seek advice for Ajax menu html script and include

We want to design a web site with simple Ajax drop down menu. Is there
simple script sample I can use as template?
We wish to have one single html menu file for all the other pages to use as
menu. Is server side Include the only method? How can we find out our host
machine can handle this server side Include? Thank you.

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "Alex Fillmore"
<no.spam (AT) microsoft (DOT) com> writing in
news:fkDOl.16171$hc1.3220 (AT) flpi150 (DOT) ffdc.sbc.com:

We want to design a web site with simple Ajax drop down menu. Is there
simple script sample I can use as template?
We wish to have one single html menu file for all the other pages to
use as menu. Is server side Include the only method? How can we find
out our host machine can handle this server side Include? Thank you.

You do not want to use Ajax in this instance because Ajax depends on the
availability of javascript on the client's machine. Menus need to be
accessible to everyone, including robots and spiders who do not have
javascript. A server side include is what you are looking for, depending
on what language your host provides (PHP, ASP, etc).

Also, be careful of drop down menus. These can be a real accessibility
nightmare. See other discussions in this group,
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html or
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets. The recent discussions in
all these groups that are worth looking into.


--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

"Adrienne Boswell" <arbpen (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

You do not want to use Ajax in this instance because Ajax depends on the
availability of javascript on the client's machine. Menus need to be
accessible to everyone, including robots and spiders who do not have
javascript. A server side include is what you are looking for, depending
on what language your host provides (PHP, ASP, etc).

Also, be careful of drop down menus. These can be a real accessibility
nightmare. See other discussions in this group,
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html or
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets. The recent discussions in
all these groups that are worth looking into.


--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

Thank you Adrienne, thank you for your advice.
Can you please tell me what is a simpliest horizonal menu bar, with drop
down sub-menu, similar to Ajax type of menu script?
I wish to write the entire menu bar in one html program (with all the
necessary scripts) and then, picked up by each web pages (such as using
server side include).
The web site host is Plesk 8.3. I can log into my web site control panel.
How can I find out what language my host provides?

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "Alex Fillmore"
<no.spam (AT) microsoft (DOT) com> writing in
news:wm2Pl.30049$YU2.9790 (AT) nlpi066 (DOT) nbdc.sbc.com:

"Adrienne Boswell" <arbpen (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:Xns9C0A700597535arbpenyahoocom (AT) 207 (DOT) 115.17.102...

You do not want to use Ajax in this instance because Ajax depends on
the availability of javascript on the client's machine. Menus need to
be accessible to everyone, including robots and spiders who do not
have javascript. A server side include is what you are looking for,
depending on what language your host provides (PHP, ASP, etc).

Also, be careful of drop down menus. These can be a real
accessibility nightmare. See other discussions in this group,
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html or
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets. The recent discussions
in all these groups that are worth looking into.


--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share


Thank you Adrienne, thank you for your advice.
Can you please tell me what is a simpliest horizonal menu bar, with
drop down sub-menu, similar to Ajax type of menu script?
I wish to write the entire menu bar in one html program (with all the
necessary scripts) and then, picked up by each web pages (such as
using server side include).
The web site host is Plesk 8.3. I can log into my web site control
panel. How can I find out what language my host provides?

If you have Plesk, you probably have PHP and you might have ASP classic,
or ASP.net.

You will want some sort of include, eg:

<div id="nav">
<?php include "nav_inc.php";?>
</div>

or you could do something like:

<?php include "linkrel_inc.php"; ?>
</head>
<body>
<?php include "header_inc.php"; ?>
<div id="content">
</div>
<?php include "footer_inc.php"; ?>

where linkrel_inc.php contains the doc type, title element, meta
elements, stylesheet link, favicon link, etc.

where header_inc.php contains something like:
<div id="header">
Bla
</div>
<div id="nav">
<?php include "nav_inc.php"; ?>
</div>

and footer_inc.php contains something like:

<div id="footer">
Copyright info, etc.
</div>
<?php //close any db connections ?>
</body>
</html>


As far as menus, there are plenty of CSS based menus out there that are
pretty easy to maintain, and accessible.

--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

On May 15, 10:52*am, Adrienne Boswell <arb... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "Alex Fillmore"
no.s... (AT) microsoft (DOT) com> writing innews:wm2Pl.30049$YU2.9790 (AT) nlpi066 (DOT) nbdc.sbc.com:



"Adrienne Boswell" <arb... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:Xns9C0A700597535arbpenyahoocom (AT) 207 (DOT) 115.17.102...

You do not want to use Ajax in this instance because Ajax depends on
the availability of javascript on the client's machine. Menus need to
be accessible to everyone, including robots and spiders who do not
have javascript. *A server side include is what you are looking for,
depending on what language your host provides (PHP, ASP, etc).

Also, be careful of drop down menus. *These can be a real
accessibility nightmare. *See other discussions in this group,
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.htmlor
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets. *The recent discussions
in all these groups that are worth looking into.

--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

Thank you Adrienne, thank you for your advice.
Can you please tell me what is a simpliest horizonal menu bar, with
drop down sub-menu, similar to Ajax type of menu script?
I wish to write the entire menu bar in one html program (with all the
necessary scripts) and then, picked up by each web pages (such as
using server side include).
The web site host is Plesk 8.3. I can log into my web site control
panel. How can I find out what language my host provides?

If you have Plesk, you probably have PHP and you might have ASP classic,
or ASP.net. *

You will want some sort of include, eg:

div id="nav"
?php include "nav_inc.php";?
/div

or you could do something like:

?php include "linkrel_inc.php"; ?
/head
body
?php include "header_inc.php"; ?
div id="content"
/div
?php include "footer_inc.php"; ?

where linkrel_inc.php contains the doc type, title element, meta
elements, stylesheet link, favicon link, etc.

where header_inc.php contains something like:
div id="header"
Bla
/div
div id="nav"
?php include "nav_inc.php"; ?
/div

and footer_inc.php contains something like:

div id="footer"
Copyright info, etc.
/div
?php //close any db connections ?
/body
/html

As far as menus, there are plenty of CSS based menus out there that are
pretty easy to maintain, and accessible. *

Well, accessible in that they degrade to a single link for keyboard
users. Best advice is to skip drop-down menus for navigation. What a
backwards idea that was (sure a Web developer thought of it.)

"David Mark" <dmark.cinsoft (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Well, accessible in that they degrade to a single link for keyboard
users. Best advice is to skip drop-down menus for navigation. What a
backwards idea that was (sure a Web developer thought of it.)

David, I do not understand what you mean? Is there better choice and simply
than horizontal CCS menu, by mouse click, without keyboard stroke?

David Mark wrote:

On May 15, 10:52 am, Adrienne Boswell <arb... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

As far as menus, there are plenty of CSS based menus out there that are
pretty easy to maintain, and accessible.


Well, accessible in that they degrade to a single link for keyboard
users.

How so? If they are constructed from a list UL or even some generic
containers with text-only will be a list of separate links. It won't
"weld" all the links together...

Best advice is to skip drop-down menus for navigation. What a
backwards idea that was (sure a Web developer thought of it.)

No, actually desktop UI designers used it before the web... I does
conserve visual real estate but it can have usability issues.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

On May 15, 6:24*pm, "Jonathan N. Little" <lws4... (AT) centralva (DOT) net>
wrote:

David Mark wrote:
On May 15, 10:52 am, Adrienne Boswell <arb... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:
As far as menus, there are plenty of CSS based menus out there that are
pretty easy to maintain, and accessible. *

Well, accessible in that they degrade to a single link for keyboard
users. *

How so? If they are constructed from a list UL or even some generic
containers with text-only will be a list of separate links. It won't
"weld" all the links together...

You misunderstand me. Try using a CSS menu without a mouse.

Best advice is to skip drop-down menus for navigation. *What a
backwards idea that was (sure a Web developer thought of it.) *

No, actually desktop UI designers used it before the web... I does
conserve visual real estate but it can have usability issues.

Bad desktop UI's (e.g. VB applications) did all sorts of things in the
bad old days. Nevertheless, navigation *must* show you at a glance:

1. Where you are
2. Where you've been
3. Where you can go from here

CSS menus are (at best) 1 of 3 in that regard.

Navigation is best rendered as a tree, just as it is in most desktop
operating systems.

"David Mark" <dmark.cinsoft (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

bad old days. Nevertheless, navigation *must* show you at a glance:

1. Where you are
2. Where you've been
3. Where you can go from here

CSS menus are (at best) 1 of 3 in that regard.

Navigation is best rendered as a tree, just as it is in most desktop
operating systems.


David, thank you. Can you recommend simple basic good menu?
Any example we can take a look? Thank you.

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "Alex Fillmore"
<no.spam (AT) microsoft (DOT) com> writing in news:qLpQl.15904$jZ1.6020
@flpi144.ffdc.sbc.com:

"David Mark" <dmark.cinsoft (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:fb500507-d117-4f39-ba97-32e9d52217b9
@x6g2000vbg.googlegroups.com...
bad old days. Nevertheless, navigation *must* show you at a glance:

1. Where you are
2. Where you've been
3. Where you can go from here

CSS menus are (at best) 1 of 3 in that regard.

Navigation is best rendered as a tree, just as it is in most desktop
operating systems.


David, thank you. Can you recommend simple basic good menu?
Any example we can take a look? Thank you.

CSS has nothing to do with content, it is presentational only.
1. Where you are - use a special class to distinguish a current link
2. Where you have been - this is has always been available, the visited
link
3. Where you can go from here - again, this depends on the content
provided by the author.

I often include a breadcrumb trail in addition to the main navigation. I
always include a site map, and a custom 404 page that has a link to both
the main navigation and the sitemap. If it is warranted, I also include
a search facility.

--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share