good web design

**maileen** · Aug 23, 2008 07:06

Hi,

i was wondering was is the best design for web site.
basically, i was thinking to have:
- a top header: where will be company logo, main menu, login, user name
- a center part:
- a left part: including sub menu
- a center part: displaying information (dynamically)
- a right part: including advertising, user information like basket content, and so on...
- a bottom part: including only trademark, copyrights, policies, ...

basically only the center part should change...therefore what should i use ?
div ? span ?
or a new web page each time ?
frames are not anymore a standard according w3c...

thx.

**Crozin** · Aug 23, 2008 08:20

You should avoid any frames, JS (including AJAX) or others client-side technologies.

You can do this like following:

PHP Code:


<?php



$page = isset($_GET['page']) ? $_GET['page'] : false; //variable from address (...index.php?page=download



switch($page){

  case 'download':

    $file = 'download.html';

    break;

  case 'contact':

    $file = 'contact.html';

    break;

  default: //mainpage

    $file = 'main.html';

    break;

}



$contents = file_get_contents($file);



?><!DOCTYPE ...>

<html ...>

  <head>

    ....

  </head>

  <body>

    ...

    <div id="content">

    <?php echo $contents; ?>

    </div>

    ...

  </body>

</html>

Of course there is many others ways to do that, but it's only example.

If You want to have "nice URLs" read about mod_rewrite.

**Blake Tallos** · Aug 23, 2008 08:37

Here is a 3 column fixed layout. Is this what you were talking about?
http://http://www.pmob.co.uk/temp/3colfixedtest_4.htm

**Erik J** · Aug 23, 2008 08:57

Originally Posted by maileen

...
basically only the center part should change...therefore what should i use ?
div ? span ?
or a new web page each time ?
frames are not anymore a standard according w3c...

Serve a new page with the changed content in the center part div. The browser already has the images and external css and js, so the html is mainly what is refreshed.

The other parts you listed sounds fine. Take a look at the examples BlakeAnthony linked to and you will find a good starting.

The php example Crozin gave adds an extension for a nicer url. If serverside script is unavailable and the site has few departments the same is achieved with different directories as urls witch will load the index-file in that directory.

**Dan Schulz** · Aug 23, 2008 15:51

Originally Posted by maileen

Hi,

i was wondering was is the best design for web site.
basically, i was thinking to have:
- a top header: where will be company logo, main menu, login, user name
- a center part:
- a left part: including sub menu
- a center part: displaying information (dynamically)
- a right part: including advertising, user information like basket content, and so on...
- a bottom part: including only trademark, copyrights, policies, ...

basically only the center part should change...therefore what should i use ?
div ? span ?
or a new web page each time ?
frames are not anymore a standard according w3c...

thx.

I'd probably break it down like this:

Header (Logo, Login/Logout)
Search Form (it sounds like you have an ecommerce site, so give people the opportunity to search)
Main Menu (top level menu)
Sub-Menu (category menu)
Content (main page stuff - the meat and potatoes if you will)
Sidebar (advertising, shopping cart, etc)
Footer (typical footer content)

When coded properly, it won't matter WHERE on the browser viewport the content appears; what will matter is how the site is coded. (And it's not as easy as tables vs DIVs either, since DIVs by themselves are just a train wreck as bad as layout tables.)

**maileen** · Aug 25, 2008 05:48

not really :-(

Originally Posted by BlakeAnthony

Here is a 3 column fixed layout. Is this what
you were talking about?
http://http://www.pmob.co.uk/temp/3colfixedtest_4.htm

**maileen** · Aug 25, 2008 05:51

this is something interesting because it's almost like in AJAX.
however, if the content has to perform some storage into DB, how do you proceed ?
1. do you run again this PHP page with another keyword (instead of 'download' for example)
2. or do you allow 'content' to do something ? in this case how ?

Originally Posted by Crozin

You should avoid any frames, JS (including AJAX) or others client-side technologies.

You can do this like following:

PHP Code:


<?php



$page = isset($_GET['page']) ? $_GET['page'] : false; //variable from address (...index.php?page=download



switch($page){

  case 'download':

    $file = 'download.html';

    break;

  case 'contact':

    $file = 'contact.html';

    break;

  default: //mainpage

    $file = 'main.html';

    break;

}



$contents = file_get_contents($file);



?><!DOCTYPE ...>

<html ...>

  <head>

    ....

  </head>

  <body>

    ...

    <div id="content">

    <?php echo $contents; ?>

    </div>

    ...

  </body>

</html>

Of course there is many others ways to do that, but it's only example.

If You want to have "nice URLs" read about mod_rewrite.

**webburu** · Aug 26, 2008 00:11

Use div for your design, it is flexible and easy to maintain but you have to test it with multiple browsers to make it works for almost of common ones such as IE firefox. Another easier way is to get the layout from several open source web design sites, just change some components and you're done, good luck!

**navyfalcon** · Aug 27, 2008 21:10

Originally Posted by webburu

Use div for your design, it is flexible and easy to maintain but you have to test it with multiple browsers to make it works for almost of common ones such as IE firefox. Another easier way is to get the layout from several open source web design sites, just change some components and you're done, good luck!

To test use browser shots
http://browsershots.org/
Note: use only a few browsers at a time - or it will take too long to load
Also, you can get free CSS templates and modify or edit them
(a quick and easy way to go)
There are quite a few thousand of them, do a Google search for free CSS templates
Also you can get free public domain photos (check the use conditions)
search for free public domain photos.
hope this helps
falcon

**Erik J** · Aug 28, 2008 01:06

Originally Posted by maileen

this is something interesting because it's almost like in AJAX.
however, if the content has to perform some storage into DB, how do you proceed ?
1. do you run again this PHP page with another keyword (instead of 'download' for example)
2. or do you allow 'content' to do something ? in this case how ?

As in 1. It is reloading the whole page with new content, just as if it were a link to another page.

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