Frameset problems

[reznod]

I have a client that is demanding the following in an intranet web application:

• A list of documents on the left side of the screen, that is independently scrollable
  
• A document (can be any format, they will have the necessary plug-ins installed) that is select and displayed on the right
  
• The list and the document must have a sliding bar between them to allow the user to adjust which they would like to see more of (list vs. document)
  

Because of these requirements the only solution I can think of is a frameset. This is because using a purely DHTML sliding bar will not work when the user attempts to move the bar towards the loaded document as the plug-in then takes control of the mouse and there is no guaranteed method of getting any response form the plug-in to determine where the sliding bar should move to. By using a frameset I can take advantage of the browsers overruling power on the plug-ins and get the desired results.

Now comes my problem, the client has informed me that I must make this web application cross-browser (IE and Firefox). Everything is good in Firefox, but in IE the frameset has a 3d indented border going all around the document list and document (which the client is saying users will be confused by, how, I don't know). I can remove this border by setting the frameBorder property to 0 but then the sliding bar between the list and document is not present, which completely defeats the purpose. I have tried to use CSS to fix this problem, but nothing I have tried seems to work.

Has anyone encountered this type of problem before and if so, how did you get around it?

Your assistance is appreciated.

[reznod]

I have managed to get around this problem by posting the browser information to the server and then using that to determine how to setup the frames for the browser that is being used.

Unfortunately I have found another problem. There are some drop down navigation and when this navigation drops over a PDF that is loaded in a frame the PDF shows up over the menu.

I have managed to fix this in IE by absolutely positioning and sizing an iFrame behind the menu. This does not solve the problem in Firefox. Has anyone found workarounds to problems like these?

[pip]

style="border: 0 auto" should do the trick in the frame tag.

[reznod]

Pip, thanks for the reply. Is your suggestion for the split bar not showing or for the overlapping PDF. I assume it is for the split bar, but I tried that a while ago and it seems that CSS border property has no effect on the frame if the frameBorder property is set to 'no' or '0', which seems to be the only way to get rid of the 3d effect in IE. Either way I have found a work around for that issue and it is working satisfactorily, do you happen to have any tips on how to get around the PDF overlap problem?

Thanks again.

[reznod]

Does anyone know of a solution to the problem of a PDF, Java Applet, or other plug-in component overlapping a drop down menu in Firefox?

I have been able to fix this issue in IE by dynamically sizing and placing an iFrame behind my drop downs, this does not work in Firefox.

This is a mock-up in Firefox

And this is the same mock-up in IE

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[reznod]

Has no one ever run into this problem before?

[nid~vaeda]

Has anyone found a solution to this problem because I am having the same problem