HTML Frame-like, modern solution ??

[Jimbrowski]

Hello All...

I've got a simple question that could be answered with old fashioned HTML Frames... but I desperately need a modern solution.

I have an XHTML / CSS layout with a large Flash slideshow somewhere near the top of the page. I'd like to be able to click through all the other pages on the website without the slideshow restarting everytime I change pages.

It's the same effect you'd get if the slideshow was sitting inside an HTML Frame. Googling the answer is getting me down big-time...

Help anyone ??
Jimmy

[rdoyle720]

I can think of a few possible solutions.

One would be to use a SharedObject to set a variable in your Flash movie so it would "remember" where it was at and start at the same spot from page to page. A SharedObject is like a cookie in Flash.

Otherwise, if the content on your pages was short, you could just build the whole thing in one page and hide/show the content as you clicked the nav. In your CSS you'd set a section to display: none, and then use Javascript to set it to "display: block" when you cilcked your navigation.

A third option if your pages were longer would be to use AJAX to get the contents of your other pages and replace the content of the current page with the page you just clicked on.

The last two options are pretty complex, and aren't particularly good for search results in Google (Google won't see the stuff you're hiding or pulling in dynamically). The easiest is probably the SharedObject.

[Jimbrowski]

Cool... nice one, i'll give the SharedObject a whirl... not sure how smooth it'll be if you change HTML pages in the middle of a fade transition or something...

Could be a good option though, thanks very much

Jimmy

[MyFriendIsATaco]

To be honest, none of those approaches are going to be ideal. They all are messy and will interfere with SEO. I think you should look at your design and opt for another concept. You're trying to do something that other people aren't even doing, so maybe see how they're working around it and implement what you want differently.

It's like you're thinking in terms of Flash... but trying to apply those concepts to HTML, which doesn't translate nicely. Same goes for translating a spoken language to another spoken language. Things are just said different and approached differently. Same with HTML vs Flash.

[Beakers]

Depending on the amount of content/pages you have you could look at using jQuery and creating a content slider holding your pages e.g. http://blog.lavablast.com/post/2008/...-Tutorial.aspx

Then you could sit your flash gallery undernearth it.