Re: Missing Functionality: Include

When using frames the URL in the browser address bar will not change when
you navigate around the site. Therefore a specific page cannot be identified
by the URL. So using frames would probably not be a good idea.

Then, of course, you have iframes. But with an iframe you restrict the
content of the included page to a specific area - that is not to keep layout
and structure separated.

You also refer to a solution using the object element, though, it would need
some scripting. It *should* be possible to include a page without.

All the possible solutions, you refer to, are certainly usable, but when you
think about it: Who uses them? Doesn't everybody use a server-side feature
for the thing instead? There is probably an explanation to that.

Anyway, wouldn't you be able to include a page using the HTML 5 embed tag (I
ask because I do not know)?
----
Molte

2009/5/9 Dustin Boyd <rpgfan3233@gmail.com>

> On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 23:14, Elliot Jenner <void2258@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Coming from programming languages like C++ and Python, I naturally
> > expected that it would be similarly simple to move redundant parts
> > of the page into external files and then include them back in. After
> > extensive searching, I determined that this basic functionality is
> > missing from the language, and requires such hefty workarounds as
> > server-side-scripting or PHP. It should not be necessary to go to a
> > completely different language to perform such a necessary task,
> > particularly languages that require the added complication of a web
> > server just to see if your code is functioning properly, and the
> > added worry that some servers may not support the scripting.
> >
> > Am I alone in wishing for a simple <include url('file.html')/>
> > element or something similar that allows this to be accomplished
> > easily?
>
> You must not have known about frames [1], something that HTML has had
> for a long time in one form or another.  The exact same technology
> also exists in XHTML 1.0 via the frameset DTD [2], albeit with a
> couple of changes that affect XHTML in general rather than frames
> specifically.  Another possibility is the IFRAME element [3].  The
> OBJECT element [4] works too, with some minor caveats in the area of
> client-side scripting such as JavaScript.
>
> > In my opinion this is a completely basic function that any language
> > should have. How did CSS, which was developed later, obtain the
> > <link> tag, meanwhile the older HTML standard still lacks it?
>
> Actually, the LINK element is a part of HTML (and XHTML) [5].  It is
> simply used to create a relationship between an HTML document and a
> CSS document.  CSS defines style sheet rules; HTML/XHTML defines
> elements.  They are completely different languages, though it may
> appear as if they all go together because they're used together so
> often.
>
> > Particularly on a website, there will always be bits of code that
> > are common to all the various pages that make it up, for example the
> > navigation and copy write/contact code.
>
> This is why frames are a great tool when you don't have more useful
> solutions like server-side scripting/programming available.  However,
> there are usability issues with frames, something that server-side
> scripting fixes (or server-side includes at the very least).  I've
> personally never used the OBJECT element as a replacement for frames,
> but I haven't heard about any bad experiences with it other than
> scripting as previously mentioned.  Then again, with as much
> JavaScript as there is in use these days, I am not surprised that I
> hear so little about replacing frames using OBJECT.  On the other
> hand, it has been over a year since I've heard anything about OBJECT
> as a replacement for IFRAME, which is already a replacement for the
> not-very-usable HTML framesets that I pointed out at first.
>
> You can see a live example of using OBJECT as an alternative to IFRAME
> [6], though I'm not exactly sure how old (or reliable) it is.  Again,
> there might be scripting issues so stay guarded.
>
> [1] - http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/present/frames.html
> [2] - http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/dtds.html#a_dtd_XHTML-1.0-Frameset
> [3] - http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/present/frames.html#h-16.5
> [4] - http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html#h-13.3
> [5] - http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/links.html#h-12.3
> [6] - http://intranation.com/test-cases/object-vs-iframe/
>
>