[WEB4LIB] DHTML alternatives to Javascript?

[Thomas Keays]

On 12 Dec 2001, Keith Higgs wrote:

> Since there are those of you out there who have consciously turned off the 
> Javascript engines in browsers - what alternative recommendations do you 
> have for delivering a page with dynamic content?  With Javascript turned 
> off we will make the assumption that Java has been disabled for similar 
> reasons.

The kinds of things you seem to be describing happen in the user's 
browser.  The "dynamic" part is not the content -- that is whatever 
was sent by the web server -- but how that content is reformatted in 
the user's browser.  If, as you say, the user has javascript turned 
off, that kills all dynamic formatting.  

> Let me narrow the field a little first:
> 
> I'm working with a server I on which I do not have administrative access. 
> The server supports only SafePerl and SSI for server-side processing. The 
> server is running on an installation of Solaris (sorry, I don't know which 
> version). The sysadmin hopes to be able to offer PHP but, has not yet 
> successfully compiled PHP to run on this installation. (If anybody has any 
> tips or binaries we'll be glad to hear them).

php is great.  However, it is also completely and utterly server-
side.  While you can use it to deliver content "dynamically" -- i.e., 
in combination with a database such as MySQL -- php itself does not 
work in the user's browser like javascript.  It can be used in 
combination with javascript/dhtml, however.  

E.G., I have a web database that sends people's names and addresses 
by by doing php queries on a mysql database.  The content -- the 
names and addresses -- gets sent to the user regardless of what 
browser they're using.  The content, however, is further formatted by 
the user's browser by a dhtml (javascipt/stylesheet combo) outliner 
script embedded in the page.  Being browser-dependent, I can pretty 
much count on the fact that, although the script works with IE 5.5 
and Netscape 4.76, it probably doesn't work with Netscape 6 (haven't 
tested), etc.  It's a risk.

[snip]
> A typical example would be dynamic menuing.  Mouseover the heading and 
> relevant content or a sub-menu is made visible. We're targeting an 800x600 
> display, are being strongly encouraged to prevent scrolling, and have all 
> of the usual demands for too much content for one page to handle in the 
> space allowed.

We're back to dynamic formatting.  Your options include dhtml (highly 
browser dependent), java (requires that it is turned on by the user), 
flash (requires plugin).  

Tom Keays