Can I specify that some images load before others?

[www.MessageMazes.com]

Greetings,

I'm working on a collection of free puzzle pages that serve as a feed
to sale pages.

My question is whether I can specify that some images load before
others?

If you visit
http://mazes.com/asp-maze/isanamazin...noun=webmaster
you can make a maze that says that you are an amazing webmaster

BUT ... you'll see that the images across the top start loading first.

Could I do something that would delay loading most of these images
until after it has loaded the 26 different GIF images that make up the
maze itself? (and yes, I've debated reducing the number if images
across the top, but since the main purpose of the page is to let people
know that these products are available, I'm not sure if I want to do
that.)

Thanks for any help

John

[Jukka K. Korpela]

www.MessageMazes.com wrote:

My question is whether I can specify that some images load before
others?
You surely cannot do such things in HTML. What made you expect you
could? (HTML is a poor lonesome data format, not a programming language.)
If you visit
http://mazes.com/asp-maze/isanamazin...noun=webmaster
you can make a maze that says that you are an amazing webmaster
OK. (The option list doesn't include "web author", which would make the
question superficially on-topic here. :-) )
BUT ... you'll see that the images across the top start loading first.
Maybe.
Could I do something that would delay loading most of these images
until after it has loaded the 26 different GIF images that make up the
maze itself?
Maybe.
(and yes, I've debated reducing the number if images
across the top, but since the main purpose of the page is to let people
know that these products are available, I'm not sure if I want to do
that.)

You could reorganize the page so that the <img> elements for the 26 GIF
images appear after the one for the maze image, in HTML source. This
does _not_ guarantee anything. It just might cause the images to be
loaded in that order. It's up to the browser, to the server, to any
proxies and caches between, and the phase of the moon.

The _real_ problems with the page include huge requirements on window
width. If I were you, I would put the maze and its heading on the left,
all the rest (starting with the images) on the right, with images in a
column, not in a row. You could implement this using a trivial two-cell
table, or using CSS, but in either case, you could put the 24 images
after the maze image. If you wish to preserve the current visual
appearance, you would need to use relatively complicated CSS (with
positioning), or JavaScript.

And I would greatly reduce the content of the page, putting most of it
onto static subpages.

In any case, you should add width and height attributes into the <img>
tags to speed up rendering.

[Philip Ronan]

"www.MessageMazes.com" wrote:

I'm working on a collection of free puzzle pages that serve as a feed
to sale pages.

My question is whether I can specify that some images load before
others?

If you visit
http://mazes.com/asp-maze/isanamazin...noun=webmaster
you can make a maze that says that you are an amazing webmaster

BUT ... you'll see that the images across the top start loading first.

Could I do something that would delay loading most of these images
until after it has loaded the 26 different GIF images that make up the
maze itself?

No.

But you're going about this the wrong way. Just write a script that
generates the whole maze in a single image. It will look better, load faster
and will probably take up less bandwidth too.

--
phil [dot] ronan @ virgin [dot] net
http://vzone.virgin.net/phil.ronan/

[Jim Moe]

www.MessageMazes.com wrote:

My question is whether I can specify that some images load before
others?
You can specify loading order by the order of occurrence within the
page code. Whether this actually happens is another issue.
Delivery depends on:
1. The browser: how it decides to ask for the images. Usually in the order
listed but there is no guarantee.
2. The network: the data may, and likely does, take different routes to
and from the client (browser) and server (site). Each route has its own
delays.
3. The server: it services requests however it wants. You are not the only
requester. It may delay an earlier request to handle a later one. Or favor
some policy to assure overall throughput that has little to do the request
sequencing.
BUT ... you'll see that the images across the top start loading first.

Don't put those images at the top.
(Well, you could position:absolute the top section and have the code
last in the file. But that may not help much. And has its own problems.)

The suggestion to create a single image, built for progressive loading,
is a better idea.

--
jmm (hyphen) list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)

[www.MessageMazes.com]

Philip wrote:
<< But you're going about this the wrong way. Just write a script that
generates the whole maze in a single image. It will look better, load
faster and will probably take up less bandwidth too. >>

I have no idea how to write a script that would generate the whole maze
in a single image. I know how to create BMP files with a basic program,
which I could obviously adapt to server side javascript, like ASP, but
I have no idea how I'd go about creating a single image that would be
fed to the user.

I'd sure love to learn more.