A different approach

CrashGordon · July 26, 2009

I decided not to reskin, but rather integrate into a larger website. I did this by placing phpVMS inside an IFRAME and editing the images to match the rest of the site. Since I have a widescreen monitor, squeezing everything into the center third of the screen made no sense to me. for the moment I'm still left with too much space on either side, but will figure out how to place useful data or verbiage there, instead of uncused space.

Since the main site is framed and the menu is in the top banner, but targets the main frame on the bottom I wind up with a lot of flexibility.

I still have to some artistic enhancement, as well as complete the menu options, but since I started this only 24 hours ago, it is comiong along nicely. If anyone wants to see it, click on my sig.

Leiserson · July 26, 2009

Why are you using frames in the first place? Modern day development practices have found ways to organize content without having to keep a frame set on the page. Page divisions could easily work well for you! Re-skinning the system to look like the much larger site you have would be the best thing. If you need a complete 2.0 re-work of your web solution.... throw me a PM and we can discuss my services!

CrashGordon · July 27, 2009

Why are you using frames in the first place? Modern day development practices have found ways to organize content without having to keep a frame set on the page. Page divisions could easily work well for you! Re-skinning the system to look like the much larger site you have would be the best thing. If you need a complete 2.0 re-work of your web solution.... throw me a PM and we can discuss my services!

I somehow knew this type of response was inevitable. ;D Not knocking you, but I have a thing about the concept there is only one right way to do anything. Frames work. All modern browsers can display them. Coding is simple with them, so I use them.

Nabeel · July 30, 2009

If you're gonna go that way, change your header.tpl to be just this line:

<html>
<head>
<?php
   Template::Show('core_htmlhead.tpl');
?>
</head>
<body>
<?php
   Template::Show('core_htmlreq.tpl');
?>

And in footer.tpl

</body>
</html>

That way you won't have a repeat header, and it will have all the elements it needs to work

Strider · July 31, 2009

CrashGordon I am afraid in web design no one is right and no one is wrong, the only thing i would say is, frames do not look good, especially if they are smaller and are stuck at the bottom of the page, and it is harder to navigate around cos they ahave their own set width and height and it is annoying. But if it works for you then that is fine, just think of your pilots and what they would prefer,.

Cheers

Dan C

CrashGordon · July 31, 2009

Actually, I did what I did for the sake of simplicity in an already complex situation.

I had a site hosted by godaddy and was using VAFS. We experienced two episodes of our data from VAFS being unavailable for extended periods of time, leaving us dead in the water. I stumbled across phpVMS. After making inquiries about hosting, I chose one that had been recommended, installed phpVMS and was astounded to see that it worked, "out of the box".

That left me with my original on one server and phpVMS on another. Since the original server had a forum and other resources, and I also used some external sites, I opted for the simplest possible solution. an upper frame to keep my navigation and a lower one for content.

Essentially, this is the upper frame (less the menu bar):

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Omega-Air</title>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body,td,th {
color: #0000CC;
font-family: Times New Roman, Times, serif;
}
body {
background-color: #6699FF;
}
-->
</style>
</head>

<body>



<div align="center">

{menu bar code here}


</div>
<p align="center">
{Logo and clock code here}
</p>
<hr align="center" />
</body>

</html>

The only problem is that frame must have sufficient height to display the greatest height of the drop down menu.

The bottom frame, was even simpler:

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Omega-Air Virtual Airlines</title>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body,td,th {
color: #000099;
font-family: Times New Roman, Times, serif;
}
body {
background-color: #6699FF;
}
-->
</style>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
.style2 {color: #0000CC}
-->
</style>
</head>

<body>
<p align="center"> </p>
<p>
  <iframe width='100%' height='1200px' frameborder='5' src='http://www.fspirep.us//phpvms/index.php'></iframe>
</p>


</body>
</html>

Since I was up to my eyeballs in adding aircraft, airports, routes and things to get our pilots back to where they could fly, I needed an instant web site, even if it wasn't elegant. :

When things settle down, I'll consider other methods. BTW, the only modification I made to phpVMS, was to change the graphics to match the rest of the site.

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