Frame/Frameset Framework

[Darryl A. J. Staflund]

Hi there,
Grrr, frames are so powerful and just so difficult to use because they just don't seem to be supported in any presentation-type framework that I am aware of.
I am currently working on a Struts-based, frame-based project where we have a navigation tree in one frame, the corresponding workspace in another frame, and a header frame. It is incredibly difficult to maintain and code around. Consider the following problems:
1. Frame loading issues. Performing an action in one frame may at times require two or more frames to be refreshed. In order to do this, you need to send 1 HTTP request to obtain the frameset and n HTTP requests to obtain the resulting n frame contents.
2. Frame synchronization issues. Sometimes acting on one frame requires both frames to be refreshed -- but in a certain order. Since the client browser is responsible for sending HTTP requests for each frame to the server, and since the request may or may not be responded to in the appropriate order (depending on network traffic, server workload, etc.) frames can become out of synch.
3. Managing state during the loading of a frameset. When an action results in one or more HTTP requests being sent to the server for each frame and frameset that makes up the response, information that needs to be persists across these requests need to be accounted for. Although a session object or data store can be used to manage this, the scope is shorter than a session but longer than a request. This should be accounted for.
There are other significant issues that I have had to deal with as well, though I am not sure how to state them just yet.
Does anyone know of any frameworks that address the issue of frame/frameset management in the development of the presentation tier? Are there any that can be integrated into Struts?
Thanks,
Darryl

[Gregg Bolinger]

Does TILES not address some of these issues? I have always been told and practiced staying far away from Frames using Tables and nested Tables instead.

[Darryl A. J. Staflund]

Hi Gregg,
As I understand Tiles, it's use is for managing page layout within a given frame -- but not multiple frames per se. Our reasons for choosing to go with a frame-based application are several:
1. We have a complex navigation structure to implement which we chose to implement using a tree.
2. We chose not to implement the tree using JavaScript or DHTML technologies for a number of policy reasons internal to our group.
3. We chose not to implement the tree as a client-side RMI-based Swing or AWT applet for a number of security and support-related reasons.
4. We felt that limiting the application to one frame would lead to difficulty in managing screen real-estate -- especially given that our tree had no fixed length or depth to it.
On other enterprise development teams that I have worked with, we have encountered similar situation and have always used frame-based trees to deal with them. The difference between those applications and ours, however, is that one of the applications was ColdFusion-based and relied on ColdFusions CFTREE component to implement the tree, while the other chose to implement the tree using JavaScript. Frames of themselves arent' too difficult to implement and maintain. But implementing them into a Struts-based framework is very difficult as I am finding out :-)
I think the question is not whether frames should be used or not (they have their place and our business needs drove us to use them), but whether Java-based frameworks have been built to make use of them in an OO-oriented manner. I think this is an important feature that is certainly lacking from Struts and I haven't found a framework that fully tackles the issue.
Darryl

[Gregg Bolinger]

Well, that is good to know at the very least. I will remember all your good information if I ever have to deal with the same problem. I hope you are able to solve yours.

[Raymond Chung]

Hi all,

This is my first time posting in javaranch. I'm not sure if I should create a new topic or not. At least I would like to continue this frameset related topic here.

Right now, my current web app uses frameset to display 2 frames on the screen. The top frame displays the navigation and the bottom frame displays the contents. We used the strut framework and tiles framework in websphere environment. We have a basicLayout.jsp that has the frameset. Each frame gets the corresponding jsp from the tiles definition. I also have some codes in the basicLayout.jsp to prevent any caching in the browser, so both frames will always be reloaded.

My current problem right now is that when you navigate the pages in Internet Explorer, sometimes you will see the top navigation shows up first and then the body contents a few seconds later. And sometimes the top navigation would appeal a few seconds later after the body contents show up. This is fine, but the main problem is that when either the top navigation or the body contents is still loading, the status bar on the bottom of the browser says "Done". We are afraid that the users might think that the the top navigation or body contents are not showing up when the browser says it is done and will try to reload the page. We don't want the user to think that the body contents are not showing up and try to reload the page several times. We tested in Netscape browser and it has a more accurate status. It does not say it is done loading until the full page is loaded.

So is there anyway that we can have each page to be loaded fully before the IE browser says that it is done loading?