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djlebarron
25 Oct 2008, 10:25 AM
While I've been learning, I've been working on a huge site.

I'm just now finishing up with changing my code from having the elements with no position settings to setting the major divs and images to position: absolute; and placing some of the elements inside the major divs into tables set to position: relative;

With no position settings on the major divs, I had to "poke and hope" and primarily place my elements' codes in vertical succession down the page since each successive div depended on the last and the ones to the sides (float & margin) for positioning. It was a nightmare the way it was. Anyway, I'm finishing that up. Things are so much easier this way, and I don't feel quite as "duh" as I did.

My issue now is that I've got a couple of js scripts that will stop a js-disabled user dead in their tracks. One of them is on the home page. The one on the home page is a double drop-down list menu and the other is a form action selection script. The second one alows you to check one of three radio buttons according to which type of results you want from your query (agenda or A-profiles or B-profiles) for a certain geographical area. That one's on the second page that the user will usually go to, and again, stops the jsd-user dead in their tracks.

The point of these scripts is to save space on the page, as I've got a total of 3500 choices between 56 catagories in one double drop-down list menu and a total of 40,000 choices between 56 catagories in another drop-down list menu. The second script mentioned is also to save room on the page, save having additional pages and thus save the user from having to click through a substantial number of additional pages to get what they want.

So, I've decided that I'm going to duplicate the results of the two scripts with CSS and PHP by returning results to the same pages. Instead of the mamouth js files I'm now using, I'll have a ton of .include files. Obviously, my objective is to have everything appear and function as it does now, but eliminate the js. I have couple of other checkbox scripts that don't have any practical ways to be worked around, but they degrade and don't critically impair the js-disabled in using the site's features.

I'm even going to try to duplicate the look of the drop-down lists as well as their functions.

The upside is that once I've done them, I'll have them to tuck into the toolbox and easily use them again and again in the future. I'm not even going to look for this in web searches, because from what I've seen over the years, no-one's been crazy enough to do exactly what I'm going to do. I should learn a lot in the process.

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Should be interesting. Thoughts?