Pop up hides behind frame

[David DeCristoforo]

I have created a vertical row of buttons. Several of the buttons have
pop-up menus that "fly out" to the right. My Dreamweaver page is
divided with frames, a narrow frame on the left side for the nav
buttons and a wide "content" frame on the right. The problem I am
having is that the pop-ups are hidden behind the content frame. Any
way around?
Thanx
DD
"It's easy when you know how..."
Johnny Shines

[Murray *TMM*]

David:

The pop-up menus are layer based (that's what gives them the 'pop'). There
is no practical way to have a layer in one page appear in the space
allocated to another page (in a frameset).

It is true. Your choices are limited now -

1. DUMP THE FRAMES - you would not be having this problem in a non-framed
site.
2. Redesign your menus so that they do not need to span a frame boundary.
3. Redesign the frameset so that you leave enough room for the largest
popup.
4. Move the layer code for the popups from the page in the navigation frame
to each page in the content frame.
5. DUMP THE FRAMES - you would not be having this problem in a non-framed
site.

I recommend either #1 or #5, depending on what your needs are. You just
have no idea the horrors that await you if you continue with the frames.....
8)

And if you really want to do it right, dump both the frames and the pop-ups,
and get back to basics.

The DW/FW pop-ups will add at least 35K of code overhead to the first page
using them, as well as a large dynamic write to *each* page containing the
menus.

You should also know that they link to your files using document relative
links that are hardcoded in your javacript - not only are these links
invisible to the DW link management routines (i.e., when you move a page in
the site, you break the link), but worse, they are also invisible to the
search engine spiders, and accessability (508) requirements. The only way to
solve the second problem is to make sure that your pages have alternate,
HTML-based navigation links on them.

I am not fond of these menus (as you have no doubt guessed) and feel that it
is important to know what you are getting into before you may devote much
time to them.

There are some excellent alternatives to these pop-ups that have none of
these problems. Here are two methods that are very simple -

[url]http://www.projectseven.com/tutorials/menuing/mcloser/index.htm[/url]

or

[url]http://www.projectseven.com/tutorials/auto_hide/index.htm[/url]

Here is a method that is more 'hands on' but very slick and equally trouble
free -

[url]http://www.youngpup.net/?request=/components/ypSlideOutMenus.xml[/url]


--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"David DeCristoforo" <david@wintersnet.net> wrote in message
news:31pgovsfq8ofjuu6g61eblmrhvr1nq7vom@4ax.com...

> I have created a vertical row of buttons. Several of the buttons have
> pop-up menus that "fly out" to the right. My Dreamweaver page is
> divided with frames, a narrow frame on the left side for the nav
> buttons and a wide "content" frame on the right. The problem I am
> having is that the pop-ups are hidden behind the content frame. Any
> way around?
> Thanx
> DD
> "It's easy when you know how..."
> Johnny Shines

[ccnk]

It's funny but,.. the longer I read these messages, the more
similarities I see.. 8)

Murray *TMM* wrote:

>David:
>
>The pop-up menus are layer based (that's what gives them the 'pop'). There
>is no practical way to have a layer in one page appear in the space
>allocated to another page (in a frameset).
>
>It is true. Your choices are limited now -
>
>1. DUMP THE FRAMES - you would not be having this problem in a non-framed
>site.
>2. Redesign your menus so that they do not need to span a frame boundary.
>3. Redesign the frameset so that you leave enough room for the largest
>popup.
>4. Move the layer code for the popups from the page in the navigation frame
>to each page in the content frame.
>5. DUMP THE FRAMES - you would not be having this problem in a non-framed
>site.
>
>I recommend either #1 or #5, depending on what your needs are. You just
>have no idea the horrors that await you if you continue with the frames.....
>8)
>
>And if you really want to do it right, dump both the frames and the pop-ups,
>and get back to basics.
>
>The DW/FW pop-ups will add at least 35K of code overhead to the first page
>using them, as well as a large dynamic write to *each* page containing the
>menus.
>
>You should also know that they link to your files using document relative
>links that are hardcoded in your javacript - not only are these links
>invisible to the DW link management routines (i.e., when you move a page in
>the site, you break the link), but worse, they are also invisible to the
>search engine spiders, and accessability (508) requirements. The only way to
>solve the second problem is to make sure that your pages have alternate,
>HTML-based navigation links on them.
>
>I am not fond of these menus (as you have no doubt guessed) and feel that it
>is important to know what you are getting into before you may devote much
>time to them.
>
>There are some excellent alternatives to these pop-ups that have none of
>these problems. Here are two methods that are very simple -
>
>[url]http://www.projectseven.com/tutorials/menuing/mcloser/index.htm[/url]
>
>or
>
>[url]http://www.projectseven.com/tutorials/auto_hide/index.htm[/url]
>
>Here is a method that is more 'hands on' but very slick and equally trouble
>free -
>
>[url]http://www.youngpup.net/?request=/components/ypSlideOutMenus.xml[/url]
>
>
>
>

--

Coen

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."
_______________________________
Please, don't E-mail me about Fireworks questions. Post them on the Forum.

E-mail : ccnk at home.nl
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[sly one webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

I converted a huge menu system from FW pop-ups to P7 style menus and I can testify that they are easy to use and fast, fast loading(in comparison to pop-ups). They are also easier to edit and change later. Just follow the very good tutorial:

[url]http://www.projectseven.com/tutorials/menuing/mcloser/index.htm[/url]

[sly one webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

I just tested the young pup menus and they don't work correctly in Apple Safari.

[David DeCristoforo]

Thanx for your reply. Of the five options you list, I find this one
most interesting.

>4. Move the layer code for the popups from the page in the navigation frame
>to each page in the content frame.

Because of the nature of the site, I would like to keep the frame
structure if possible. Without triggering a rash of "you're a dumb
ass" stuff, could I ask exactly how I would do this? My best guess is
that I would copy the "function mmLoadMenus" section of the FW
generated code into each page that would show in the content frame.
Any help would make a struggeling amatuer grateful.
Thanx
DD



"It's easy when you know how..."
Johnny Shines

[Murray *TMM*]

David:

In my opinion, that's the worst of the options. Here's why -

1. You are now encumbering each page in the content section with the weight
of the menus.
2. If your content page scrolls vertically, and if the menu is horizontal,
then the menus will scroll vertically beneath the top frame as the page
scrolls.
3. You can fix this, but you now have to add a relative large chunk of
javascript to the pages that load in the content area to keep the layers of
the menu located below the top frame.

You are adding workaround on top of workaround, none of which would be
needed if you were not using frames. In addition, by adapting the menus to
work with your frames, you retain all of the 'frame-y' problems discussed
here -

[url]http://apptools.com/rants/framesevil.php[/url]
[url]http://www.MadCoWWWebDesign.com/go/?2[/url]

Nevertheless, if you really want to do this, you can find a technote at the
MM Technote link in my sig that describes how to move the menus to your
content frame.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
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ANSWERS
==================
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"David DeCristoforo" <david@wintersnet.net> wrote in message
news:7fahovopsg6mj2r3h4b1huh9ill44qjr91@4ax.com...

> Thanx for your reply. Of the five options you list, I find this one
> most interesting.

> >4. Move the layer code for the popups from the page in the navigation

frame

> >to each page in the content frame.

> Because of the nature of the site, I would like to keep the frame
> structure if possible. Without triggering a rash of "you're a dumb
> ass" stuff, could I ask exactly how I would do this? My best guess is
> that I would copy the "function mmLoadMenus" section of the FW
> generated code into each page that would show in the content frame.
> Any help would make a struggeling amatuer grateful.
> Thanx
> DD
>
>
>
> "It's easy when you know how..."
> Johnny Shines

[SKB]

David,
Danilo Celic has two articles (tutorials) on accomplishing this very
thing at [url]http://www.communitymx.com[/url]

It does involve Show/Hide layer behaviors on both of the frames adding
to the content pages' 'weight' as Murray points out but, the explanation
of how to do it is there.

I don't believe it's in the 'free' section either though. Could be worth
the price of subscribing.

HTH,
SKB

David DeCristoforo wrote:

> I have created a vertical row of buttons. Several of the buttons have
> pop-up menus that "fly out" to the right. My Dreamweaver page is
> divided with frames, a narrow frame on the left side for the nav
> buttons and a wide "content" frame on the right. The problem I am
> having is that the pop-ups are hidden behind the content frame. Any
> way around?
> Thanx
> DD
> "It's easy when you know how..."
> Johnny Shines