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#1 2007-10-29 16:44:52

daikw
Member
Registered: 2007-10-06
Posts: 39

Requesting help on a non-textpattern site.

Hi, this is a little off topic, but the textpattern community has been so helpful to me in the past, I thought i would ask for some help with a more standard HTML site I am currently building.

You can see the site here

This template page consists of 5 elements:

*1.*The black and white bar which extends across the width at the top of the page

*2.*The main image (this may also need to be multiple images or text in a scrollable column)

*3.*The jump menu

*4.*The text underneath the jump menu

*5.*A logo above the jump menu (not yet added)

When the drop down is changed, the image and the text need to change together

Currently, I have set up the page with frames:
one frame for the Black and White bar
one for the “content”
one for the text
one for the jumpmenu and logo.

However I came across my first difficulty when trying to change two frames (image and text) simultaneously from a single jump menu. I was also notified that frames are messy, and perhaps not the best way to go.

Can anyone recommend a simple (as I am relatively inexperienced) way of achieving the goal?
-please bear in mind that the image and the start of the black portion of the horizontal header must left-align perfectly.

Many thanks

Dai

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#2 2007-10-29 17:00:37

Gocom
Developer Emeritus
From: Helsinki, Finland
Registered: 2006-07-14
Posts: 4,533
Website

Re: Requesting help on a non-textpattern site.

Why you are asking this here, if site isn’t even using Textpattern. I can’t understand it, isn’t this forum for Textpattern or is Textpattern.com shoes-selling-ebay-bingeon-dogger-cold-digger site, where you can ask everything what comes to your mind.

But off we go:

  1. Read and learn XHTML and CSS. Learn a lot, look sites codes, design and practice.
  2. Never use frames. Frames are also kinda deprecated in XHTML by the way. Use Never. It’s big never. Use PHP if possible.
  3. CMS is also your friend in many cases.
  4. 7 validation errors in your page and you have absolutely no code in your page, just freaking frames.

You’re basically asking us building a site for you – with no pay.

Cheers!

Last edited by Gocom (2007-10-29 17:04:12)

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#3 2007-10-29 17:20:00

daikw
Member
Registered: 2007-10-06
Posts: 39

Re: Requesting help on a non-textpattern site.

er, thank you. This is the general forum though, isn’t it?
I’m not asking anyone to design the site, just asking if someone could point me in the direction of the best device to use to load two separate elements from a jump menu.

Last edited by daikw (2007-10-29 17:22:32)

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#4 2007-10-29 17:21:28

jakob
Admin
From: Germany
Registered: 2005-01-20
Posts: 4,726
Website

Re: Requesting help on a non-textpattern site.

Gocom’s right, if a little heavy-handed about saying it.

There are javascripts for “changing two frames” (<-hint: google search keyword). Apart from the fact that frames are out, the other disadvantage is that should the visitor use the back-button on the browser they don’t always both change back and so very easily get out of sync and you end up with mix-and-match content in the different frames.

I guess you used frames to have different sections of the page – you can do the same with div’s on a single page and then position them using css. Anticipating a future question: if you want element #2 to scroll but not scroll the rest off the page, you can set that div to a specific size and use the css overflow:auto; to make just that element scroll if it’s larger than the box – see this example for how it works.

To describe everything would take a while. If you install txp you’ll see the basic setup is not that different, just sidebar-2 is on the right whereas you want it on the left – you can achieve that using css-positioning.


TXP Builders – finely-crafted code, design and txp

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#5 2007-10-29 17:35:03

daikw
Member
Registered: 2007-10-06
Posts: 39

Re: Requesting help on a non-textpattern site.

Thanks for that Jakob, I looked into those javascripts you refer too, but thought frames would be best avoided for the reasons you stated. I will read up on your recommendations tonight. Maybe it would be best to make the site in textpattern after all!

Thanks again,

Dai

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#6 2007-10-29 18:07:33

kevinmcdougall
Member
Registered: 2007-02-08
Posts: 55

Re: Requesting help on a non-textpattern site.

You having a bad day Gocom?

Dai, the site looks like something that could be put together really, really quickly using TXP. Surprised nobody has offered. And I agree with Gocom and jakob, frames are bad, far more trouble than they’re worth. If you would like some help getting the site TXP’d, I’d be happy to do it for nowt if it’s going to be as simple as the pages suggest.

Kevin

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#7 2007-10-29 18:32:56

Gocom
Developer Emeritus
From: Helsinki, Finland
Registered: 2006-07-14
Posts: 4,533
Website

Re: Requesting help on a non-textpattern site.

kevinmcdougall wrote:

You having a bad day Gocom?

Not really, quite nice actually. Maybe I was little heavy-handed :) But afterall it was meant to bold the main idea of the post: read and learn.

And google is sometimes really good way to archieve some help, as is w3schools:

Also for daikw, yep, it could be easy to use Textpattern for that site, as well of design it with divs.

Cheers!

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#8 2007-10-29 21:14:52

mrdale
Member
From: Walla Walla
Registered: 2004-11-19
Posts: 2,215
Website

Re: Requesting help on a non-textpattern site.

General Discussions are just that. “Web development, miscellaneous topics, anything not really Textpattern-related.”

Feel free to ask about anything you like…

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