[WEB4LIB] Re: Using framesets

Floyd Ingram floyd at coatopa.com
Thu Oct 12 22:28:00 EDT 2000


Thanks for all the responses.  I use frames on my personal website...and are
thinking about using them on the college website.  I have used framebusters,
"back to frame" scripts and NOFRAME page to my personal web pages.

*******************************************************************
Floyd Ingram
Columbia, South Carolina
My Fax Number: (801) 327-3914 Home
My E-mail Address: <floyd at coatopa.com>
My Homepage (my domain): <http://coatopa.com/>
"A ship is safe in the harbor, but that is not why ships are built"
*******************************************************************

>-----Original Message-----
>From: web4lib at webjunction.org
>[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of
>jcichewicz at tln.lib.mi.us
>Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 4:58 PM
>To: Multiple recipients of list
>Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: Using framesets
>
>
>As I was going to add and so quickly hit my send button that I
>didn't!  Frames don't fit web accessibility guideline unless you also
>maintain a noframes version.
>
>Sorry for the first one!
>
>Joy
>
>
>On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, Michael Mayo wrote:
>
>> ----- 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
>>
>
>Joy Cichewicz
>Electronic Services Librarian
>Brighton District Library
>810-229-8924, ext. 219
>http://www.brighton.lib.mi.us
>
>



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