   -Mike