Across-frames popup menus?

[Kai Grossjohann]

I have a design where the page is divided into two frames. The top
frame is just one line tall and is to contain a menu. The bottom
frame is again divided into three frames (left, middle, right).

Now I'm looking for a popup (or drop-down?) menubar implementation
such that the top frame contains the menubar but the actual menus
themselves are displayed in the bottom frame(s).

I found out that it is possible to have a menubar in one frame where
the menus pop up in another frame. However, that won't quite cut it
in my case, since it is not clear which of the bottom three frames
should be used. (What if a menu bar item spans two frames, if the
first letter is in the left frame, say, but the last letter is in the
right frame? What's more, the user can resize the bottom frames.)

Is this kind of stuff possible at all?

It seems my employer is willing to pay for a module which does this,
so if you have recommendations of products, that's fine, too.

tia,
Kai

[Graham J]

Re: Across-frames popup menus?

> Is this kind of stuff possible at all?[color=blue]
>
> It seems my employer is willing to pay for a module which does this,
> so if you have recommendations of products, that's fine, too.[/color]

If you mean what I think you mean then try http://www.softcomplex.com/ and
the Tigra Menu. I think you need the Tigra Menu Gold for the cross frames
stuff. If nothing else it will show you how it is done.

[Mark Parnell]

Re: Across-frames popup menus?

Sometime around 2 Oct 2003 06:30:55 -0700, Kai Grossjohann is reported to
have stated:
[color=blue]
> I have a design where the page is divided into two frames.[/color]

Oh dear.
[color=blue]
> The top
> frame is just one line tall and is to contain a menu. The bottom
> frame is again divided into three frames (left, middle, right).
>[/color]

Eek! Make the bad man stop!

Lose the frames. Please.

http://html-faq.com/htmlframes/?framesareevil

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/l_vajzovic/tom/web/frames.html

http://dorward.me.uk/www/frames/

--
Mark Parnell

http://www.clarkecomputers.com.au

[Kai Grossjohann]

Re: Across-frames popup menus?

Mark Parnell <webmaster@clar kecomputers.com .au> wrote in message news:<u3jzbgg3y 65.3wlvaaehlt7c $.dlg@40tude.ne t>...
[color=blue]
> Sometime around 2 Oct 2003 06:30:55 -0700, Kai Grossjohann is reported to
> have stated:
>[color=green]
> > The top
> > frame is just one line tall and is to contain a menu. The bottom
> > frame is again divided into three frames (left, middle, right).[/color]
>
> Lose the frames. Please.
>
> http://html-faq.com/htmlframes/?framesareevil
> http://homepage.ntlworld.com/l_vajzo...eb/frames.html
> http://dorward.me.uk/www/frames/[/color]

I've now looked at those. I agree that frames are not good in many
cases. However, many of the arguments on those pages don't apply
here:

* There is another way to get a menu.

If the menu was all I needed, then there would be no problem.
However, I'm using the frames to get three columns that are resizable.
Is there another way to get resizable columns?

I would have put the menu into the leftmost of the three frames, were
it not for the fact that this frame happens to be the narrowest of
them all. And putting a menu into the middle or right hand frame
would look weird...

* Interaction problems with search engines

This thing belongs to the Deep Web: it's a web application presenting
content that's hidden in a database. Also, it is for intranet use
only. Hence, the content can't be indexed by a search engine anyway.

* Interaction problems with bookmarks

This is a highly interactive Web client (think webmail clients as a
similar example). It doesn't make sense to store all of the state in
a bookmarkable URL. (Or can you bookmark a page showing email
messages 11 through 20 in folder foo in your favorite webmail client?)

Kai

[Kai Grossjohann]

Re: Across-frames popup menus?

"Graham J" <individual-news-4@orangebucket. co.uk> wrote in message news:<blhkf4$ch 6v2$1@ID-203032.news.uni-berlin.de>...
[color=blue]
> If you mean what I think you mean then try http://www.softcomplex.com/ and
> the Tigra Menu. I think you need the Tigra Menu Gold for the cross frames
> stuff. If nothing else it will show you how it is done.[/color]

Cool stuff! A single menu can span several frames. That's really
nice. I didn't think it was possible.

I think we will become their customer.

Thanks a lot for this hint.

Kai