I posted this in the Merchants forum but figured I'd post here too just in case anybody else would like to take advantage of this.

Since we can't use JScript or coding on our storefronts I devised a simple way of creating a framed window that can load images via a link. Since we can use HTML, I decided to take advantage of the most often overlooked HTML tag, the IFRAME tag. The IFRAME tag works similar to FRAMESET without the annoyance to the user.

So, how can merchants take advantage of this tag?

Look at the following and what it does.

No script coding here... All Pure HTML 4.0 ;)

---

Click on a link below.
Images will load in the panel
to the right---->

** -Aztec Stone Dagger*****
-Aztec Spear
-Aztec Sword
-Iroquois War Club
-Iroquois WarAxe
-Buffalo JawBone Knife
-Tomahawk
-Medieval BattleAxe
-Medieval War Hammer
-Stone Age Spear
-Khukri
-Beaded & Feather Tassels***

IF YOU SEE THIS TEXT, YOUR BROWSER DOESN'T SUPPORT "IFRAMES"

Here is the code if anyone else would like to use it.

First we have to define the target IFRAME (window) where we
wish to embed our images.

I placed the following code in the cell of a table by
itself.The code for defining our IFRAME is as follows:
IF YOU SEE THIS TEXT, YOUR BROWSER DOESN'T SUPPORT "IFRAMES" Please go to www.MySite.com
A few things to take note of:
name=ImageLoadFrame)
This can be any name you want and will be the name we use for our link anchors to TARGET.

(marginwidth / marginheight)
Zero both of these or you'll end up with blank white space around your image.

(height / width)
Set these to the size of your image

(scrolling)
Set this to "no" unless you want a scroll bar for some odd reason.

(frameborder)
This determines the size of the border. A higher value means a larger border width. I set mine to zero for "no" border.

Additional note: Note that there is a URL in the code. That is used to load a default image when the user first visits the page.

That's the hard part hehe.

Now to define the links that will load an image to the target IFRAME.

Here is the code:
YourProduct1

Wasn't that easy?! LOL!

Note that the name of the TARGET in the anchor needs to be
the same as the name you gave your IFRAME window.

Very cool. I like it. I might give it a shot.

Thanks !!!! This definitely will come in handy !!

ty this was very nice of you hugz

Attached Link: http://posergalaxy.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=223

Thanks guys and gals. It is a great way for a merchant who wishes to show their product in great detail with many images and it's precisely what I've been wanting to do without making it such a burden on the customer. They don't get pop-ups or have to load a new window, they don't have to leave my storefront and it eliminates clutter, scrolling and long page loads for lower bandwidth customers. Better yet, it's all HTML! By request for more information on how to use this, I have posted a tutorial covering all the nitty gritty at the above link. Ciao and have fun! ---Will

Thanks so much for sharing this, it's really a great idea..;)

thanks :)

If you are maybe concerned about browser compatability...
Here is a list of browsers I have tested this in, so far, and the results.

Some of these browsers are pre-1999. Note that the ones that failed also wouldn't load Renderosity's web site.

BROWSER

IFRAME PAGE TEST

NOTES

Netscape 7.1 Working

No load issues found Internet Explorer 6.0 Working

No load issues found Opera 6.1 Working

No load issues found Opera 7.51 Working

No load issues found Mozilla 1.7 Working

No load issues found Mozilla FireFox 0.9.1 Working

No load issues found Avant Browser 9.02.033 Working

No load issues found GOIAS 2.1 Working

No load issues found MyBrowser 1.2 Working

No load issues found Amaya 4.1 FAILED

IFRAME Would not load properly. However, neither would Renderosity's front page. NTSC Mosaic FAILED

IFRAME would not display, but displayed alternate text with link. Note; Renderosity's website would crash the browser as would 90% of the websites I visited with it.

According to the PTB here at Renderosity, there are "thousands" of NS4.x users, however, and iframes definitely don't work in that browser. If you view this code with NS4.x, you see a message saying that the browser doesn't support iframes, but if you click the links, they open in a new window. You might want to change the text to tell NS4.x users that if they click the links that's what will happen. :-) bonni

wow I have to try it :D

This is very cool, Will, thanks! And wow, I thought I was the only one still holding onto a copy of Mosaic. ;)

Thanks Bonni. I tested all the Netscape4.x browsers last night and yes they do open in a new window. However, none of the Netscape 4.x browsers I tested (which were nearly all of them) produced a messgae saying it was not supported. Instead it ignored the IFRAME tags and displayed the text between the tags. There are several ways in which to use the textual display and yours is a good idea as one to add to it :)

Message edited on: 07/08/2004 08:14

Not that it matters, but you can add Mac OSX's Safari browser to the list of browsers that support iFrames. Looks and works great! I'll look into using this in the future. Thanks!

Thanks Nagus, I'll add that one to my list ;)

This is a great code :) I don't know that much about HTML. Is it possible to have another cell come up with each image with text? Like, you have your image of the stone dagger, but there is another cell with text about the stone dagger, and then we click Tomahawk and the image loads and we see text about the Tomahawk? Am I making myself clear as mud :)?

lhiannan, To do this you would simply create an html document with your image and text in a table. For example, for my dagger, I'd create a document called "AztecDagger.html". You would then target the html document rather than the image itself. The HTML document will then load in the window with the tabled image and text. Hope that helps ;)

Ahh, so load in a page rather than just an image. Simple, but still was over my head. Thank you! :)

I just found out that Renderosity is not going to allow use of this on storefronts due to certain past exploits on browser vulnerabilities. I, for one, feel the programmer's are just a little paranoid about this since the past, discovered, exploits using IFRAME have described the potential threat at the local level. I don't have the slightest idea why, we as merchants, would attack our clients especially when the IP address of the executable source code would be resolvable through this exploit. In other words, it would be known just where the attack came from. The other issue is that the vulnerability is not with the IFRAME extended markup but with unpatched vulnerabilities in browsers and email clients (which are many and not just exclusive to IFRAME as we all know). There have been several similar exploits using FLASH, which is allowed in banner ads here as well. FLASH is actually more vulnerable to a boatload of exploits since it contains code to begin with, whereas IFRAME does not. The security threat comes from a MIME exploit in some browsers and email clients which can allow a malicious designer to execute code inside an IFRAME. This threat is more prevelant with email clients since many will view HTML documents and if vulnerable to the exploit may allow the code to be executed without the user having to open an attachment. However, it requires that the designer to be malicious to begin with. So, if I were to be malicious toward my clients, I could think up hundreds of ways in which to do this through my storefront. It's, however, ludicrous to think that I would even concieve of doing that to my customers. However this isn't my web site, so I'll leave it up to Rendo to decide what is and isn't allowed. However, for many of us who wish to give our customers more imagery of our products in detail (without loading them all to one page), I'd suggest we all voice our opinions on changing the upload page to allow for image popups (that are sized to the image and do not open a full browser window replete with toolbars etc!). Since Rendo, does take half of our sales, I think the least they could do is offer us this. They could still allow for the images to be stored remotely, but just allow us to have the option of having them in a popup (not a new browser window).

keihan, I'll be giving this more thought. However, There are a lot of other updates/enhancements that will be implemented before we get to this. FYI, Clint

Ok Thanks Clint ;)