Show 1 div with PREV - NEXT link, hiding all others, Show 1 div with PREV - NEXT link, hiding all others Options

[Christian J]

This url produced the previous results; it has a php ext.
http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/_body.php

This url with an html ext produces the following results
http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/_body.html

Indeed it seems PHP is not supported. (As a side-note, the BODY content in my examples should be pasted into an existing HTML document, but that's not the issue here). Is your host freewebs/webs? If so http://www.webs.com/pages/faqs/ says they don't support PHP.

Since you appear to sell lots of things perhaps a database-driven site would be the most practical, like Darin already suggested. A web host offering that shouldn't cost much more than the current one, but of course someone must set it all up as well. Probably some web hosts feature preinstalled database-driven shopping-cart systems.

[Brian Chandler]

Indeed it seems PHP is not supported.

On what evidence? That something.php doesn't get parsed? This is no evidence at all. Only the hosting service can tell you whether or not you can run PHP.

[Baffled in Baltimore]

In regards to

The article Frederiek linked to has a demo here

Thank you for that.

I know that jscript can be somewhat burdonsome with large amounts of content and poses compatability issues but my intention is going with maybe a 20-record page of content divied up using divs; less than 100k in size for any given page.

It's sort of a drill-down scheme;
Each NEW page is to be a category of its own having anywhere from a few items (divd content) to maybe 20 or so.
The catalog home page is to be a thumbnail page of an image out of each category.
The user selects an image, opening that category thumbnail page.
The user picks first image opening that images full jpg and descriptive text; prev next and back to category links are now present.

It is my preference anyway, to avoid too much scrolling by capturing the full jpg with its descriptive text and paypal link than to have the user scroll from one set of info to another. This can be confusing and hard to follow; This is also purpose of having a thumbnail page for each category; a visual aid of what is in any given gategoey. Too much info is just a click away to another website for the user. I am trying to avoid this.

The pages in use are all compiled in full html using sub-routines written in VB for Excel. I don't have to run the full html for the items, I can modify the way each item is compiled in Excel by using tables, divs, menu script, whatever I want by simply changing what gets concactenated. Then it's just a matter of copying the first concactenated item down to the last, all with the same attributes but with a different item and its associated content.

Then this code gets pasted as values, then copied from Excel and pasted into my html editor; file is saved then uploaded.

It sounds more complicated than it is but its not that bad; and it works well.

Why do I use Excel for this? It is said that "a Picture is worth a Thousand words"
I couldn't find a gallery program that does what I got Excel to do; and that is tag each image with their appropriate url that changes sub-directories with their numbering scheme and to avoid having to duplicate thousands of images on my site for the same purpose. These images are on another servier which I lease with download and copy-righrs.

Well, that's it in a nut-shell; my task-at-hand. Now with vision issues, having to eliminate many pages (single-item content) and replacing them with just a few has now become necessary'

By the way, my Excel db started with 4-col of data; item#, title, full description, and base price. The db grew a 5th col for "Truncated description and finally; a Category col. In selecting records to work with, I can sort by category then work with that.

Thank you again for your support and patience.

[Baffled in Baltimore]

Hello again Christian, J

My thanks again to Darin for his valuable input

I mentioned in a previous post that my current host would be problamatic for this and that I also have an ftp with another host I use infrequently.

The hostname is startlogic and my account with them was started following some issues I had with the freewebs people.

The scripting you proposed sounds promissing and if the startlogic server supports php (and it does, just have to enable it) then this is my other option; move over to it. But this would involve re-writing for the ftp urls from my current http site.

Right now, this would be more trouble than current effort in maintaining what's already on the http; at least for now until my vision improves (if it does); Rock and a hard place...

Thanks again for your time.

[Baffled in Baltimore]

Hello again everyone. This was just received:

Webs.com does not support PHP or other languages that require server side access.

Yup; just as suspected...

I can see black on white but not shades of grey on each-other; I'm finding more and more websites like this.

This url is just 1 of maybe a couple-dozen I plan to compose. It is the auto_travel category in progress and is the "Basic content" from all the other pages in this category that will be remoxed later on.
http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/auto_travel.html

When viewing the Source, you will see the attempt I made with the major divs; they all have a unique ID. All I am trying to do is have one major div show at a time because it will be targeted to an Iframe sized for the divd content. I believe Prev - Next links will be helpful for those who wish to use them. File size for this one is a little over 14k; not very large.

Thanks for your help.

This post has been edited by Baffled in Baltimore: Jan 12 2009, 04:35 PM

[Frederiek]

For what it's worth, Stu Nicholl's Simple Slideshow might be something for you. Or maybe others in his Galleries.

[Darin McGrew]

I can see black on white but not shades of grey on each-other; I'm finding more and more websites like this.

Browsers have a number of accessibility-related features. You should be able to enforce a high-contrast color scheme and/or larger font sizes if that's what you need.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of sites that fall apart when such accessibility-related features are used. But if you need these features, then their content wouldn't be accessible anyway.

This url is just 1 of maybe a couple-dozen I plan to compose. It is the auto_travel category in progress and is the "Basic content" from all the other pages in this category that will be remoxed later on.
http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/auto_travel.html

FWIW, I see a list of products, which looks fine to me. That's what others will see when JavaScript is disabled/unavailable.

[Baffled in Baltimore]

Hello Fredrick; and thanks.

This is similar to some of the script one would find on Dynamic Drive's website (one of my favorite things). What I have going now is a culmination of Gallery-like content with image links that change source folders when the item# changes so standard gallery script wouldn't work very well.

When incorporated, the pre-existing problem of targeting a server-based library still exists.

Thanks again for the help

[Baffled in Baltimore]

Hello Darin and thanks

Browsers have a number of accessibility-related features.

I can scroll-up the text size, it is contrast that is hard to overcome...

I know jscript would be a problem for those browsers that don't support it and not everyone is going to install nor enable it for one site. It is realized w/o js, the content would show as written, and hence the problem; Since DOM seems to be widely supported, wouldn't it be a worth a try?

Thank you

This post has been edited by Baffled in Baltimore: Jan 12 2009, 05:51 PM

[Darin McGrew]

Browsers have a number of accessibility-related features.

I can scroll-up the text size, it is contrast that is hard to overcome...

Your browser should have the option to ignore colors specified by the web page. There isn't much you can do about images (including images of text, which are far too popular), but that will guarantee adequate contrast for all the text content on the page.

If you find yourself increasing the font size on most pages, then it will save you time to enforce a minimum font size in your browser settings. If you're using MSIE, then all you can do is tell it to ignore the font sizes specified by the web page, but that should still help.

[Christian J]

This url is just 1 of maybe a couple-dozen I plan to compose. It is the auto_travel category in progress and is the "Basic content" from all the other pages in this category that will be remoxed later on.
http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/auto_travel.html

The images are a bit large. If they were much smaller thumbnails (linking to larger versions, say in popups) the page would become much smaller and easier to scroll down.

All I am trying to do is have one major div show at a time because it will be targeted to an Iframe sized for the divd content.

The iframe on the home page http://www.wjstewart-associates.com ? Frames and iframes often cause various trouble (like users opening a link in a new window outside the parent frame, or search engines linking directly to orphaned frame pages).

I believe Prev - Next links will be helpful for those who wish to use them.

Not sure about that, at least not as the only means of navigation. Especially on product pages customers may prefer some kind of thumbnail gallery like on http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/Catalo...ntent/auto.html rather than have to view every item one at the time.

File size for this one is a little over 14k; not very large.

Don't forget the images, they add up to much more.

[Christian J]

I know jscript would be a problem for those browsers that don't support it and not everyone is going to install nor enable it for one site.

FWIW all major browsers in use today support javascript, even (at least some) mobile phone browsers. A few (1-2%?) advanced users may disable JS, but then they also know how to enable it again. Search engines don't support JS, though, and it's generally good practice to make web sites not rely on JS in order to work.

[Brian Chandler]

This url is just 1 of maybe a couple-dozen I plan to compose. It is the auto_travel category in progress and is the "Basic content" from all the other pages in this category that will be remoxed later on.
http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/auto_travel.html

FWIW, I see a list of products, which looks fine to me. That's what others will see when JavaScript is disabled/unavailable.

Like Darin, I see just a list of products, which looks OK. But a few points:

The BIG question is this: how are you generating this page? Did you basically create it all manually? Or do you have a script of some sort that generates it from your spreadsheet? It seems to me you are confusing two separate issues: how to present the information to the visitor, and how to generalise its production from a large number of products.

Here's a suggestion - why don't you look at bizium.com, which you can find discussed in the "Review" forum (Site Review Requests) below.

A minor point: your <div> for each product seems to be a fixed size in pixels. This is a Bad Idea, since pixels vary in effective size: users with sight difficulties, or just nonstandard monitor settings need to increase the character font size, so the content overflows.

[Baffled in Baltimore]

Thank you for all the responses; some useful info indeed

However, I believe we're loosing focus of the issue at hand. Yes, my vision is an issue and primary reason I am on this quest, but it is not the focal point of this discussion.

I am here because I will have extreme difficulties maintaining my site as written; I am loosing my sight. I am not a web programmer, I am an industrial troubleshooter (was, before vision problem)

The topic is finding a way to minimize the maintenance effort by eliminating the hundreds of already produced product pages (and the necessity of creating more of them) It was thought that combining the content of many single pages into one categorized page would be the fix. This was accomplished and demonstrated here with one of maybe 2-dozen similar pages also to be created: http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/auto_travel.html

My server does not support php, so that's out. Anything-else has to be accomplished by other means. If jscript (not search friendly) or DOM are not viable solutions, please help with alternatives. I know they are out there.

As published, categorized thumbnails are already in use but they reference the many pages that now have to be maintained and in need of removal once a fix is found. An example of this is found here
http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/Catalo...ntent/auto.html.
This is one of several thumbs pages that currently target the many external pages that will be removed.

The BIG question is this: how are you generating this page?

As previously mentioned, I use VB scripts in Excel to create the pages. The subroutines include many other variations ranging from a few divd content to full html that is pasted into my html editor, saved then uploaded. The script references a workbook containing the master records; these are manually created with a “New Record” subroutine also written in VB. In practice, it may take anywhere from a few seconds to maybe a minute or so to create a new record. The Master is frequently-saved and backed-up for use by the HTML creator workbook used for manipulation of the records that will be uploaded.

The iframe on the home page

To be honest, I don’t much-like using them either. This was done to prevent duplication of the parent. It is heavily CSS-based for style, layout, etc. It was desirable to maintain the structure and layout of the site by using an Iframe for deployment of content in the same area, avoiding page-changes and shifting of theme.

Not sure about that, at least not as the only means of navigation. Especially on product pages customers may prefer some kind of thumbnail gallery like on http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/Catalo...ntent/auto.html rather than have to view every item one at the time

I’m a shop by image type myself. This was never mentioned as the only means of navigation, merely an option along with other links to return the thumbs page for another selection or select another category.

The idea is when a category is selected; the thumbs page for that category is displayed in the content Iframe. Next, an Image is selected, loading the page replacing the thumbs page with the selected content. Along with this are the necessary navigation links for Prev-Next, etc.

Search engines don't support JS

This was a given; I would like to avoid jscript for this reason and is why I am here, to seek out viable options. If jscript is the only way out, then so-be-it; but let’s avoid it if possible.

Like Darin, I see just a list of products, which looks OK.

Yes, it does; but when using Iframes, the scrolling has an effect of loosing focus from the rest of the current page when it scrolls out. And the reason I am using a full image is to prevent text wrapping around it when the description gets a bit wordy.
Another point to consider is this; Not everyone uses a scroll mouse, some still have to click and drag those bars. This is why I am seeking a way of displaying one item at a time with link options. By the way, I believe the Iframe is suitably-sized for most resolutions commonly used for web-browsing. Another point is compatibility and Iframes. When the selected content is viewed in an incompatible browser, it will loose the frame attributes, retaining the content. But the content needs to meet compatibility criteria for this to work.

It seems to me you are confusing two separate issues: how to present the information to the visitor, and how to generalise its production from a large number of products

Actually, this is not entirely accurate. Production by generalization was never an issue. Production is by local means merely attempting a better way (from current build) of presentation based on popular tripe while reducing the profound effects site maintenance will have on me when my vision goes from bad to worse; this was already prognosticated.

This all started as a simple problem.(kind of big, but simple) in search of a viable solution. I just need a way of displaying 1-divd-content (paragraph) at a time of whatever category page is loaded.

Goal is to eliminate the many by replacing them with a few. The few is much easier and manageable to maintain.

Thank you all once again.

[Darin McGrew]

This all started as a simple problem.(kind of big, but simple) in search of a viable solution. I just need a way of displaying 1-divd-content (paragraph) at a time of whatever category page is loaded.

To me, this looks like a specific proposed solution, not a statement of the problem. The problem is that it is difficult to maintain your site using your current methods.

Some of us are trying to help you with the underlying problem, not necessarily with your proposed solution.

[Baffled in Baltimore]

Thank you

To me, this looks like a specific proposed solution

No, this was not the intent. The problem is not being able to come up with a way of displaying specifically-targeted content from a given page. Any help in this area is greatly appreciated.

Thank you again for your time

[Christian J]

My server does not support php, so that's out.

Assuming PHP turned out the best solution I suspect changing web host would be worth it. Learning PHP is of course another issue.

The iframe on the home page

To be honest, I don’t much-like using them either. This was done to prevent duplication of the parent.

Again you could use e.g. PHP (or Excel?) to include common content from an external file.

It is heavily CSS-based for style, layout, etc. It was desirable to maintain the structure and layout of the site by using an Iframe for deployment of content in the same area, avoiding page-changes and shifting of theme.

With an external CSS file this should not be a problem.

The idea is when a category is selected; the thumbs page for that category is displayed in the content Iframe. Next, an Image is selected, loading the page replacing the thumbs page with the selected content. Along with this are the necessary navigation links for Prev-Next, etc.

As long as there's a "Back to category"-link there.

Search engines don't support JS

This was a given; I would like to avoid jscript for this reason and is why I am here, to seek out viable options. If jscript is the only way out, then so-be-it; but let’s avoid it if possible.

Search engines will have no problem indexing a page like http://www.alistapart.com/d/eatcake/final.html since the JS/DOM is just an enhancement of the existing content (as opposed to creating the content with JS). The problem here is more that hidden content is considered search engine manipulation and may get punished, e.g. Google advices against it but I have no idea if or how much it matters in practice. To my surprise I couldn't find much discussions about the "Eat cake" design and search engines.

the reason I am using a full image is to prevent text wrapping around it when the description gets a bit wordy.

That could be prevented with a two-column layout. E.g., you could put the text in P elements and give these a left margin wide enough to stay free of the floated images.

Another point to consider is this; Not everyone uses a scroll mouse, some still have to click and drag those bars. This is why I am seeking a way of displaying one item at a time with link options.

How about simply using internal links on the page? Especially as long as you're using the iframe this seems to be all you really need. Creating the anchor links for lots of page sections might be tedious, though.

In any case, hiding and showing parts of a page with JS and then showing the visible part through an iframe seems unnecessarily complicated.

By the way, I believe the Iframe is suitably-sized for most resolutions commonly used for web-browsing.

I think it's a bit small, while the index page http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/ contains a lot of unused space...

[Baffled in Baltimore]

Greetings Christian, J
And thank you for your great advice. No, PHP will not be considered for a while.

How about simply using internal links on the page?

Actually, this was initially attempted and I still may go with this one. The thought was to maintain navigation for convenience. They may go in a seperate section; say a mouseover menu. But this idea will only work on a link. A context menu was also considered but quickly dropped.

Creating the anchor links for lots of page sections might be tedious, though.

Not really; Excel is very good at handling repetition. This can be pre-installed as part of the creation process when the code is concactenated

In any case, hiding and showing parts of a page with JS and then showing the visible part through an iframe seems unnecessarily complicated.

On this issue, I tend to agree. Sometimes in trying to simplify something, too much gets put in the mix; over-complicating it. But sometime one has to make the WORKS complicated to make it simpler to run.

I think it's a bit small, while the index page http://www.wjstewart-associates.com/ contains a lot of unused space...

I never was too good at dealing with the realestate angle but I'm not much of a web designer; I am working on it though.

Thanks again for the great advice

This post has been edited by Baffled in Baltimore: Jan 13 2009, 08:40 PM

[Christian J]

How about simply using internal links on the page?

Actually, this was initially attempted and I still may go with this one. The thought was to maintain navigation for convenience. They may go in a seperate section; say a mouseover menu. But this idea will only work on a link. A context menu was also considered but quickly dropped.

What I had in mind was something simple like this. You could put both the thumbnail gallery and the associated sections all on the same page:

CODE

<div id="gallery">Thumbnail gallery</div>

<div id="s0">
<a href="#gallery">Thumbnail gallery</a> | <a href="#s1">Next</a>
<img src="item.jpg" width="150" height="100" alt="">
<p>Section content</p>
</div>

<div id="s1">
<a href="#s0">Previous</a> | <a href="#gallery">Thumbnail gallery</a> | <a href="#s2">Next</a>
<img src="item.jpg" width="150" height="100" alt="">
<p>Section content</p>
</div>

<div id="s2">
<a href="#s1">Previous</a> | <a href="#gallery">Thumbnail gallery</a>
<img src="item.jpg" width="150" height="100" alt="">
<p>Section content</p>
</div>

That way the user would be able to make discrete "jumps" from one item to the next.

[Baffled in Baltimore]

Hello again Christian, J

You could put both the thumbnail gallery and the associated sections all on the same page:

I was thinking the same thing; also heading each section with the links or using a mouseover menu. If I use a mouseover menu, I could give each called image a null link (#) to make the mouseover active but how would I get this to work for prev-next? Don't get me wrong, what you have in your sample code looks fine; just trying to minimize the effort and make it look nice.

The mouseover effect might seem too much, but it would eliminate the need for seperate sets of links for each section(DIV)

What is significance of the pound sign (#) in the links? Dumb question; I know but am having a senior-moment now.
I know that all by itself it acts as a do-nothing go no-where link.

Thanks again

This post has been edited by Baffled in Baltimore: Jan 14 2009, 09:07 AM