Definition: frames

(1) For Amazon's smart glasses, see Echo Frames.

(2) An HTML feature that rendered multiple HTML files on a Web page. Website frames were similar to how applications displayed multiple windows. Frames enabled static data to be visible while other data were scrolled. For example, a menu at the top of the page with links to articles below allowed the articles to be scrolled without changing the position of the menu.

The frame may contain content from a different site, just like links on websites can retrieve Web pages from any server. Frames automatically provided scroll bars if the content was larger than the frame window. In HTML5, iFrames replaced the frames function (see iFrame).

A Contentious Feature
Frames were controversial from the start. Earlier browsers did not render them equally or sometimes not at all, which is why framed sites typically offered a "no-frames" version. Users could not always bookmark a frame, and clicking the browser's Back and Forward buttons may not have moved the content in the desired frame.

Frames could also point to an HTML document on any third-party server giving the appearance that the content was coming from the same site. This enabled content to be easily aggregated, but also let third-party content be stolen from another site unless precautions were taken on that site (see framekiller).

In addition, frames were often avoided because search engines did not index the content correctly. Frames were also not friendly to audio browsers for the visually impaired (see audio browser). See frameset, iFrame and Xframes.

HTML Frames

The HTML frames feature is used to partition the page into windows, and the content within a window can be scrollable or static. The iFrame is an independent HTML frame that can be placed anywhere on the page just like text and graphics. If the iFrame is in a scrollable frame, then it would scroll off screen like any other objects on the page. See iFrame.