Yo im trying to make a web site.

The first page is the index. It is a frameset split vertically so that i have the links always on the left side bar, and the main content in the main frame.

The links open webpages in the main frame. These webpages are made by me and they are each split into 2 frames, one main frame and one bottom frame. The bottom frame contains links to images on my HD. These then show up on the main frame of this webpage.

So when i click a link in the index side bar it opens the webpage in the main frame correctly. The bottom frame also loads on the main frame and shows all the stuff i want it to. So far so good.

When i click on the image link howveer on the bottom frame, the image loads fine on the main frame (leaving the bottom frame there)....but the background colour of the main frame changes from my set colour, to white.

This is the problem. The main frame background changes to white. This is because i think the link is to an image only, not a html page WITH an image in it.

But i dont know for sure, so i was wondering of you could give me adivice.

Cheers.

yeah it would be coz its an image only... hmmm how to get around it... well there's either create a new page for every image (time and space consuming, not to mention annoying for you) then I guess it would be php of some kind...

I'm not great with php but I guess it'd be an include, where the php basically picks up on what you clicked and inserts the correct picture. You'd have a basic page that loads so you keep the same background colour, and within that page would need an include statement I think.

<? include("image.gif"); ?>

but it would need modifying slightly. instead of it being a definate "image.gif" you'd need to be able to pass to it what you clicked, so the statement would be something more like <? include(<clickedimage>".gif"; ?> That could be wrong though. Basically you need a variable, and from the link click, say you click "image1" then it passes image1 to the variable, meaning image1.gif is included in the page and displayed.

Pig or Satis will probably be able to give you the proper code, or you can go search for Php tutorials on includes and passing things to variables. Sorry for the crappy explanation

where's this page at? Does it support php? And WHY FRAMES?! GOOD GOD!

Anyway...frames have their place in noob sites and all. If you really like frames, check out iframes. Infinitely superior, imo...not all clunky like regular frames.

However, I would suggest the use of tables and php includes, which is what I use on basically everything I create. The following is a basic example of a page set up using a table.



That's a basic example. I usually end up nesting several levels of tables, but that's neither here nor there. So anyway, at that point I replace the header, footer and menu with includes that point at separate pages that actually contain those. That way I can edit a single file and edit my whole site (same idea as your frames, but prettier).

That would solve your click-on-menu and main page shows up but menu stays static...the whole page changes, but the menu is always there and the same. Easy. Not that you were having issues with that.

The main thing seems to be how to display images. I assume you're basically building a gallery. Footer=list of pics, content=initially a main page with text, then as you click on the list of pics a large version of each you click on.

So, what I would do is surround the pics in the footer with img tags that point back at the same page we're on links like this



The pictureid would be different for each pic, of course. Then on the content part of your page, having something like this.



And that would do all you need, all in a single web page, with no frames. You could even automate the whole footer thing with parsing out your pics, making thumbnails of the pics, etc. Hot stuff. I just got done playing with some of the image manipulation features of php...good stuff.

Thanks for the tips.

Ok, i know absolutely nothing about this php, so it sounds like i need to start googling and *gasp* reading.

Is there anything you can tell me about php that i wont find by googling?

www.phpfreaks.com
www.codewalkers.com

and the ever-popular php.net.

That's to look up functions, how to use em, etc, not for tutorials.

btw, the php I posted is pretty straightforward stuff. If you want, I can explain what all the pieces do. Might be a good idea to get a rough understanding of what php is first, though, if you don't know.

Need to find out what php is.

I found Coppermine by Sourceforge which is some kind of php thing that will automatically make what i want.

Okay, what's MySQL? Apparently its needed to make Coppermine work, but this web host i have in mind only supports php, and NOT MySQL. What does this mean?

I don't actually know _what_ MySQL is, but it's tied in with databases. Maybe it's an entire database program thingy, or maybe it's part of something bigger. I don't know.

MySQL is a database backend. I have a mysql database that runs this forum, for instance. Alot of the little apps I build use MySQL to store information, too.