Website makers please help! (again) [Archive]

CHEWY

28-09-2004, 12:45 PM

Can anyone tell me how this guy has made the scroll down list/menu thing on the side in this pic? the bit with the arrows pointing to it.
Any help appreciated.
Cheers
http://www.farkin.net/forums/album_pic.php?pic_id=11527

steamfrog

28-09-2004, 12:53 PM

its called a frameset and they auto scroll.. It means that the menu is longer than the other frame.. It should do it auto.. get dreamweaver..Platapus .. never heard of. Frameset. is what your after.

danv

28-09-2004, 12:55 PM

Do you know what frames are?
Or are you trying to work out how to make it scroll?

CHEWY

28-09-2004, 12:55 PM

Cheers Steamfrog, Ill go have a look.
Platypus is fine for my needs.
Thanks.

anyone else with a bit more specific instruction??

CHEWY

28-09-2004, 12:58 PM

Do you know what frames are?
Or are you trying to work out how to make it scroll?

Me no understnad.. whats a frame?
I dont care if it scrolls or not, if the menu size is smaller than the page size it won't need to scroll. Im just looking for how to make a seperate menu with links on the side.
ta

danv

28-09-2004, 01:08 PM

Do you know what frames are?
Or are you trying to work out how to make it scroll?

Me no understnad.. whats a frame?
I dont care if it scrolls or not, if the menu size is smaller than the page size it won't need to scroll. Im just looking for how to make a seperate menu with links on the side.
ta
Yeah well there's a couple of ways I think. That dude's using frames. That is where you have seperate html files on the one page. So the main part of that page is one file, and the menu (and title) are 2 extra seperate html files (or pages) being displayed alongside.

I've never used platypus (only MS Frontpage) but basically, if you want to do that, you will need to find a menu option or something for adding frames. Then it will probably ask you what web page the frame will refer to. You will need to make a whole new web page (or html file) that is just the menu.

I think there are also other ways of making menus like that, but it gets complicated.

CHEWY

28-09-2004, 01:12 PM

Thanks Vit, that helps. I found the tool to add framesets so I should be good from here
thanks dudes

good ole farkin, you can find anything out in this forum.. and in 10 minutes! :)

W2ttsy

28-09-2004, 01:56 PM

Ok, i have come to the rescue...

frames work like this. there is a file (ive called mine index.htm) that has the parameters for the page layout. it describes where the frames are positioned, and what pages are displayed in the frame.

there are then other files that are loaded into the individual frames to display the content. (ive called the top one banner.htm, the side one links.htm and the main one content.htm)

for an example go here (http://home.iprimus.com.au/wattsfam/frames_example/index.htm)

the code for the index file is:

<html>
<head>
<title>Master frame controller</title>
</head>

<frameset rows="*" cols="253,*" framespacing="0" frameborder="yes" border="1">
<frame src="links.htm" name="leftFrame" scrolling="auto" noresize>
<frameset rows="138,*" cols="*" framespacing="0" frameborder="yes" border="1">
<frame src="banner.htm" name="topFrame" scrolling="auto" noresize>
<frame src="content.htm" name="mainFrame" scrolling="auto">
</frameset>
</frameset>
<noframes>
<body>
your browser is poo and cant read frames

</body>
</noframes>
</html>

in this file, the framesets are defined and the browser is told which files to render to display content. as you can see, scrolling is set to auto, incase the text runs below the frame margin.

for banner, top and content, it is just a normal html page.

go to here (http://home.iprimus.com.au/wattsfam/frames_example/index2.htm) as it demonstrates different urls being loaded into the frames.

the code for index2.htm is

<html>
<head>
<title>Master frame controller</title>
</head>

<frameset rows="*" cols="253,*" framespacing="0" frameborder="yes" border="1">

<frame src="http://farkin.net" name="leftFrame" scrolling="auto" noresize>
<frameset rows="138,*" cols="*" framespacing="0" frameborder="yes" border="1">

<frame src="http://google.com" name="topFrame" scrolling="auto" noresize>


<frame src="http://apple.com" name="mainFrame" scrolling="auto">
</frameset>
</frameset>
<noframes>
<body>
your browser is poo and cant read frames

</body>
</noframes>
</html>

hope this helps.

IMO, using frames is really poor design. id suggest going to w3schools (http://www.w3schools.com) and getting into the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) stuff. its way better for layout.

hope this helps. feel free to PM me about any other web development questions. im happy to help.

and just to set things straight. you dont need a fancy web editor. i did all these examples using notepad.

also, if you want an example of CSS at work, look at this demo site i did (http://home.iprimus.com.au/wattsfam/std/temp.htm). theres nothing fancy about the links, or the layout, and there are only two images. i just did it in CSS.

W2ttsy

CHEWY

28-09-2004, 08:32 PM

Thanks for making it 50x more complicated than it is Wattsy :wink:
thanks mate.

W2ttsy

28-09-2004, 09:12 PM

theres nothing complex about it. once you get the template for the frames sorted, everything else is just like any other page.

to set up a three frame layout, you will need:

template
links page
banner page
content page

nothing too complex.

personally, i wouldnt use that as a layout template, but thats me. feel free to ask more questions if you want...

W2ttsy

CHEWY

28-09-2004, 09:29 PM

What would you use then??
What other options do I have?

W2ttsy

28-09-2004, 10:19 PM

well, you could use tables (can be messy, but down well, it works) to control your layout, or you could use layers.

or there is CSS. its just a matter of using the positioning elements to tell the browser where to display different elements.

if you wanted to send me a sketch or mock up of your site, i would be happy to convert it too a CSS layout for you....

it depends how you want to go about it really, and how serious you want to get.

for a simple site, frames would be good. it depends if you want to be a web developer, or if this is a once off. if you like web design/dev, then its best to get the job done right, but if this is just a simple project, then shortcuts are fine i suppose.

W2ttsy

jays_5000

28-09-2004, 10:23 PM

[off topic sorry] Atreyu are an awsome band! Interesting vocals, but I like them alot!

CHEWY

29-09-2004, 10:27 AM

[off topic sorry] Atreyu are an awsome band! Interesting vocals, but I like them alot!

hehe, they're awesome.. been obsessed for the last couple of years
never get sick of their songs :)

CHEWY

29-09-2004, 10:29 AM

well, you could use tables (can be messy, but down well, it works) to control your layout, or you could use layers.

or there is CSS. its just a matter of using the positioning elements to tell the browser where to display different elements.

if you wanted to send me a sketch or mock up of your site, i would be happy to convert it too a CSS layout for you....

it depends how you want to go about it really, and how serious you want to get.

for a simple site, frames would be good. it depends if you want to be a web developer, or if this is a once off. if you like web design/dev, then its best to get the job done right, but if this is just a simple project, then shortcuts are fine i suppose.

W2ttsy

Yea, I think I'll just mess around with those frameset things \
This is never gonna be a website, its for my D&T folio for Yr12
Thanks for the help all.

danv

29-09-2004, 12:43 PM

Why are you doing it in website format?

Can't you just do a report or something?

CHEWY

29-09-2004, 01:02 PM

Because I'll get a better mark for a shitty folio :wink:

CHEWY

29-09-2004, 01:33 PM

Sutek, print screen :wink: Top right corner of your keyboard, then paste in MS paint.

CHEWY

03-10-2004, 02:28 PM

OK, next question.
When I make links to other pages the URL is always where the folder is on my hard drive, if the folder is moved or if I copy the website onto a CD the URLs remain linked to the original folder and no longer work.

How do you swap all the URLs to the new destination??

Shintaro

03-10-2004, 04:29 PM

OK, next question.
When I make links to other pages the URL is always where the folder is on my hard drive, if the folder is moved or if I copy the website onto a CD the URLs remain linked to the original folder and no longer work.

How do you swap all the URLs to the new destination??

A good Example (the code you need)
a href='./content.htm' or img src='./images/logo.jpg'

This will link to a file in the same directory even if it the web page is moved to a new folder. The (./) links to the active directory on web server.

A bad Example........(the code you are using)
a href='c:/webdev/content.htm' & img src='c:/webdev/images/logo.jpg'

notb4dinner

03-10-2004, 05:16 PM

Just to save you a bit of confusion:<ul> The single '.' in shintaro's example means 'from the current directory'. A '..' will take you up one directory in the tree (so from the example back to 'c:/'). This notation can be combined to move up multiple directorys.
[/list]

CHEWY

03-10-2004, 09:43 PM

oh..k.. thank you both so much for clearing that up for me. I mean, I had no idea before, but now I'm completely fuckin lost.. :(
thanks anyway, if I had any idea about whats what it might have made sense..

This is not going to be a website, its gonna be an interactive publication on a CD which is gonna read like a website, but it is not going on the web. just to clear that up.

I just want, when the time comes, to be able to swap the entire folder with all the components of the site onto a CD, and not have all the links fuck up because they're linked to the file which is back on my hard drive, I want all the links to be changed to their new address on the CD. if that makes sense

Is this possible?? In laymans terms?

Thanks

danv

04-10-2004, 12:04 AM

oh..k.. thank you both so much for clearing that up for me. I mean, I had no idea before, but now I'm completely fuckin lost.. :(
thanks anyway, if I had any idea about whats what it might have made sense..

This is not going to be a website, its gonna be an interactive publication on a CD which is gonna read like a website, but it is not going on the web. just to clear that up.

I just want, when the time comes, to be able to swap the entire folder with all the components of the site onto a CD, and not have all the links fuck up because they're linked to the file which is back on my hard drive, I want all the links to be changed to their new address on the CD. if that makes sense

Is this possible?? In laymans terms?

Thanks
In the past I remember just not including the part of the address that was specific to where ever the files happened to be (eg. removing 'c:\') but now I'm not so sure.

If worst comes to worst, I would imagine going through and cutting and pasting the new root of the address (eg. changin 'c:\' to 'd:\' ) wouldn't take all that long. 40 min maybe?

You should already have the all the files for the site organized in one folder, with a sub folder for each page of the site. If you have reference to files stored all over your hard drive then your going to get no where.

W2ttsy

04-10-2004, 08:27 AM

ok, to make file management easier, do the following.

set up a folder labeled with the name of your project. in my example, i will use template

you should then, inside the template folder, create another folder called images

your directory structure (ie, which folder is inside another) should now look like this

http://home.iprimus.com.au/wattsfam/folder_layout.jpg

ok.

images

in your website, and images you have, you should drop into the images folder. and then in your code, where you have an image, change the pathway (the bit between the img src tag) to ./images/imagename.extension. for example your code for an image should look like this:

<img src="./images/imagename.extension" /> you will need to change the imagename.extension to whatever the name of the image file is and what type of image it is: .gif .jpg .png are the supported ones.

links

when you move all your pages that you have made, place them in the folder named template.

now the same rule applies to links. your link code should look like this

<a href="./name_of_page.htm">name_of_link</a> you will want to change the name_of_page part to the name of your pages. ie: index.htm or index.html. and then change name_of_link to what you would like the link's name to appear as on the screen.

for example. if you had a link to an about us page you might use the following code:
<a href="./about.htm">About Us</a> to the user, this will appear in the browser as About Us.

i hope this helps. if you are unsure, i can post an example page on the net for you, and you can then look at the code listing.

W2ttsy