[Typo3] frames and templavoila

[JoH]

> Frames are deprecated now and for very good reason...
>
> - They are terrible for search engine optimization
> - They cause a lot navigation issues
> - They cause accessibility problems (making it imperative to include
> "noframes" content and workarounds)
> - They are not very good for tight layouts
>
> Have a look here: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/#frames
>
> In these modern times of CSS-positioning and table-layout deprecation
> it seems like a bad idea to fall back on frames when we have so many
> better options. Don't get me wrong - I agree that tables and frames
> have their uses. Tables are the only way to layout data for example.
> And imagine the Typo3 backend without frames... But the Typo3
> back-end is not designed to be spidered by search engines or used
> with screen readers!

First of all you should read the content of the link you provided carefully:

- Without scripting, they tend to break the "previous page" functionality
offered by browsers.
- It is impossible to refer to the "current state" of a frameset with a URI;
once a frameset changes contents, the original URI no longer applies.
- Opening a frame in a new browser window can disorient or simply annoy
users.

This is all _not_ true when using frames with TYPO3.

You can use "frameReloadIfNotInFrameset" technique to make sure that all
frames of the framed page are always completely available for all three
cases above.

And regarding accessibility issues I can tell you that I have almost any of
the top screenreaders installed in demo mode to check pages and most of them
work perfectly fine with frames.
I know for example blind people that really like framed pages since it's
very annoying when your screenreader reads all the menu stuff again and
again each time you switch to a new page of the same site.
For blind people reloading a hole page is often very time consuming
especially when there are only a few lines of content that have to be
changed.
On the other hand its nearly impossible for screenreaders to read a site
that is using tons of nested frames. But this is not what they were made
for.

There are examples for accessible framesets that correspond to the German
BITV (short for "barrierfree information technology enactment") here
http://www.barrierefreies-webdesign.de/knowhow/frames/index.php (only
German)

Something like

--------------------
    Flashmovie
--------------------
            |
menu    |    content
            |
--------------------

can be very accessible for almost any modern screenreader, as long as there
is no important content in the flashmovie that's not provided elsewhere.

I think you can say the same thing about frames that is said about tables:
Don't use them to simply layout a site but to give it a structure.


Joey