I have to use frames and need help
 

Hello,

First time here so I need some guidance.
I have a frame design I need to understand how I can implemet Xcart using this layout.

Here is the layout: (SF -small frame; MF - menu frame;Se-search frame;LF - language frame)

-------------------------|-------|
top frame.................|..SF...|
-------------------------|-------|
...............................|.........|
...............................|.........|
main frame- ............|..MF...|
...............................|.........|
-------------------------|-------|
.....SeF....................|....LF..|
-------------------------|-------|

For example I need to know how can I include the head.tpl into the top frame or how can I include the Search module into the SeF.

Any help and ideas are welcomed.

Thanks a lot.

i would not bother using frames

I have to use it so I have to find a solution :cry:
HELLLLPPPP! :wink:

you shouldnt get used to using frames, they are terrible in web designing. Also they scream out amateur.

Just use tables and have it call out to certain pages. Check your skin1/customer/home.tpl for an example of the customer side layout of this.

Thanks gibberish, I really appreciate being called an amateur.

cipi,
The point that should be made is that frames are very hard to do right. If you don't know how to make them work right, it is better to do without. Frames are very easy to break and that's when they make your site look crappy. Either way, splitting different parts of X-Cart into different frames will get fairly complicated.
I put my cart into a frame on my existing site and it works great so far. I haven't tried to break it yet, so I'm sure I'll have some changes to make once I start testing. I didn't try splitting out different parts of the cart into different frames, so it may not be what you're looking for. You can see what I'm working on at:

http://www.amarillobolt.com/abc_cartindex.html

Hope this helps in some way.

Another emphatic ix-nay on the rames-fay here.

Also, I would suggest against having the menu items on the right hand side unless you are aiming at a right-to-left reading audience (such as Arabic and others).

Sorry if this all sounds unhelpful and negative. What are you trying to accomplish with this layout? Perhaps someone can give you a non-frame alternative. (you will thank them later :) )

when you come to test your xcart in frames you will find absolute nightmares with retaining sessions through the different frames. Particularly if you use ssl.

Take most people's advice and avoid the frames like the plague, they are not worth the hassle.

If you really want to acheive somehting like this then consider DHTML/CSS framing.

I didnt mean to offend.

What I was meaning that more novice designers use frames because they dont think about the draw backs of the inaccessibility of frames.

Just a few points are that you cannot link a page, or even bookmark a favorite spot of the site. This would be a big no no for a store since most people like to bookmark or send links to friends for opinions on products or bookmark it to come back to it later. When using frames if they bookmark it will most always bring them to the index.html

Search engines cant really find anything if the site is in frames.

Printing is terrible in frames.

Frames take longer to load since the browser has to load a few pages in order rather then just one.

Also you get a blinking effect everytime you click on a link.

I dont think we want to get in a pros and cons debate with frames. I am just saying that functionally and userablitly wise they are bad for websites.

Thanks for all the replies but...

I know frames are not good. I develop (graphic and programming) for about 2 years and I am against frames.

Unfortunately the design was given to me together with this cart and I have to use frames. I now some PHP but not that much so it will take a lot of time for me to understand the whole application.

So, if there is a way to do it with frames and some one did it or has an opinion, that's great for me because I will have a starting point.

If it cannot be done than I will inform my project leader about this. But if there is a solution I have to take it.

Another thing: Can I contact the people who made it and ask for support or ideas?

you cab speak to xcart via the members message board

x-cart.com/members

you can also purchase extra support there too if you need. you get 3 months support when the licence is first purchased if i remember right

Thanks.
I posted my message. I'm waiting a feedback

Cipi,

Have you looked into using the php like a frameset? Xcart by default makes somewhat of a frame (top, middle, both sides, and bottom). You would just have to manipulate the root file that tells how the pages setup and then just load what ever tpl you want into that area. Just like a frame but you wont have to deal with the issues frames have. I believe you can probly manipulate the dialog file eve. Have one dialog file load into top middle and have another in bottom middle (assuming your layout is a 3 column, but you get the idea hopefully).

Just throwing out ideas.

OK I Need Your Opinion www.landspeedracing.com/customer/home.php
My main banner has to stay at the JPG quality of 45 and it slows things down quite a bit having to load this everytime even with the browsers cache enabled.

I dont like frame at all but I am just so tempted to split the widow into a top banner frame and have the rest of the site.

My main goal is keep the top section that never changes always 100% visible in slow systems and slow connection the entire site disappear for up to 60seconds for those who have already cached the main page graphics.
This is way to long for me and it violate my number one rule of interface Continuity.

I just hate how the whole site is set into a Table and the table is not displayed until everything loads inside of it. I just dont want my customer staring at the background image while they are waiting for the page to load I would love to have them stare at the banner and background :)

Would CSS Frames do this I have limited CSS experience.

Scott Kent
P.S. I though PHP is DHTML????? D.A. Dam Acronyms:)
P.P.S. Being a paid amature I would love to hear any suggestions we are loosing 36% of our customers in the first 0-30sec Maybe this is normal.

This is what I'm trying to do. Unfortunately I'm not so good with php and the smarty technology just makes it harder to get it right. So I have a long way to the finish (if possible to get there).

I posted the same message in the Communication Center. How long does it take to get an answer from them?

One way would be to make a table structure that mimics the frame structure you first wanted.

Then, you're basically looking at a customization of customer/home.tpl i.e. figure out the parts of home.tpl that you want in the top frame, and stick them in the corresponding place in the table structure you came up with, do the same with the middle frame, etc. (back up home.tpl first)

E.g. home.tpl (in 3.4.2) creates the top banner like this:


That's basically your top banner, so put that where you want it to appear in your table.

Once you have all components of the main page represented the way you want in your file, you can save it as home.tpl and it should work. You're just gonna have to play around with it, so back up all the files you play with.

I know this might sound a little confusing, I don't know much about Smarty either but I hope you're getting the gist of what I'm saying.

hope this helps.

Yep, that's pretty normal. There are things you can do to try and lower tht percentage a bit but reality is that not everyone who FINDS your site wants what you have to offer.

I have had days where site traffic was 100 times higher than normal and not made a sale. I have had days when the store was dead and we converted 1 in 3 into sales.

Make sure all of the important information and best looking products are available on the main page. If a user doesn't see what he is looking for right away, they will leave and probably never come back.

AND..

No one HAS to use frames. It will take some hard work and ingenuity to do it in tables, but you can accomplish your goal.

The results will be dramatically better.

If you don't have time to do it right the first time, where will you find time to fix it later....

So What you are saying is instead of having One Table containing all of the the other Tables, you have lets say a Header Table Left Main Right and footer table.

I have attempted to do this and had some major problems, though It is more with modifying my current custom skin to work like this I probably should start from scratch but never had doing so I am reluctant plus we have zero budget for customization business has been going down for our site. I trying to fix my HTML catalog I tried all the fixes in the forumn but something else is wrong Grrrrr Thats what happens when you get sloppy customiztion sorry Qualteam Im sure Im a rare case but my tech support ran out before they finished fixing most the obvios bugs in my custom. I digressed.

Anyway Thanks for some of your insight on the irrational of webtraffic.
I needed somone to affirm this as it is hard to reassure my boss when I have never done this before.

Nothin like Hardknox University:)

Yah Looks like I will try that the whole bookmark thing is just the one hangup I cant get over. Wish their were a way to have all book marks refer to the main frame no matter what is in the other from Or something like that.

I always make a non frames version it is just more efficient use of bandwidth as you only reload what is in the frame , though caching helps but...

I will attempt to create a multi table page wish me luck. Sure wish I could avoid tables all together and still keep the look. Ohh well.

-=PEACE=-
Scott