Dan's Javascript Snips Page (Inchoate)

OK, no grand promises here, only a note to say "I've started." . . . posting stuff that may be useful to some else, as it has been to me.

Force Frame (Javascript Pair)

Browser and Platform Detection (Javascript-in-HTML page)

Please let me know if I've goofed something up, or if you have questions, improvements, or kudos.
Dan Feather
dan@danfeather.com

29 JUN 2000

Force Frame (Javascript Pair)

Two pieces of javascript code for your site that will take care of the frame thing; one for your frameset pages, the other for your frame pages: (my own modification -- revised to trap js bug in Explorer 3 -- of a routine learned in "Javascript for the WWW, 3rd ed.", (Negrino and Smith))

. . . Adapting to your pages is as simple as doing a single URL replacement when you insert the first script, and setting up the second script to take the place of your current frameset page.

View WWW Example

Download autoframeload.zip (Mac users: Stuffit software handles .zip like .sit.)

This script (copy from the text area below) goes in every frame page:

<!--
This Javascript code (below) goes in the HEAD section of a frame page.
-->
<SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript" LANGUAGE="javascript" NAME="frameloader_frameset">
	<!-- Hide script from old browsers
	if (top.location == self.location) {
		top.location.href = "theFramesetPageForThisFrame.htm?ThisFrame.htm"
		}
	// End hiding script from old browsers -->
</SCRIPT>

This script (copy from the text area below) becomes your frameset page:

<!--
This Javascript code (below) goes BELOW the HEAD section of a frameset page.
It essentially REPLACES the frameset page you have. Now, you can target links
to frame pages to "_top", and they will "load themselves" into this frameset.
For browsers that aren't able to do this, a default content page is specified.
This script will work w/ NN 3, and all ver. 4 and later browsers. It will
load the default page in NN 2 and IE 3. It was adapted from:
"Javascript for the WWW, 3rd ed.", (Negrino and Smith), Peachpit Press.
-->
<SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript" LANGUAGE="javascript" NAME="frameloader_frameset">
//	here (below) put the default frame to load if browser can't read the one passed in:
	linkURL = "theDefaultFrame.htm"
//	repeat (below) this default frame in case the browser is MSIE 3:
	if ((navigator.appName == "Microsoft Internet Explorer") && (parseInt(navigator.appVersion) < 4)) {
		linkURL = "theDefaultFrame.htm"
			}
//	if browser gets this far, it can take in the custom page we've passed it:
	else	{
		if (parent.document.URL) {
			callingURL = parent.document.URL
				if (callingURL.indexOf('?') != -1) {
					linkURL = callingURL.substring(callingURL.indexOf('?')+1,callingURL.length)
				}
			}
		}
	//	Now for the tricky part! We must put the actual code for the frameset below;
	//	but we will nest each line between the single quotation marks inside the
	//	parentheses following the javascript command "document.write". 
	//	Note the one exceptional line! It's where our passed page (which is 
	//	the variable "linkURL") is inserted. Be sure to leave it surrounded by
	//	the "+" marks and single quotation marks.
	
	//	(The first line has some sample code between the single quotation marks.)
	document.write ('<FRAMESET ROWS="*,60" BORDER="0" FRAMEBORDER="NO">')
	document.write ('')
	//	how many lines of 'document.write' will depend totally on your frameset. 
	//	Duplicate/delete above line as necessary.
	//	. . . . 
	//	When you get to the line for the content frame, you'll put your code 
	//	in very carefully in two chunks; one "chunk" before the escaped (by
	//	the pair of interior single quotation marks) section, the other,
	//	after it. The first "chunk" is everything up to the filename 
	//	of the content page; the second "chunk" is everything from the end of the 
	//	filename to the end of the line.
	document.write ('<FRAME SRC="' + linkURL + '" NAME="framename" SCROLLING="AUTO">')
	//	. . . . 
	//	NOTE ALSO: You'll need to put a back-slash in front of any forward slash:
	document.write ('<\/FRAMESET>')
	// End hiding script from old browsers -->
</SCRIPT>

Browser and Platform Detection (Javascript-in-HTML page)

This code will give you the basic info of the browser viewing the page. In this instance, the information is written out to the page itself, but you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT to do with it!

View WWW Example

This code (copy from the text area below) is an entire HTML page:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"
			"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
	<TITLE>Browser and Platform Detection Script</TITLE>
<SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript" LANGUAGE="javascript" NAME="browser_detect_display">
<!--
//	assign variables:
	thScreenWidth="(Your browser doesn\'t return monitor info ...)"
	thScreenHeight=" (... sorry) "
	thPlatform = "Unknown"
	bNew=0
//	check for objects the browser is aware of:
	if (document.images) {bNew=1}
	if (document.layers) {bNew=2}
	if (document.all) {bNew=2}
//	we'll check the monitor size if it's accessible
		if (bNew==2) {
		thScreenHeight = window.screen.height
		thScreenWidth = window.screen.width
		}
//	find out brand and version of browser
	thDetails = navigator.userAgent
	thBrowser = navigator.appName
//	learn the platform		
		if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Win') != -1) {
				thPlatform = "Windows"
			}
		if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Mac') != -1) {
				thPlatform = "Macintosh"
			}
//-->
</SCRIPT>	 
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="WHITE">
<H2 ALIGN="center">
	Browser and Platform Detection Script
</H2>
<HR>
<SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript" LANGUAGE="javascript" NAME="browser_detect_display_write">
<!--
	document.write("<H3>" + "Your computer platform is:  " + thPlatform + "</H3>")
	document.write("<H3>" + "Your browser is:  " + thBrowser + "</H3>")
	document.write("<H3>" + "More browser details:  " + thDetails + "</H3>")
	document.write("<H3>" + "Your monitor's pixel measure is:  " +  thScreenWidth + ' x ' + thScreenHeight + "</H3>")
//-->
</SCRIPT> 
<NOSCRIPT>
	<H3 ALIGN="center">
		whoa!! . . . this browser doesn't support either FRAMES and/or JAVASCRIPT! :-(
	</H3>
	<HR>
</NOSCRIPT>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Dan Feather dan@danfeather.com
Desktop publishing and prepress services
Website and product development and testing
Telephone troubleshooting and 'puter crisis counselling
615-385-2812

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