Traditional Frameset Alternative w/External Links

[fizzlesquirt]

Hello All,

Our company website currently uses frames (HTML 4.01 transitional) for our products page: http://slainc.com/products.htm

All of the other pages of the site are HTML 4.01 Strict.

The products page is done in a frameset where links in the header go to external links to the manufacturers we are dealers for. This is due to the large number of different products that change frequently. We would never be able to keep the product info up to date. The manufacturers are aware of this.

I'm looking for an alternative to frames that will work with this scenario. Possibly using some kind of server side option. I remember seeing something on using a Div tag (lost the link), but I'm not sure if external links will work with that.

Can anyone make any recommendations that will work with IE6+ FF 1.0+, Opera?

[weslinda]

I would recommend looking into a CMS that will allow you to add and delete product pages easily. Three good reasons for this.

First, you're company will look more more important and professional than they currently do using frames to direct people to other sites.

Second, you can update the look and feel of your web site at any time without having to recreate the content.

Finally, and most importantly, you gain the credibility of having the product information on your site by allowing the content to be findable by the search engines. In turn, this will lead to more sales, and more $$ to help pay for the needed updates to your site.

[wige]

I have done something similar to what I think you have in mind, where when a visitor requests a file on another site, my site downloads the file, translates it so to the visitor it looks like it is part of my own site, then sends it to the visitor.

Rather than using this for web pages, I used it for images... I got a license to display images from another company on my site, only to find out that company attached cookies which then tracked my visitors, so my server basically became a proxy, downloading the image so that the visitor did not go to the other company's site and get the cookie. I was able to get away with this because the cookies were not disclosed in the license and I was able to get the image provider to agree that I could proxy the images on my site.

So, in answer to your post, yes, you could take someone else's content and display it internally, but there are a few issues. The first is duplicate content, which could hurt your SE rankings and those of the other company. The second is, this rebroadcasting could be seen as trademark infringment. I have heard of lawsuits that arose from pages being in frames also, so be wary. The third issue is bandwidth and processing power. To do this, you would double your bandwidth (because now your server has to retrieve the external page for redisplay) and also increase the workload on the server as you process the page data into something you can display.

I would check with these other companies and see if they offer any type of data feeds through XML or even RSS that you could adapt to incorporate into your web site. You could update the feed as often as needed and either incorporate it live into pages as needed or periodically populate a database and build the pages from that.

I know there is an iframe tag that lets you import external sites, as well as javascript methods, however these are unreliable and very browser dependant. Also, if the web site you are adding has any of it's own javascript code, this method would probably break it, as well as any CSS.

[bj]

RSS is the way to go. Either that or a database dump, if they can provide you with one. Don't use IFrames since many of the newer firewalls combined with spyware and adware blockers, as well as ad blockers, will block the contents of the IFrame, defeating the purpose.

[madjohn]

A very interesting post, this!

This is the sort of thing we use at our website. We are members of an association and as part of that membership we are provided a database-driven product website.

I have used an iframe to so I can add the Search feature to our stand alone website but after reading bj's post I think I ought to change that.

We are not allowed a copy of the product database (for a CMS) but I like the sound of this RSS feed. How would I implement that within my own site?

[bj]

Depends on the site, the software you're using. Wordpress, Modx, Drupal, etc have their own rss tools for this sort of thing. If your site is straight html, you might try Magpie.

[fizzlesquirt]

Thanks for all the responses!

Unfortunately not all the manufacturers' websites are in database format. Nice idea, though I wonder if a database dump from them would constitute duplicate data?

I was thinking about using an iframe, after the response from BJ - probably not. I never would have guessed the potential firewall/virus problem.

I'd consider using a CMS (I just implemented one for the news section of our site). There's alot of product information copy that would have to be done. And I do mean a lot. We're a dealer rep for 6+ manufacturers that have several different specific product lines - all related to satellite navigation equipment. The tripod manufacturer we rep have hundreds of different tripods and accessories. It would take forever to write up copy for all the items. Although their site uses some type of CMS/database system. Hmmm...

I'm going to take a look at Magpie, look at my options, pull out my hair, and then maybe do something. I guess frameset pages are eventually going to die? Unless the I keep using transitional 4.01 HTML.

If anyone has any other ideas throw them here, we'll see if they stick

[bj]

I know that some of the shopping cart software allows you to import excel spreadsheets. It won't do ALL the work for you, but it might be worth a look. You can turn off the "shopping cart" part of things if you just want it to function as an online catalog. Just a thought on another way to take this.

[wige]

If the manufacturer uses template pages, you could, in theory, process the web pages and strip out the data to put on your own site. The only problem is that you take a hit in bandwidth, you may run into dupe content issues, and you need to get the permission of the site author before you attempt this. This type of solution would most likely need to be custom made, and get all the permissions in writing first.

I would keep after the manufacturers about creating a feed of their product lines. Especially if the company has multiple distributers such as yourself, such a feed could greatly benefit them, by enabling the distributers to always have up to date product information. Plus, if pricing information or product specs change, those changes would be reflected in the affilated web sites almost immediately, which could be a benefit from a customer relations standpoint for all involved. Imagine the manufacturer finds an error in the power requirements for a product. They fix the error in the feed and within hours every distributer's web site is updated without any extra cost and minimal time involved.