Should a modern intranet-only web application still use frames or not?

Question

I'd like to ask about using frames in a modern intranet-only web application. Of course there a several reasons to use or probably not use frames in a modern internet web application. But what about when it comes to an intranet web applications (think about a financial application)?

Think about parts of the application which are most of the time constantly visible (like a toolbar, menu, identity et cetera), where frames can be a simple/faster solution to do things? Are these advantages that count these days when considering things like PPR?

I am curious and both thankful about your view on this.

Answer 1

Frames aren't inheritly evil, but they do create challenges that other approaches don't face. Since you're talking about intranet you probably aren't concerned about:

• the search-indexing implications of frames
• the usability/accessibility issues
• supporting significantly different browsers (mobile, text-based, etc)

Overall there probably isn't an outstanding reason to dodge them. However I don't think you've offered a compelling reason to use them.

However: the one issue I could see you running into with a rich internet application is the potential need for your differing pages/components to talk with one another. Frames can be a royal headache with scripting, and for that reason alone I avoid them.

Answer 2

CSS, ASP.NET master pages, and tons of other technologies make frames unnecessary not to mention unsightly.

It's not that you can't use frames, it's just that you should avoid frames as they look somewhat unprofessional. To me, frames are on the same level as animated gifs.

Answer 3

I would argue that there's no compelling reason to use frames in a modern web application. Contemporary markup techniques are just as, if not more easily maintainable, and solve some of the frustrations of frames (you can never bookmark anything, it's difficult to set the page title, etc). Most of the drawbacks of frames could be worked around, but why bother?