Create an initial post in which you take a position on the value of frames in HT

Question

Create an initial post in which you take a position on the value of frames in HTML5. To do this, compare the merits and weaknesses of frames in HTML5, as well as the arguments of professionals on both sides of the frames debate. Based on your comparisons, explain with which side of the debate you agree. Also, justify any choices, assumptions or claims you make using the suggested Learning Resources for this week and/or specific examples (representing the merits and/or weaknesses of frames) from your own research.

Explanation / Answer

Frames are an HTML construct invented by Netscape. Frames can be used to
embed multiple HTML files in a single browser window.

When to Use Frames
Frames are useful in a site whose contents are expected to change frequently.
Frames can give a targeted area of your site a functional coherence. For example,
you can provide the navigation links in the leftmost frame and the main content in the
right frame (Nayan, 1997; Harsh & Nitin, 1999).
Frames can be used as a shortcut for scrolling within a single page. For example,
a very long directory or other alphabetical listing could have a frame on top listing the
letters of the alphabet. Clicking one of these letters would cause the listing to scroll
within another frame while keeping the user on the same page and thus not destroying
Navigation (Nayan, 1998; Nitin, 1996).
Frames are also useful for "meta-pages" that comment on other pages.

Problems with Frames
Bookmarks
In current browsers, if a user bookmarks a page, the browser actually only
bookmarks the parent frameset. When that user later calls up that bookmark, he/she will
get the home page or equivalent. If that user had spent hours wandering through your site
trying to find a specific page, that user will become very upset very quickly when he/she
realizes that he/she has to retrace his/her path through the site when that user calls up the
bookmark (Nayan, 1999).

Accessibility
There are still browsers out there that do not use frames, browsers that are brand
new and make a conscious decision to not offer that traditional support. Some of these are
browsers for the blind, or other handicapped users. If your audience possibly includes any
of these users, be prepared for them to have serious trouble traversing the site. As an
example of how problematic this may be, if you are a user of Microsoft FrontPage 3.0,
then you can see that the <noframes> tag by default has the text, "This page uses frames,
but your browser doesn't support them." This is not exactly polite, or user-friendly. It
doesn't even offer a link to a main frame page, nor does it automatically include the
contents of that main frame within the <noframes> tag (Nayan, 1999).

Design
Support in the current frames-capable browsers is generally good, but there are
still extra issues you have to become familiar with, especially if precise frame alignment
is important. Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer do not handle frames
exactly like one another. If you have ever tried to line images up across frames, you have
encountered one of these differences. That doesn't even take into account other browsers,
versions, platforms, and their caveats. You have to do that much more testing (Nayan,
1999; Harsh & Nitin, 1998).

Search Engines
It used to be that search engines had trouble picking up pages within framesets.
Search engines point only at single URLs. If your content lives within a frameset, and a

search engine takes someone to a particular piece of content, the user will not be given
the frameset context (usually containing the navigation and site branding), and so will
often land on a page and have no idea where he is nor how to get around (Nayan,
1998).

Feedback in navigation
If you have a navigation bar in a frame, it's a pain to present user feedback. You
either have to a) use JavaScript to swap out graphics or b) load a version of the bar with
the appropriate section selected. Also, if you allow people to traverse using links in the
content, and those links take them from one site section to another, your navigation bar
will not reflect that, unless you have JavaScript on each page to ensure that the bar is
appropriate (Nayan, 1998).

Design Ideas on How to Use Frames

Do
· Make Pages Bookmarkable: Pages that are constructed of frames should be made
bookmarkable whenever possible. This means using separate framesets and
always using TARGET="_top" in links.

· Few scrollbars: Try to design the pages so that they look like they aren't framed to
the untrained eye; the scrollbar should fit right in. This often means keeping the
amount of material in all but one frame small enough to keep from displaying
scrollbars. A reasonable design goal would be to have no more than one frame
with scrollbars.
· "You Are Here" in navigation areas: Groups of links (text or images) that include
the current page should indicate which page is currently being viewed. Being able
to navigate directly to the other choices by clicking on the representation in the
group is an important added plus.

Don't
· Don't use "shell navigation": Do not use one frameset file to hold a whole site or
document. Avoid using the TARGET attribute without the "_top" value so that
your document seems to be one URL.
· Don't unknowingly use techniques that aren't bookmarkable: When in doubt,
check.
· Don't forget "You Are Here" indication: It is best to give readers a sense of where
they are in a larger whole. Just using the name of where you are may not be
enough: You may need to list the other possibilities and highlight the one chosen,
such as through text or image button bars.
· Don't have big areas that the reader doesn't want that don't scroll: The use of
banners, logos, and advertisements that take up large amounts of space should be
minimized. Space used for design purposes, such as to keep text columns narrow
enough for easy reading, may be OK; check your readers' reactions.
· Don't have too many scrollbars: They waste space, look bad, and are confusing.
They are a last resort when the reader's screen is smaller than you planned.
· Don't make things complicated or distracting: Keep animated GIFs and
checkerboards of cute scrolling frames out of your document unless you want to
give the reader something with which to waste their time.

Summary
Frames can be useful for the Web sites that are expected to change frequently,
functional coherence of a targeted area in a site, a shortcut for scrolling within a long
single page, and meta-pages that comment on other pages. However, frames also have
several problems related to bookmarks, accessibility, layout design, search engines, and
feedback in navigation. Therefore, whether you will use frames for your Web page or not
depends on the purpose and nature of your site. For example, if your site will have
several hundred or thousand pages and is expected to add or remove some pages
frequently, you need to create your site using frames. You can use the strengths and the
weaknesses of frame that are given above in this paper as a criteria for your decision.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse C
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.