Peter Schoenster wrote:
> On 26 Jun 98, at 3:41, Jack Killpatrick wrote:
>
> > Lost the thread, but I think Peter mentioned that he thought
> many shopping
> > carts were "jarring" in the way they added items. Peter
> mentioned that he
> > was thinking of using frames, but I'm not sure in what way. Came across
> > this today:
> >
> > http://www.netgrocer.com/
>
> Yeah, that really looks good. It doesn't look like any
> javascript; looks like they
> are using cold fusion.
Yes, after looking at it again, I think you are right. They used to use
javascript to update multiple frames simultaneously, but looks like they've
tossed it.
> I haven't figured out how to make frames on the fly without
> pre-creating my html
> files that I will insert. I think that can be done in javascript
> but netgrocer doesn't
> do this (or I didn't see it). I reckon they might just have a
> sort of temp table
> where data is entered and then periodically wiped clean. I did
> this same thing
> with a search engine once.
Not sure I follow you here. What it looks like they are doing is creating a
template for each frame and loading it dynamically from the database with
links like:
<A HREF="/cart_set.cfm?empty=no&insert_basket=yes&prod_id=8635&quantity=1"
target=cart>
The target part of the tag is changing the required frame. I think they used
to use javascript arrays for rapid updates to related lists (click a link in
one frame and a list in a target frame is updated from the javascript array
without a trip to the server), similar to what Carpoint used to do (haven't
looked at it lately).
> I think I will create a directory and create files in it for
> users. Each user must
> log on anyhow so I will write all the stuff he orders or doesn't
> order to that file.
> And then suddenly you have a history of who bought what when or who just
> thought to buy.
I'd use a database instead of a file. ID the user in the database via their
login and you can collect relational data until the cows come home. Also
much easier to do analysis, drill-downs, adhoc queries, etc. on the db.
> Jack, thanks for the pointer to netgrocer. I think they have a
> really good system
> there. Good use of frames.
Good and bad. Problems I kept having with the site stemmed from the size of
the frame panes...sometimes data was hidden and unreachable with a scroll
bar, due to a no-scroll setting. The main item frame requires constant
scrolling on smaller res monitors. Indeed, I think the ideas are nice, but
it needs some honing.
One thing they definitely gain by using the small update in the frames is
speed...a very important consideration when weighing the pluses and minuses.
I think breaking the different activities into frame templates probably also
makes this site easier to maintain, rather than harder, which is often the
case for some framed sites...which often require new framesets for every
section so that people can do decent bookmarking and so that search engines
have more <noframes> pages to chew on. Then again, some people find their
framed sites easier to manage _because_ they don't do these things...those
are the sites whose url never changes as you go through the site, bad. For
netgrocer that doesn't really matter...the user can save their list and be
gone, come back later and resume where they left off. Not sure how many
people would want to bookmark pages in netgrocer.
Jack
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