This is FrameStuffer Version 3.2.2
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What it does | Usage
notes Site navigation Using with templates Using with anchors Passing values |
| (You may want to print this file - there's a lot here.) | |
FrameStuffed pages opened "naked" in a browser window or in the wrong frame will find their parent frameset and position themselves in the correct frame (tested with Netscape and Internet Explorer versions 3+ in Windows, NS 3+ and IE 4+ on the Mac).
The FrameJammer extension still works great and does the same, except that with FrameJammer the default page for the frameset shows briefly as it starts loading before the page being jammed is pulled in.
This isn't really an issue if it only happens once when a visitor arrives
from a search engine, but if you want to use the technique for in-site navigation
(see below), the page flashes can be come noticeable. FrameStuffer eliminates
this problem.
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DREAMWEAVER 4 and higher: Use the Extension Manager.
DREAMWEAVER 3 and lower: Drop 'FrameStuffer.htm' and 'FrameStuffer.js' into your CONFIGURATION>COMMANDS directory. Drop 'fStufferHelp.html' and 'fStuffer.gif' into a HELP directory in the CONFIGURATION directory (if it doesn't exist, you should create one as you'll need it to use the Help button).
Reload extensions if Dreamweaver is open.
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The first time you use 'FrameStuffer' with a frameset, you must SPECIFY THE DEFAULT PAGE and THE DEFAULT FRAME in which that page should appear when the frameset is opened normally. FrameStuffer does this for you when you follow this procedure:
- First, create a frameset with a blank page in the frame that will hold your default page (this is the page to use when the frameset is opened directly in a browser).
- Name the frames, save everything then close the frameset.
- Open the default page for the frameset and apply 'FrameStuffer', selecting the frameset you just created, and the name of the frame with the blank page in it.
Now you may continue to apply 'FrameStuffer' to any other pages that you want to find this frameset and position themselves in any of the frames (default frame or otherwise).
NOTE: The first page you apply FrameStuffer to after creating the frameset will be the default page! If you later want to change this, open the frameset page in code view. You'll see a line like this:
var theDefault = 'somepage.htm';
Change somepage.htm to whatever
page you want, remembering to include the path from the frameset page. Alternatively,
you can delete all the FrameStuffer code in the frameset page and start over.
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The image on the right is a typical frameset ('index.html').
Assuming that frame 'fright' is where you want
your default page 'main.html' to appear, you
set it up with a blank page in 'fright', and
name all the frames. Your frameset code looks something like this:
<FRAMESET rows="62,*">
<FRAME name="ftop" src="topFrame.html">
<FRAMESET cols="160,*">
<FRAME name="findex" src="leftFrame.html">
<FRAME name="fright"
src="blank.html">
</FRAMESET>
</FRAMESET>
Don't forget to create all the pages including 'blank.html' before creating the frameset. While 'blank.html' has no content, you may want to set the background to match your site. Save the frameset then close it.
Now open 'main.html', the default page for the frameset, in Dreamweaver and select 'FrameStuffer' from the command menu. Initially, you see:
Browse to and select the frameset with the blank page ('index.html'). The
display changes to:
The Frame menu now lists all the frames in the chosen frameset, so select 'fright' then punch the "OK" button (not shown). This writes the handler code into the frameset ('index.html') and normal FrameStuffer code into 'main.html'.
Now you can apply FrameStuffer to the other default pages, specifying the other frames (e.g., 'findex' for the 'leftFrame.html' page), as well as other pages that should appear in this frameset.
HEED THE WARNING IN THE DIALOG BOX: FrameStuffer must first
be applied to the page you want as the frameset default so it can write the
correct code into the frameset. This warning only appears if the selected
frameset does not have FrameStuffer code in it.
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FRAMESTUFFER COMPATIBILITY WITH FRAMEJAMMER
If you want your current frameset to work this new way (no temporary default page flash), you'll need to modify the frameset, but all your FrameJammed pages remain the same if you:
1. Open the frameset (that's the frameset, not any of the individual pages that have been FrameJammed) and delete all the old frameJammer code, including the 'onLoad' call in the <FRAMESET> tag.
2. Redefine your frameset to put a blank page in the default frame (you need to create a blank page).
3. Open the page you want to show up as the default page in the frameset and apply FrameStuffer to it, selecting your modified frameset as the target.
This writes new code into the frameset, and all your old pages and any new
ones you stuff or jam will continue to work as expected.
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FrameJammer includes "frame busting" as an anti-hijacking measure, to reduce the chance of having your pages used in frames on other sites. The frameset page checks to see if it's at the top level of the browser window and if not, breaks out. This is code, and it may be removed if you like:
if (self != top) // frame buster, may be removed
top.location.replace(self.location);
Individual framed pages, because they belong in frames, can't use the same technique. Instead, they check the name of the frame they're in. If it's wrong, they "bust out" and positions themselves in the correct frame in your frameset. This won't work if the foreign frame has the same name as yours, so you might want to avoid likely frame names such as "main" and "content". Instead, you might use names like "mainhp" or "hpcontent", using your own initials.
Regardless of frame names, pages opened "naked" find their frameset and position
themselves where they belong (if you followed the 'USAGE NOTES').
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- FrameStuffer works with pages that are in the same directory as the frameset
page, or in directories below the one containing the frameset page.
- Remove any "frame buster" code you may have in the page as FrameStuffer
will handle it for you.
- When working in a new frameset, name the frames then save all the pages
and the frameset before applying FrameStuffer.
- After selecting a target frameset, you are given a pick list of the frames
in the set. If the page you're working on is one of the default pages for
the frameset, the list consists of only the correct frame.
- If FrameStuffer is already in a page, you are shown the names of the
targeted frame and frameset (and an anchor if there is one). To change the
targets, use the 'Change' button. You may also 'Remove' FrameStuffer from
the page.
- Double stuffing doesn't work. I was able to confuse a browser by specifying
that one of the default pages in frameset A' actually belonged in 'Frameset
B', then trying to stuff a different page into 'Frameset A'. You're not
likely to design a site this way, but if you do get strange behavior (or
non-behavior) check for conflicts in the frameset default pages.
- If you do want to use the same page as a default page in multiple framesets,
use the same frame name in all the framesets. You'll only be able to stuff
the page into one of the framesets, but it won't kick itself out of the
others.
- Using JavaScript reserved words as frame names confuses JavaScript and
can cause Infinite Reload Cycles and/or crashes. 'top', for example, is
a no-no as a frame name, although it may work some of the time.
- Don't use tildes (~) or underscores (_) in your frame names.
- Do not use 'booker_' for any of your frame names. That's partly because
of the underscore, but also because I've rewritten the frame name test to
look for the frameBooker window so you can use both extensions in the same
page (a fairly likely scenario). There was no change to the handler function
in the parent frameset, so it will continue to work fine on a site with
mixed pages (created with this and earlier versions of frameJammer and FrameStuffer).
- 'Remove' will remove FrameStuffer from a page, but will not touch the
code handler written into the parent frameset because other pages may need
it. This may be removed manually to save a few bytes.
- A user found that pages would
not print from Netscape 4.x and that is now fixed. Earlier versions wrote
a frame name test into the page like this:
if (window.name!='<frame>')
if (window.name!='<frame>' && window.name!='booker_')
if (window.name!='<frame>' && window.name!='booker_'
&& !((self.innerHeight == 0) && (self.innerWidth == 0)))
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USING FRAMESTUFFER FOR SITE NAVIGATION
Building an index page for a framed site can be a problem. Assume a site structure like this:
frameSet.html
siteIndex.html
pages ----------\------ pageA.html
\-----
pageB.html
The frameset and site index pages are in the same directory, with framed pages in a sub-directory called 'pages'. After applying FrameJammer or FrameStuffer, you could make a direct link to the pages in 'siteIndex.html', like
href="pages/pageB.html"
This works, but pageB.html will first start to load before going on to find frameSet.html and positioning itself in the correct frame. This is okay if it only happens once, as from a search engine link, but becomes annoying if it keeps happening. To stop that, you use FrameStuffer rather than FrameJammer
- First, set up frameSet.html
with a blank page in your main content window.
- Open the page you want as the default page for the frameset, and apply FrameStuffer to it, selecting this frameset and the frame with with the blank page as the targets.
For navigation links, you then link to the frameset page and specify which page you want loaded ('fright' is the name of the frame for the page) like this:
href='frameSet.html?pages/pageB.html~fright'
That looks a bit complicated, but you can have FrameStuffer show you how to do it. Before setting up your index page, apply FrameJammer or FrameStuffer to the pages you'll want to link to. Then look at the code that was written into each page. You'll find a line that looks something like this:
top.location.replace('../frameSet.html?pages/pageB.html~fright');
Use the part in parentheses:
'../frameSet.html?pages/pageB.html~fright'
The '../' indicates that the frameset page is in the directory above the one the page is in. That's correct for 'pageB.html', but is not correct for 'siteIndex.html' because the site index page is in the same directory as the frameset. To compensate for that, you would modify what was written and your link in 'siteIndex.html' in this example would become:
href='frameSet.html?pages/pageB.html~fright'
The rule is: use the path to the frameset from your page on the left
of the '?' and the path to the page from the frameset on the right of the
'?'. If this is still confusing, a bit of trial and error should clear things
up.
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USING FRAMESTUFFER IN DREAMWEAVER TEMPLATES:
There's no simple way to use FrameStuffer in Dreamweaver templates. FrameStuffer writes a line like this on each page to be stuffed:
top.location.replace('../framesetpage.html?path/page.htm~frame');
The page being stuffed and the path to it from the frameset directory ('path/page.htm') are "hard coded" so this won't work in a template. For a while, I had FrameStuffer write code that does work in a template:
top.location.replace('../framesetpage.html?'+location.href+'~frame');
The problem with that is that it does not work in Netscape 4.08, and I received notes about it from a number of people, so I changed it back. If you don't care about NS 4.08 surfers, you can apply FrameStuffer, then change the line as above before saving the page as a template.
NOTE: USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.
If you do use the code above in a template, you also need to make a change to the FrameJammer code in your frameset page. Open the frameset page and find this line:
if (framedPage.length>1 && framedPage.indexOf("://")==-1){
Change it to read:
if (framedPage.length>1){
Now save the frameset page and close it.
NOTE: This creates a potential security hole that might allow someone
to insert one of their pages into your frameset. The inserted page would then
have access to information in the frameset such as cookies and variables,
or could be a form that asks the visitor for data then submits it to the dastardly
person inserting the page. While the visitor would have to arrive from a special
link on the dastard's site, it could happen. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
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USING ANCHORS WITH FRAMESTUFFER
You can now specify an anchor in the page you're stuffing, but you need to do it manually. First apply FrameStuffer to a page. In the code FrameStuffer wrote, find the line that looks something like:
top.location.replace('index.html?thepage.html~fright');
and insert the name of your anchor like this:
top.location.replace('index.html?thepage.html@theanchor~fright');
Note that you must use the '@' rather than '#' because of a JavaScript issue. Now open the frameset, and add the section of code as shown below in red::
var theDefault = 'main.html';
var theFrame = 'mainFrame';
var thePage = theDefault;
var framedPage = location.search;
if (framedPage.length > 1 && framedPage.indexOf("://")
== -1){
framedPage = framedPage.substring(1);
var theSplit = framedPage.lastIndexOf('~');
if (theSplit != -1){
thePage
= framedPage.substring(0,theSplit);
theFrame
= framedPage.substring(theSplit+1);
}else
thePage
= framedPage;
// insert anchor code here if required
if
(thePage.indexOf('@') !=-1){
re=/(\S+)@(\S+)/
theArray
= re.exec(thePage);
thePage=theArray[1]+'#'+theArray[2];
}
}
function frameStuffer(){
eval('top.frames["'+theFrame+'"].location.replace("'+ thePage
+'");');
if (theFrame != 'mainFrame'){
top.frames["mainFrame"].location.replace(theDefault);
theFrame
= 'mainFrame';
}
}
If for some reason you need to use a different symbol than '@', change it
here as well as in your page code.
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A user needed to pass a query string to dynamic pages being stuffed, so came up with a modification to the code in the pages (thanks, Steph). To use it, you first apply FrameJammer/FrameStuffer to a page, then add this code:
<script>
var qstring = location.search;
if (qstring.length > 1)
qstring = qstring.substring();
</script>
And modify the line that reads something like:
top.location.replace('../framesetpage.html?path/page.asp~frame');
to include the variable that is determined above:
top.location.replace('../framesetpage.html?path/page.asp'+qstring+'~frame');
You'll have to apply it by hand, but it will do the job.
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As usual, use at your own risk. If you run into problems please print the Help file out, then try again. If that doesn't work, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help.
Enjoy.
Hal
http://www.pawluk.com/public/