Status Bar Scrolling Text?? [Archive]

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H4KSY

10-30-2003, 09:26 AM

Hi - I have got some scripts for making scrolling text in the status bar. I have got them working fine on their own but when I try & implement it into my webpage - it doesn't work!!

If I put the Status Bar code first - I get a blank page with the scrolling text in the status bar.

But If I put the code after my framset in the page - the status bar text doesn't work??

Any ideas?

SCROLLING TEXT CODE:
<html>
<head>
<title>WebDesignHelper.co.uk - Sample Code 7</title>

<style>
.text
{
FONT: 10pt arial;
COLOR: black
}
</style>

<script language=javascript>
barMsg="WebDesignHelper.co.uk Sample Code 7 "

i=0
function scrollMsg()
{
beginningPart=barMsg.substring(i,barMsg.length)
endPart=barMsg.substring(0,i)
window.status=beginningPart+endPart
if (i < barMsg.length)
{i++}
else {
i=0 }
setTimeout("scrollMsg()",150)
}

</script>
</head>

<BODY onLoad="scrollMsg()" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">

<center>
<TABLE width="290" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor=#F5F4E0>
<tr>
<td colspan=3><img src=images/spacer.gif height=10></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src=images/spacer.gif width=10></td>
<td width=270 height=30 bgcolor=white align=center>
<font class=text>Look at the Status Bar, in the bottom left corner of your Web Browser!</font></td>
<td><img src=images/spacer.gif width=10></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=3><img src=images/spacer.gif height=10></td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>

</body>
</html>

MY WEBSITE CODE:

<html>
<head>
<title>Piper Windows, Doors & Conservatories</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>
<frameset cols="198,807*" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0" rows="*">
<frame name="leftFrame" scrolling="NO" noresize src="Leftframe.html">
<frameset rows="100,595*" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0" cols="*">
<frame name="topFrame" scrolling="NO" noresize src="Topframe.html" >
<frameset rows="360,232*" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0" cols="*">
<frameset cols="600,205*" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0" rows="*">
<frame name="mainFrame" src="welcome.html">
<frame name="rightFrame" scrolling="NO" noresize src="Rightframe.html">
</frameset>
<frame name="bottomFrame" scrolling="NO" noresize src="Bottomframe.html">
</frameset>
</frameset>
</frameset>
<noframes><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

</body></noframes>
</html>

**************************************************
I have removed the search tags from this!

Thanks in for any input.

R.

carbonize

10-30-2003, 09:32 AM

Try putting the script onto one of the pages loaded into a frame. Personally I hate status bar messages and so have them turned off in Firebird.

H4KSY

10-30-2003, 10:02 AM

Thanks - That seems to work!

R.

OSFan

10-30-2003, 12:20 PM

carbonize

10-30-2003, 12:32 PM

Actually it's <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> :p

OSFan

10-30-2003, 12:51 PM

The language attribute of the script tag has been depreciated actually :-p. Presuming you are writing HTML 4.01 or later, the language attribute is replaced by the type attribute.

ranjan

10-30-2003, 04:02 PM

Actually it's <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

This is right if you use a Transitional DocType

If you use a strict DocType, you cannot use the deprecated attribute "language" (It will give you a validation error) and hence you can only use.

<script type="text/javascript">

ranjan

10-30-2003, 04:07 PM

The status bar informs a web visitors of things like security settings, download status, etc.

Hence one should avoid using scripts that do not allow visitors their standard User Interfaces, in this case the status bar.

This is one of the reasons why 11% of the web has disabled javascripts on their browsers.

OSFan

10-31-2003, 06:00 AM

Ok.

Some older browsers, they would have to be very very old, will only understand the language attribute, but I very much doubt these browsers are in use today.

Just because HTML4.01 transitional lets you use the language attribute, doesn't mean you have to, in fact nearly all browsers will ignore it, as they expect the required attribute "type". Might as well save 22bytes of bandwidth. I think when I was using firebird, it wanted the type, it didn't understand the language attribute.

If editing the status bar was bad, there would be no option to do so. All you can change is the textual part to the left of it, all that normally appears here is the URL of a link you hover over, and so editing it is no great danger at all, if you are a paranoid sort of person who wants to check the URL, right click and select properties!

Javascript is used by a lot of pages for various things, it's used here for inputting format codes for example?[/quote]

OSFan

10-31-2003, 06:04 AM

Isn't it annoying when people post more content in a second consecutive post for no good reason when they could just edit their first and add the new information?

ranjan

10-31-2003, 02:42 PM

If editing the status bar was bad, there would be no option to do so. All you can change is the textual part to the left of it, all that normally appears here is the URL of a link you hover over, and so editing it is no great danger at all, if you are a paranoid sort of person who wants to check the URL, right click and select properties!

If a person has selected a browser and correspondingly its user interface, to suit his/her browsing style, Then what or who gives us designers the right to change his interface?

You already have almost 80% of the viewport for design, why be greedy and go after the balance User Interface is the question!

OSFan

10-31-2003, 03:52 PM

Surely the status bar does not count as being part of the viewport, that would be soley the area given to rendering our HTML.

There must have been some reason why browser producers gave us a property of the window to change the status bar. If someone wants to exploit that, well then it's there choice. The status bar can be turned off by the user. If a webpage could start playing with the toolbar buttons etc... I would start to worry, but modifying an area usually blank, which has no great importance as part of the user interface is not a problem. If it conveyed special info, or I had to use it to do something, it would be important it was left alone, otherwise the user is confused.

Other recent things are webpages changing the colour of the scrollbars in IE, something Microsoft added, something I feel is abused. Colour Blind people may find this distressing; as people tend to use things like greys and whites together, with no clear outline, making it impossible to distinguish where in the page we are currently at, or if they arrows are disabled. There is a reason they have a 3d effect be default...

ranjan

10-31-2003, 04:13 PM

I do not agree with you.

I for one constantly have my eye on the status bar, to let me know the transfer status, url, etc.

So lets just agree to disagree.

carbonize

11-01-2003, 04:51 AM

OSFan

11-01-2003, 07:32 AM

The loading status cannot be played with, that is a seperate element of the status bar.

As for the what its doing, all that will take priority over user ammendments (i.e. it goes through all the loading images before it starts scrolling the users custom text) or at least it does here...

Narasinha

11-01-2003, 03:16 PM

God ya have to love IE users. Firebird lets you say whether or not webpages can alter what appears in the status bar. If you're so concerned about what appears in the statusbar then stop using IE and use a browser that allows you to turn off javascript access to the status bar.

I'm using Opera (primarily; secondarily IE and Firebird) and there is no status bar. The loading status only shows while a page is loading, optionally in the address window, or at the bottom of the viewport. Scrolling text gimics (which I really loathe anyway) are simply ignored.

carbonize

11-01-2003, 03:32 PM

Forgot about that. i have Opera 7.21 but am going off Opera since they started allowing sloppy HTML and CSS like IE does.

Narasinha

11-01-2003, 03:44 PM

Forgot about that. i have Opera 7.21 but am going off Opera since they started allowing sloppy HTML and CSS like IE does.

Though I'll stick with it (for now) I have to agree with you. I don't know if I'd like a "no tolerance" browser, but if the browsers will become more restrictive on accepting non-standard HTML/CSS it will force developers to standardize their code.

H4KSY

11-03-2003, 03:23 AM

Hey - I don't see the problem with using the status bar..it doesn't display much once the page is loaded anyway!!

Anyone got the code to change the scroll bar colour then?

R.

carbonize

11-03-2003, 03:32 AM

In your CSS add the following:

body {
scrollbar-3dlight-color: #2f4f4f;
scrollbar-arrow-color: #3366D9;
scrollbar-base-color: #EEF2F7;
scrollbar-darkshadow-color: #2f4f4f;
scrollbar-face-color: #EEF2F7;
scrollbar-highlight-color: #EEF2F7;
scrollbar-shadow-color: #EEF2F7;
scrollbar-track-color: #EEF2F7;
}

Changing the colour values to suit your needs.

vwebworld

11-03-2003, 11:53 PM

I think displaying text especially a repetitive
scrolling message is distracting and takes away
from the website itself... and useless if the viewer
has the status bar off.

Like a site with tons of animation and flashing
text... it's a "fad" that IMHO serves no useful
purpose.

Think of it this way... you create a webpage that
looks great, well laid out, with a super message
about you and why your widget is the best... then
poof the viewer's eyes are suddenly drawn away
from your super marketing message to a shorter
message at the bottom of the screen. Sort of defeats
the purpose of having great content in the middle of
the browser?

~Roland

WEBGuru

11-04-2003, 11:21 AM

WOW, looks like you opened a can worms asking a simple coding question.

DING! DING! Round Two!