Intro
Html Frames, a legacy web standard from an age past, are Evil. These relics from the infancy of the internet, used by web designers to offer better interfaces to websites, have been removed from the W3C web standards and can be achieved much easier with CSS today. Follow the F12Games development team as we undergo the immense task of removing these ancient remnants that have locked the users of Evernight to their desktops around the world.
What are frames?
"Hold up, just wait right there for a second. What are Frames? Are you talking about borders? I like borders… they make the web-site look good.” Close, but not exactly on the mark. HTML frames are used to divide your browser window into multiple sections where each section can load a separate HTML document. A collection of frames in the browser window is known as a frameset. The window is divided into frames in a similar way the tables are organized: into rows and columns.
"Hold on, you are going way too fast for me! What is it that frames do?” ok, for all of you along for the ride that might be clueless as to what I am talking about, let me explain. Frames can divide the screen into separate windows. That is to say, rather than having several independent tabs(windows) open separately. The web designers would use framesets to combine these many pages into one and still have all the resources available to them that could only be attained without these framesets separately.
"You're doing it again, what is this about framesets? I thought we were talking about ‘evil frames.' What are framesets?” Alright, let me back up for a second. A file that specifies how the screen is divided into frames is called a frameset. Oh no, I'm going too fast and starting to lose you again, a frameset is simply an HTML document that tells the browser how to divide the screen into split windows.
Think of a picture frame hanging on a wall in someone's living room. This picture frame holds many pictures separated by white cardboard and these pictures are presented to you in an attractive way. Now, if you think of each one of these pictures as their own website. A frameset is the white cardboard between the photos and the areas that are punched out in the cardboard for the pictures are the frames. So, when a frameset page is loaded, the browser automatically loads each of the pages associated with the frames and onlookers get a completed and well thought out collage of photos.
Why are frames a problem for me?
"Okay, I understand what Frames are, but they seem to be a good thing. How are frames a problem for me?” The simple answer is that the frameset tag is not supported in HTML5. While some browsers may still support it, it is in the process of being dropped. Pages or Web apps using it may break at any time, leaving framed sites to die a rather horrible death in the browser.
Given this simple explanation might lead you to think "ok. Frames are bad… I get that, but evil, I wouldn't go that far?” That is understandable, after all, just because something is out dated and no longer up to todays standards doesn't make something evil. True, and as a user I would never expect you to fully come to terms with just how Evil frames truly are. To explain in detail why to a web developer/designer frames are evil would take far too long for this article. So let's leave it at frames are bad and it is our responsibility to rid the internet from this scourge.
Why did we ever use them?
"If frames are so bad, why use them to begin with?” The reason framesets became popular in the first place was because they allowed for a statically positioned header and menu with a scrolling content area on the same page. However, this can be accomplished much easier with CSS now. Additionally, frames allowed web-designers to use common elements like logos and menus on multiple "pages” without using any server-side coding. This was an advantage at a time where server-side coding where tedious and error prone, and many hosts didn't allow server-side scripting at all. Today, with CMS'es and better server-side platforms this is much better handled at the server side.
What are we doing to be rid of them?
"If frames are such a problem… what are we doing to be rid of them?” Evernight was built in a time when using framesets was the standard. Therefore, the site we have loved for nearly two decades, is heavily nested with frames and archaic server-side scripting. If left unchanged Evernight, and web-sites like it, run the risk of being lost to the ages as more and more browsers drop support for them. This is unacceptable.
The development team at F12Games have undertaken the enormous task of removing these old html frames and replacing them with modern web standards. This will allow for future enhancements to be implemented much more effortlessly. Removing these frames also allows us to closely examine the current game features, helping to ensure, the new Evernight site perform much like the old site of old.