How can I change two or more pages when a link is clicked?

When you use frames to create a page layout and you want to update the contents of more then one of the frames, a normal link won't work. There are two solutions to this problem.

1. Load a new page that contains a new FRAMESET

Replacing a FRAMESET page with a new one can update more then one page. The disadvantage is that you must create a separate FRAMESET page for each possible combination of frame contents.

2. Load the pages using JavaScript

More practical is to use a script to load the new pages. This involves two changes, adding a script to the page where the links are in, and changing the links so that the script is used.

First the script:

<SCRIPT language="javascript"> function loadLinks(cUrl1,cFrame1,cUrl2,cFrame2) { parent.frames[cFrame1].location = cUrl1 parent.frames[cFrame2].location = cUrl2 } </SCRIPT>

You must place this script in the HEAD section of the page. The script will load two pages in two frames you have defined in a FRAMESET.

Now you must change the links so that this script is used to load the links.

<A href="javascript:loadLinks('url1','frame1','url2','frame2')">Load two pages</A>

You must replace the values url1, frame1, url2 and frame2 with the appropriate ones on your site.

For example, lets say that you have two frames, one called menubar and the other called textbody. The following link will load the file mainmenu.html in the menubar frame, and history.html in the textbody frame:

<A href="javascript:loadLinks('mainmenu.html','menubar','history.html','textbody')">Load two pages</A>

Note

This script has a restriction, because it expects the frames that you want to update, are all laid out in the same FRAMESET page. If you have a more complex page layout, using nested pages with FRAMESET's, then the script must be modified.
You must change the references to the frame, so that they reflect the structure of how the frames have been defined. These are the parts parent.frames[cFrame1] and parent.frames[cFrame2].

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