[thelist] Flash nav (was: <no subject>)

Andrew Clover and at doxdesk.com
Sun Jan 13 05:59:01 CST 2002


Giulio Mastrosanti <giulio at cantoberon.it> wrote:

> I've done the job (I was paid for it!!!) but I'm not convinced, so i would
> like a feedback from you if you have arguments pro or against using Flash
> for site navigation...

I'm not convinced either, but if you do use Flash for navigation, *please*
include normal HTML navigation as a backup. At the moment your site is
inaccessible to anyone without Flash, or with ActiveX turned off, or
spiders like search engines. This is completely unnecessary since the
main site content itself is still in HTML.

The site as it stands also unnecessarily relies on -

 - JavaScript-only popups, which will again unnecessarily thwart some
   browsers and spiders, as well as breaking browser functions like 'open
   in new window' etc. To get popups without making the content
   inaccessible, use a form like:

   <a href="cd.php?params" onclick="MM_openBrWindow(this.href, 'cd', ...);
   return false;">

 - frames. Add a link to the navigation in <noframes>.

 - a JavaScript Flash detector. Include a plain HTML link to the site
   in the <body>, otherwise anyone without JS will just see an empty
   black page.

 - meta-refresh on the front page. Use a proper HTTP redirect rather than
   abusing refresh. Or if your host is so crap they can't even do
   redirects, at least provide (again) a plain HTML link in the body as
   backup for agents that don't do refresh.

-- 
Andrew Clover
mailto:and at doxdesk.com
http://and.doxdesk.com/




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