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Need help with this half-baked website idea please

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slakker

MIS
Jun 5, 2003
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Hi all.. I'm working on a site, and I have my components built already.. just not sure how to best put it together... for easy flow and an overall comfortable feel.. need some advice please..

I don't have the site on the web yet.. but I'll draw out what I have in mind..
.. first a little description

Page is ASP/MS Access.. consists of 3 sections..
1. Enter your data
2. Find info related to customer request and process by clicking on link at the end
3. review entered and chosen data
(then you are finished).. info get's emailed elsewhere...

Here's my half baked idea:

=====================================
ENTER INFO | FIND DATA | REVIEW INFO <-- topFrame (just includes the tabs)
=====================================
my navi here my navi here my navi here
-----------------------------------------

main contents here <-- mainFrame (includes Navi, all content, and bottom links)
main contents here


-----------------------------------------
a few links at the bottom here
=====================================

Ok, there's my crappy drawing.. Now, what I'm thinking about doing is..
When a user clicks on Enter Info, they'll get a different page that will ask them to enter in customer information, etc.. they'll click Continue, and it'll bring them to the page you see now in the mainFrame.. where they pick a bunch of info and click Continue again, it'll bring them to another page where they review everything they've first entered and then picked out.. and hit Finish. email will go out..

Does anyone have a better idea on how to lay out all this info? it can be all on the same page, using layers. Or it could be all in frames.. or whatever else you can come up with.. I would definately appreciate it..

And also, if I was go with the idea I have up there now.. I can make them into amazon-like Tabs, but i'd like to have them be shadowed or a different color, or something, while the user stays on that particular page.. then user clicks Continue, and the FIND INFO tabs stays 'open'.. but because this is in frames, I don't know how to do it..


Well, Thanks again for any info you guys can give me on this!! :)
 
actually, I would really like to stay away from frames if possible.. i'm just not sure how to build this layout without the frames yet..
 
You certainly don't need to use frames. just use some IF...THEN...ELSE or SELECT...CASE constructs and query strings in a ASP script to change the HTML that is served to the browser.
You could use response.write to stream out the code or use selective SSI (#include) to insert individual chunks of HTML or a mix of both. For changing link style or tab colors etc you can use CSS and change the class of the element according to a logic test.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
 
Thanks for the info Chris.. but I'm not really developer, i'm a designer, so if you would have an example (maybe even a tutorial) of what you've just described, that would be cool..

And as far as the Tabs at the top, I know how to actually change them on click, but i wanted to know how to make them change if user clicks on CONTINUE on the first page..

kind of like, they sense which page user is viewing..

Thanks
 
Looks like include files are for you.

Code:
<!--#include file="header.asp"-->
<!--#include file="body.asp"-->
<!--#include file="footer.asp"-->

Since you are going to be in ASP just change the middle include file based on which page you are on.

Code:
<%
location = request.querystring("location")
%>

<body>
<!--#include file="header.asp"-->
<%
Select Case location
   Case "page1"
%>
   <!--#include file="page1.asp"-->
<%
   Case "page2"
%>
   <!--#include file="page2.asp"-->
<%
   Case Else
%>
   <!--#include file="splash.asp"-->
<%
end Select
%>
<!--#include file="footer.asp"-->
</body>

Then you just reload the same page everytime you make a change with the location variable appended to it. (ex: <a href="mypage.asp?location=page1>)

Hope it helps!

Wow JT that almost looked like you knew what you were doing!
 
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