Question on Web Design

[rahul_mukerji]

Hi:

I know there are some power developers out there so I have a simple question.

In my web design (for an EPK) I want to have a music player (flash based) playing while the person visiting the website can scroll through different links (bio / pics / tour dates etc). I dont want the player to be reloaded on every page and disrupt the music.

I normally make static web designs so I'm not sure how to go about doing this. I know this can be done via Flash for the entire site, but I dont wanna use flash.

The other alternative off the top of my head would be Frames, but thats just evil talk (or so most threads say).

Anyone have an idea how I can do this ? I was thinking of iFrame and PHP but I was'n sure if the embed of PHP would reload on every new link. I havent used iFrames so I'm not sure if they are 2009 savvy or are they yesteryears technology.

Thanks a ton !

Rahul

 

[Randy]

I'm a bit behind myself, as well. I'm used to constructing static-type websites, so I'm interested in see how this should be done.

Myself? I've had luck using an iFrame for this kinda thing, because it doesn't intrude on the rest of the page elements and doesn't automatically prompt a scroll bar or anything.

 

[lefty robb]

Why not just make your links pop up in a different window?

 

[stuh84]

Why not just make your links pop up in a different window?

Because then you get multiple windows open for the user, and it clutters the website up.

I'd try a few things, you could have some form of navigation system built in flash, which controls a frameset below it.

iFrames are just as bad as Frames for how bad people say frames.

The other option, would be to create a website that each part of the page is embedded within CSS, rather than separate physical pages, that way all the elements stay the same, but the content changes upon clicking on links.

 

[rahul_mukerji]

The other option, would be to create a website that each part of the page is embedded within CSS, rather than separate physical pages, that way all the elements stay the same, but the content changes upon clicking on links.

How do I do that ?

I tried the PHP include option, but it did reload the page and my player went back to the start of the song .... I put the header in a diff html and the body in a different. The header contained the player, but when I changed the body, the header was reset as well. I'm not sure if I implemented it correctly.

 

[thedownside]

look into an ajax system, it could easily do it. think like how the dynamic elements of facebook work

 

[rahul_mukerji]

Update: I found out that this can be done using Javascript ! So at the end of it, you really just have one HTML page, but the tabs and content are controlled by JS.

So the end user sees, in my page, one static left column with a pic of the band and some description, the audio player plays the songs on top of the page and in the right column, there are the tabs which hold different content.

I got the idea and the "A-ha" moment after looking at pages like this:

Java Script Tabs for HTML

Thanks everyone for your inputs