FP 2003 Pull-Down Menus

[Chip Rose]

Maybe I was dreaming, but one of the reasons for me
upgrading to FP2003 was for the promised ability to
create pull-down menus and submenus based on the
navigation of my website. All I see are minor
improvements in what was already had with previous
versions. Please tell me I did not fall prey to
marketing exageration on behalf of... whoever?

Thanks

 

[Lisa Wollin \(Microsoft\)]

Can you please tell us where you got this info? I'm not aware of any such
feature. We did add the Behaviors feature, which you can access from the
Behaviors Task Pane (View, Task Panes). Using this feature you can add
drop-down menus.

There is also an article called Build a Drop-down Menu Using JavaScript at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnfp2k2/html/odc_fpdropdownmenu.asp
that discusses how to write the scripts and tables needed for building a
drop-down menu.

 

[clintonG]

Good to see a presence. I for one am of the mind that FrontPage 2003
has been a miserable and disappointing failure.

I'll tell you quite frankly I do not appreciate dumping on you but
somebody has to hear this stuff and take it back to the project
managers as they are literally 'doing us in' and clearly do not live in the
real world.

The real world I know is one where competent developers are also
now being expected to create the user interface as well as code the
application which is something I myself have done since day one anyway.

Granted there are still 'designers' and 'developers' but again, this is the
real world and in the real world those roles have become one and
the same, will become one and the same, or have already been
outsourced to Hadji or Wu Tang.

Do you understand me? This creeping incrementalism is destroying us.

I can not go into any business accounts and even mention FrontPage
as the software is seen as a sham and an embarrassment. I simply can
not stand the shame and I certainly can not stand the loss of business
in a service oriented capacity where everything is fundamentally
derived on the basis of one's credibility. I haven't been able to be
proud of using Microsoft FrontPage for years.

Do you understand what I am saying?

While not an exhaustive list, what follows is what I have discovered
to be true and factual with regards to FrontPage 2003...

** FrontPage 2003 does not interoperate with Visual Studio.NET
at all nor does it round-trip at all. Neither application knows anything
about the other and each treats one another's resources like any
other file in the file system. Where's the OOP in the POOP?

** FrontPage 2003 can not create a new ASP.NET site using a template.

**FrontPage 2003 will not generate a page directive.

** FrontPage 2003 can not even create an .aspx file without a ridiculous
8 step process starting with the File menu and ending with the Save As
dialog.

**FrontPage 2003 knows nothing about the .aspx file format as a
native file format which still must be imported or saved as.

** FrontPage 2003 cannot generate web server controls when creating
a user interface and has no equivalent to the Visual Studio.NET toolbox
in the context of Web Forms (ASP.NET) development.

Thus, the developer using FrontPage 2003 hoping to efficiently and
productively layout the user interface must first generate the HTML
elements and then manually modify each and every HTML element to
convert each element into a web server control before opening the
..aspx file in Visual Studio.NET.

That manual process may also be done in Visual Studio.NET of course
but the point is that FrontPage 2003 is WEB FORMS STOOPIT
and Visual Studio.NET 'designer' mangles the hell out of HTML
resulting in a state of affairs that is FUBAR.


** Using the Visual Studio.NET 'designer' for example to develop a
user interface for a web site is like going all the way back to FrontPage
when it was first acquired from Vermeer. It is that poor. The designer
stomps all over the HTML formatting. It writes HTML declarations out
of order within the source and juxtaposes declarations one right after
the other forcing the developer to constantly scroll both vertically and
horizontally to enter carriage returns to add white space when needing to
read the source. Temporarily of course as it will then stomp all over the
HTML each time the designer is re-displayed.

There are many more little things I could nitpick about but my point is
not about nitpicking Lisa. My point is the ongoing lack of efficient and
productive development, the creeping incrementalism that is killing us
and putting us out of our jobs as we can no longer compete with cheap
labor who have all the time in the world to make up for lost productivity,
and finally, the deep shame attempting to enter and compete within markets
where the customer has bought into Macromedia and rationalizes doing
so by explaining that the company develops better Microsoft software
than Microsoft.

We need FrontPage and Visual Studio.NET to interoperate and
round-trip as companion products and we need it yesterday.

As things have been for what? Five years now? I have this to leave
you with...

"It's a madhouse. It's a bloody madhouse"
-- Charlton Heston, Planet of the Apes

<%= Clinton Gallagher
A/E/C Consulting, Web Design, e-Commerce Software Development
Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin USA
NET (e-mail address removed)
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/

 

[Stefan B Rusynko]

Or for FP2003 you can download the sample and Code Snippet to do drop downs and more at
http://www.sharepointcustomization.com/resources/codesamples.htm


_____________________________________________
SBR @ ENJOY (-: [ Microsoft MVP - FrontPage ]
"Warning - Using the F1 Key will not break anything!" (-;
To find the best Newsgroup for FrontPage support see:
http://www.net-sites.com/sitebuilder/newsgroups.asp
_____________________________________________


| Can you please tell us where you got this info? I'm not aware of any such
| feature. We did add the Behaviors feature, which you can access from the
| Behaviors Task Pane (View, Task Panes). Using this feature you can add
| drop-down menus.
|
| There is also an article called Build a Drop-down Menu Using JavaScript at
| http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnfp2k2/html/odc_fpdropdownmenu.asp
| that discusses how to write the scripts and tables needed for building a
| drop-down menu.
|
| --
| Lisa Wollin
| Programmer Writer
| Microsoft Corporation
|
| | > Maybe I was dreaming, but one of the reasons for me
| > upgrading to FP2003 was for the promised ability to
| > create pull-down menus and submenus based on the
| > navigation of my website. All I see are minor
| > improvements in what was already had with previous
| > versions. Please tell me I did not fall prey to
| > marketing exageration on behalf of... whoever?
| >
| > Thanks
|
|