XFrames
Encyclopedia
XFrames is an XML
format for combining and organizing web based documents together on a single webpage through the use of frames. Similarly to HTML Frames, XFrames can be made useful through its power to create a content frame that is scrollable while other frames - such as sidebar menus, the header and footer remain in place on the page. XFrames will be particularly useful to web developers who will be able to modify a single document and have that modification appear on all pages that contain the document within a frame.
The main advantage of this next generation of frames is that it overcomes several of the major usability problems existing in the traditional framing system.
Although still in the working draft stages, XFrames will be replacing traditional HTML Frames.
1.1 standard. XFrames will likely address some of the following problems existent in HTML frames:
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
format for combining and organizing web based documents together on a single webpage through the use of frames. Similarly to HTML Frames, XFrames can be made useful through its power to create a content frame that is scrollable while other frames - such as sidebar menus, the header and footer remain in place on the page. XFrames will be particularly useful to web developers who will be able to modify a single document and have that modification appear on all pages that contain the document within a frame.
The main advantage of this next generation of frames is that it overcomes several of the major usability problems existing in the traditional framing system.
Although still in the working draft stages, XFrames will be replacing traditional HTML Frames.
Differences from HTML Frames
Traditional HTML frames that were introduced with HTML 4.0 were useful for their ability to combine several distinct Web pages into a single webpage view. However, several problems arose from the implementation and as such, frames have been removed from the W3C XHTMLXHTML
XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....
1.1 standard. XFrames will likely address some of the following problems existent in HTML frames:
- a Web browser's back button failing to work intuitively
- the failure to bookmark or favorite specific documents on the Web page easily as well as the inability to send an individual a reference to a specific document or collection
- getting trapped in a frameset
- the production of different results at times when a Web page containing frames is reloaded
- the "Page Up" and "Page Down" keys being difficult to use due to the pointer focus being on another frame within the page
- security vulnerabilities caused by the fact that a user has no way of knowing the original source of each framed document
- Since frames are not supported by all agents, and the necessary
content is not popularly implemented, agents that do not support frames (such as search engines) fail to render pages correctly and at the same time prevent any <a class='greylink1' onMouseover='ShowPop("69876",this,"noimage.gif", event)' onMouseout='HidePop("69876")' href="/topics/Search_engine_optimization">search engine optimization</a><span class="hp" id="m69876"><div class="hpHeader">Search engine optimization</div><div class="hpContent">Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid search results...</div><br></span>.</li></ul> <br /> <br /> XFrames overcomes the bookmarking problem by encoding the <i>population</i> of the frames into the URI, thus making it possible to bookmark/add a favorite of a page successfully.<br /> <H2>XFrames Implementation</H2> Similar to other markup languages, XFrames will support a number of elements and respective attributes.<br /> The following is a simple demonstration for the proposed implementation of a frames webpage:<br /> <br /> <source lang="xml"><br /> <frames xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2002/06/xframes/"><br /> <head><br /> <title>Home Page</title><br /> <style type="text/css"><br /> #header {height: 150px; }<br /> #footer {height: 50px; }<br /> #nav {width: 15%; }<br /> </style><br /> </head><br /> <group compose="vertical"><br /> <frame xml:id="header" source="banner.xhtml"/><br /> <group compose="horizontal"><br /> <frame xml:id="main" source="news.xhtml"/><br /> <frame xml:id="nav" source="nav-menu.xhtml"/><br /> </group><br /> <group compose="vertical"><br /> <frame xml:id="footer" source="disclaimer.xhtml"/><br /> </group><br /> </group><br /> </frames><br /> </source><br /> <br /> The <frames> element acts as the containing element of the collection of frames. This collection is what is being referred to as the 'frameset' of a webpage. Similarly to <a class='greylink1' onMouseover='ShowPop("43305",this,"xhtml.gif", event)' onMouseout='HidePop("43305")' href="/topics/XHTML">XHTML</a><span class="hp" id="m43305"><div class="hpHeader">XHTML</div><div class="hpContent"><div class="hpImage" id="i43305"></div>XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....</div><br></span> and <a class='greylink1' onMouseover='ShowPop("67362",this,"noimage.gif", event)' onMouseout='HidePop("67362")' href="/topics/HTML">HTML</a><span class="hp" id="m67362"><div class="hpHeader">HTML</div><div class="hpContent">HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....</div><br></span> markups, the <head> elements contain meta-data primarily used for search optimization and document description. The contained <style> element is used to include any content and layout styling - <a class='greylink1' onMouseover='ShowPop("16734",this,"noimage.gif", event)' onMouseout='HidePop("16734")' href="/topics/CSS">CSS</a><span class="hp" id="m16734"><div class="hpHeader">CSS</div><div class="hpContent">-Computing:*Cascading Style Sheets, a language used to describe the style of document presentations in web development*Central Structure Store in the PHIGS 3D API*Closed source software, software that is not distributed with source code...</div><br></span> is being used here. <group> groups a single or several frame elements together and can be styled accordingly. If no group style is specified, the <i>compose</i> attribute should be used to specify how the grouped frame elements are to be composed. Lastly, the <frame> element acts as the placeholder for the content of a webpage specified by URL through the <i>source</i> attribute.<br /> <H2>Status of XFrames</H2> The W3C released a second Working Draft on October 12, 2005 that further explains the proposed implementation of XFrames.<br /> As of today, XFrames still remains a W3C Working Draft with no clear indication on if and when it will become a <a class='greylink1' onMouseover='ShowPop("63592",this,"noimage.gif", event)' onMouseout='HidePop("63592")' href="/topics/W3C_recommendation">W3C Recommendation</a><span class="hp" id="m63592"><div class="hpHeader">W3C recommendation</div><div class="hpContent">A W3C Recommendation is the final stage of a ratification process of the World Wide Web Consortium working group concerning a technical standard. This designation signifies that a document has been subjected to a public and W3C-member organization's review. It aims to standardise the Web technology...</div><br></span>.<br /> <H2>External links</H2> <ul> <li> XFrames Resources at W3C <ul> <li> <a rel='nofollow' class='greylink1' href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/">The XHTML2 Working Group</a></li> <li> <a rel='nofollow' class='greylink1' href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xframes/">XFrames</a> was a <a rel='nofollow' class='greylink1' href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-xframes-20020806/">W3C Working Draft on 6 August 2002</a></li></ul> </li></ul> <div class="article-reference">The source of this article is <a class='greylink1' href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFrames">wikipedia</a>, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the <a class='greylink1' href='/gfdl'>GFDL</a>.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="footer"> <a href="http://www.silverdaleinteractive.com/">Silverdale Interactive</a> © 2025. 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