9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Putting It All Together:Developing Web Applications Using

Fusebox and Frames

Presented by

Nat Papovich GeoAgents.com9/16/2000

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

What is a Web Application?

A Web application is a collection of scripts, run from a Web server designed to perform a specific function directly for the user or, in some cases, for another application. Examples of Web applications include email programs such as Hotmail, communication programs such as chat forums, contact manager systems like a Yahoo address book, and stock trading tools like Datek.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Why Use Web Applications?

Speed of development Application Service Provider Model Ease of updates and patches Portability - establish requirements for use Users can access from anywhere Revenue from advertisers, not users More…

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

WWW vs. Win32

Stateless Server-side processing Server response times COM and ActiveX Need Web access Request-based Centralized data

Stateful Client-side processing Client speed Local system access No Web access needed Client initiates changes Individualized data

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Frames vs. Single Page

Magic display updates Multiple processes Fast, concise updates Less server load Track sessions better The Dark Side

Users lose control Hard to perform Whole page reloads More server load Are they still there? No target worries

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Now You’re Convinced!

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Quick Fusebox Review

All form and URL links go to index.cfm

THEREFORE

All frame sources go to index.cfm

The frameset gets loaded via the index.cfm http://index.cfm??

fuseaction=validateUserfuseaction=validateUser

Fusebox

http://index.cfm?http://index.cfm?fuseaction=loginfuseaction=login

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Loading the Frameset

The default Fuseaction loads the frameset.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

The Frameset Page

Here’s a look at fra_Mother.cfm, called from index.cfm.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Calling the Frames

The fra_Mother.cfm frameset had frames that called the index.cfm to get their sources. Here are the Fuseactions to load the frames.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

That’s All There Is To It!

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Frame Buster

CFStudio’s “Frame Buster” doesn’t work. Include this script in your main frameset page

(fra_Mother.cfm). It will prevent the page from being loaded inside another frame.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Guarantee Framing of Frames

Add this script at the top of each page that is framed.

It will reload the master frameset around the existing frame.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Dynamic Frame Sources

Upgraded fra_Mother.cfm (main frameset page):

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Cross-Frame Posting

Remember, link and form actions go to index.cfm. The content of the form will not change during

cross-frame postings. You will have to update the page with JavaScript.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Multiple Framesets

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Nested Fuseboxes and Nested Framesets

With a well-planned frame naming scheme, you can nest many framesets and frames.

The more frames you have, the cooler your application will be.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Hidden Frames

Keep them on the highest frameset level. Used to auto-update other frames.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Dynamic Form Selects

First, populate the array in ColdFusion by defining the arrays, looping through a recordset (in this case “CmListAll”), and populating the array elements.

Do this as many times as you have select boxes.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Dynamic Selects Step 2

Load the select box with the first set of options. These options are not dynamic on the page. The onChange event for the select box runs the

function to populate the second select list.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Dynamic Selects Step 3

When the page loads, the CF array is looped through and the matching values in the second query are built into JavaScript arrays.

The function used to load the dynamic select box chooses which JavaScript array to use.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Bookmarking Frame Elements

Good luck

No, seriously…

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Bookmarking Frame Elements

Remember the “Guarantee Framing of Frames” script?

Use it to place a physical link on each frame for users to bookmark.

9/16/2000 Nat Papovich – Putting It All Together

Fusebox and Frames Rule!