On a web page, framing means that a website can be organized into frames. Each frame displays a different HTML document. This practice is useful for making headers and sidebar menus that do not move when the content frame is scrolled up and down. It also significantly decreases the hassle of maintaining a website. For example, if an item needs to be added to the sidebar menu, only one file needs to be changed, whereas each individual page on a non-frameset website would have to be edited if the sidebar menu appeared on all of them.

The contents of the frames may be hosted on the same server as the parent page, or it may link in code from another website such that these external contents are automatically displayed within the frame (transclusion). This may be confusing and inconvenient to the user: he or she can get the impression that the information belongs to the same website; also, less than the full browser window is available and the address bar is less informative. Some websites request not to be used in this way on other websites; some discourage it by including a framekiller script in its pages. The framing website runs a risk of being blamed for external content that e.g. is or becomes inaccurate or objectionable. [1]

Although frames were included in the XHTML 1.0 specification, they were not carried across to XHTML 1.1. The intended eventual replacement is XFrames (XFrames), which attempts to solve the problem of addressing a populated frameset through composite URIs.

See also

• HTML element#Frames

External links

• Links & Law - case law summary, links to relevant court rulings worldwide and to relevant articles about framing