Member's Log-In Page breaks my iFrame

[Bridgecity]

Hey Truman,

I've been creating a kiosk application for a computer we're going to set up at church that people can use to log log into their member account as well as order teaching CDs through our web cart.  We'll also use this on-site to teach people how to log in to Ascribe, and where to find stuff.  I've got everything headed in the right direction.  The whole thing will function in a locked-down version of Firefox and should give easy and secure access to people without having all the computer functions available.  Anyway...

I want to use iframes to call up the various external webpages (the store cart, the member login, etc.) so that outside surfing can be controlled.  But when I set up the member login page of ascribe in this way, it does something weird.  At first, and for a second, my page appears correctly as I have formatted it with the kiosk header and navbar across the top, and the Ascribe member log-in page appears as I want it, nestled within its iframe.  But then the screen blinks and all my formatting disappears as the member log-in page takes over the brower window.

Can this be stopped?  Can you make the Ascribe page behave for me?

Thanks.

If you want to check out what I'm talking about, go here: http://www.bridgecity.org/kiosk
There are bugs I'm working out, but the essential architecture is what I want--just with the Ascribe member log-in playing nice.

[Truman]

Hi Marc,

Ascribe was designed to "break out of frames" for technical reasons too boring to go over. But you can keep it from doing so on a page by page basis. When creating the webpage, uncheck "Break Frames".

Hmmm... the "Break Frames" option is not available for database driven pages, like the Member portal.

Let me see if I can figure out a workaround. I'll be in touch.

Truman

[Bridgecity]

Thanks for checking this out.  I'm looking forward to getting this working.

[Truman]

Hi Marc,

I think I've come up with a solution, but I can't get it to work with your webpage. I don't find any IFRAME tags in the HTML code of your page. Are you using javascript to create the IFRAME objects on the fly during page load?

Anyway, the workaround I'm thinking of requires you to place a little javascript into your parent page:

Code:

<script language="JavaScript"><!--
var asc_play_nice_in_frames = true;
//--></script>

But it's not working because I can't understand the frames you're using.

Truman

[Truman]

Well, for some reason it appear to be working now. Maybe it was the little change I just made.

Let me know if it still "plays nice" once you've logged into the member portal.

thanks,
Truman

[Bridgecity]

Looks like you've solved it, Truman.  Thanks so much.  I'm getting closer to completing the kiosk.  I think this is going to work well.

By the way, one of the kiosk pages needs to direct people to how they can get their Ascribe password.  What do you think is the best way for me to go about that?

[Truman]

Well, I've got to still program that "register" feature where someone can register for an online member account with the church. I'll probably get that done in a couple weeks or so, as I'm working now on the extranet.

Also, I'm finally completing dynamic blocks that can be popped into any web page. These blocks can be anything from latest news articles to a slideshow of latest photos. I started that project last January and never had a chance to finish it.

[Bridgecity]

Sounds great!  I'm looking forward to testdriving the new features.  Have a great weekend!

Marc

[Bridgecity]

Hey Truman,

Working on testing the kiosk and I've got a couple other things.  I think it's the same issue really.  The Login screen works fine, and when I click 'login" my member portal page comes up nicely within the kiosk frame.  But when I click on the various navbar options different things happen.

Giving, Events, News, and Directory play nice with the kiosk iframe.  But Ministry Groups, C2 Groups, TestFeed, and the Photo Album break the kiosk frame and take over the browser.

Thoughts?  Fixable?

Thanks for your help.

[Truman]

Marc, do you think you could wait a while on this. I'm going to really try to push out the new member portal by the end of the year.

I'll make sure it won't break frames.

I'm thinking of making the member portal show a default portal of information, without login or occasional login, just like My Yahoo ... but requiring login for certain more sensitive areas such as updating personal info and downloading financial info.

What do you think?

[Bridgecity]

Hey Truman,

I think that is an excellent idea.  I love the concept of being able to see certain things without logging in.  That's great.  I'll gladly wait.  I'll just build a "Under Construction" page for the kiosk to reference for the time being, and we'll roll out that feature with the new portal.  I'm looking forward to it very much.

Thanks for your hard work.

Marc