iframes

February 16, 2006 | Filed Under Geek 

I wrote this for someone at work, and felt it also may be useful here.

Iframes can be perceived to have some advantages and modern browsers can at first glance, appear to have no problems with them, however, there are four major issues that people need to be aware of if Iframes are used on a site.

1. Bookmarking.
On a site built with Iframes it is usually impossible for a user to bookmark a page in the normal manner, unless extra time is taken to create a ‘bookmark this page’ script driven link, this in itself, causes extra work and maintenance issues, which leads into:-

2. Coding.
Iframes (if used correctly) need more code and therefore more maintenance.
Every link in an Iframe needs a target, if the site is changed these targets may need to be changed as well, this can double the time needed to apply site-wide changes. Also, every iframe needs a hidden ‘noframes’ type link, so that robots and users who’s browsers cannot understand iframes can find the content, this leads into:-

3. Search Engines
If Iframes are coded correctly Search Engines can traverse the site with little or no problems, however to do this requires an alternative link to the content in the iframe, again - this causes maintenance issues, these links are often missed or ignored when a site update occurs, thus rendering content invisible to search engines. Finally, a major legal concern for any business is:-

4. Accessibility
To ensure the site meets the requirements of the DDA any use of iframes of frames MUST have a full and complete noframes navigation system, else users of accessibility solutions may not be able to navigate the site. Apart from being illegal this is also a business risk as there is a substantial market from this sector. A full noframes navigation system carries all the same issues as the above, it takes extra time to build & it runs risk of not being maintained - thus rendering the site inaccessible and its owners liable for prosecution.

However, it ought to be said, all of these issues ARE surpassable, given that it may well add 30% to the time and therefore the budget needed to build and maintain the site.

Tags: Geek

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