CSS: a simple layout won't work in CSS

[liketofindoutwhy]

A simple layout is attempted in CSS but can't be made into practice...


The result desired is displayed on:
http://www.0011.com/layout/want_to.html

(it is validated as HTML 4.01 Strict)

but that is done using a table. I don't want to use a table because i
think for some browsers, if there are 100 rows... then the table won't
be rendered until all 100 rows of images have been detected for the
width and height... the page may be empty until all 100 images are
loaded. (that might be for some older browsers). Nevertheless, I want
to try using span or div to do it.


A big issue is that I don't know the size of the image in advance (it
can be any image in the database).

so I tried just using a div with "vertical-align: middle" and it
doesn't work, as in

http://www.0011.com/layout/try1.html

and then "line-height:100%" using a span and it doesn't work, as in

http://www.0011.com/layout/try2.html


and also floating the 2 div left and right, and with the right hand
side "height:1em;margin:auto 0" just like centering a div
horizontally and won't work.

http://www.0011.com/layout/try3.html


i tried height: 100% and vertical-align: middle and even the the
height: 100% won't work, as indicated by the dashed border.

http://www.0011.com/layout/try4.html


again, the image on the left is unknown for the size as it is an image
from the database. Does somebody know how to make it happen without
using a table and without using javascript to get the size of the
image? thanks very much!

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

A simple layout is attempted in CSS but can't be made into practice...


The result desired is displayed on:
http://www.0011.com/layout/want_to.html

(it is validated as HTML 4.01 Strict)

but that is done using a table. I don't want to use a table because i
think for some browsers, if there are 100 rows... then the table won't
be rendered until all 100 rows of images have been detected for the
width and height... the page may be empty until all 100 images are
loaded. (that might be for some older browsers). Nevertheless, I want
to try using span or div to do it.


A big issue is that I don't know the size of the image in advance (it
can be any image in the database).

<snip old complaint about vertical alignment>

100 images? Maybe you should cut you page down to show maybe 25 at a
time. That is your real problem. Next will the world collapse if the
text is not centered vertically with the image? If it is so important
use a table, or set div to "display: table-cell" and let IE users go hang...

 

[liketofindoutwhy]

100 images? Maybe you should cut you page down to show maybe 25 at a
time. That is your real problem. Next will the world collapse if the
text is not centered vertically with the image? If it is so important
use a table, or set div to "display: table-cell" and let IE users go hang...

hm... even if it is 25, the page may load slower... such as for people
who don't have broadband... (but i found that IE 7 and Firefox 2 will
both show the page before any image is loaded). So this may be out
of pure attempt to know how to do it in CSS....

the display: table-cell will work so long as height: 100px is added...
then the line is centered vertically. however, if the height: 100px
is not specified, then it won't work.... that's a problem because the
image size is unknown. Do you think you can provide the 2 or 3 lines
that will make it work? The BIGGEST reason why this is to be
vertically centered is that, the line is actually a "Delete" link...
so if the word "Delete" is shown at top or at bottom, then the user
may accidentally click the "Delete" for the wrong image. So centering
it vertically is very helpful.

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

The BIGGEST reason why this is to be
vertically centered is that, the line is actually a "Delete" link...
so if the word "Delete" is shown at top or at bottom, then the user
may accidentally click the "Delete" for the wrong image. So centering
it vertically is very helpful.

Well you could give visual clues to help. If each image with control
links where in a block, "pixbox" you could float image images had have
the control links have a top and bottom margins that "push" them visibly
with the top and bottom dimensions of the image. You can add margins to
the "pixbox" container to give visual separation and|or borders!

div.pixbox {
margin: 2em 0; padding: .5em; border-top: 1px solid #000;
clear: left; overflow: hidden;
}

div.pixbox img {
display: block; float: left; margin-right: 1em;
}

div.pixbox ul {
margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; list-style: none;
}



<div class="pixbox">
<img src="someimage.jpg" alt="image" width="300" height="300">
<ul>
<li><a href="removalscript.cgi?someimage">Delete Me</a></li>
<li><a href="manglescript.cgi?someimage">Mangle Me</a></li>
<li><a href="whaterverscript.cgi?someimage">Show Me That You Care</a></li>
</ul>
</div>


SAPTT (Salt And Pepper To Taste)

 

[liketofindoutwhy]

Well you could give visual clues to help. If each image with control
links where in a block, "pixbox" you could float image images had have
the control links have a top and bottom margins that "push" them visibly
with the top and bottom dimensions of the image. You can add margins to
the "pixbox" container to give visual separation and|or borders!

i tried and it seems to shift the 3 text lines 2em down... so it is
somewhat more centered and it is very practical and thanks very much.
I wonder... is there any method to center it vertically and "very"
centered if table is not used? (so that if the image is 20px tall,
it is centered. if the image is 800px tall, it is centered). (hoping
to understand the mechanics of CSS along the way)

 

[dorayme]

<[email protected]
m>,

(so that if the image is 20px tall,
it is centered. if the image is 800px tall, it is centered). (hoping
to understand the mechanics of CSS along the way)

earlier you mentioned 100 images per page, ten the discussion
turned to 25 sort of, throughout you are concerned with speed of
[page loading, now you are talking 800px high images, what is
going on? Are you loading thumbnails (the sensible thing to do
so that the user can leverage up his requirements)?

 

[Bergamot]

The result desired is displayed on:
http://www.0011.com/layout/want_to.html

A big issue is that I don't know the size of the image in advance (it
can be any image in the database).

If it's coming from a database, get the image dimensions from there as
well and set the appropriate sizes when the HTML is generated. Should be
easy enough to do in your server-side script, whatever language it may be.

 

[liketofindoutwhy]

earlier you mentioned 100 images per page, ten the discussion
turned to 25 sort of, throughout you are concerned with speed of
[page loading, now you are talking 800px high images, what is
going on? Are you loading thumbnails (the sensible thing to do
so that the user can leverage up his requirements)?

the real thing is... i want to find out how to vertically center that
text on the right without using table but just using div and span.
turns out it is rather difficult... and maybe i can do it after
reading the whole chapters of CSS Definitive Guide for Inline elements
and Positioning. I already read the whole chapter for Block elements.

 

[Gus Richter]

earlier you mentioned 100 images per page, ten the discussion
turned to 25 sort of, throughout you are concerned with speed of
[page loading, now you are talking 800px high images, what is
going on? Are you loading thumbnails (the sensible thing to do
so that the user can leverage up his requirements)?

the real thing is... i want to find out how to vertically center that
text on the right without using table but just using div and span.
turns out it is rather difficult... and maybe i can do it after
reading the whole chapters of CSS Definitive Guide for Inline elements
and Positioning. I already read the whole chapter for Block elements.

What do you find difficult or perhaps wrong with my suggestion?

 

[rf]

earlier you mentioned 100 images per page, ten the discussion
turned to 25 sort of, throughout you are concerned with speed of
[page loading, now you are talking 800px high images, what is
going on? Are you loading thumbnails (the sensible thing to do
so that the user can leverage up his requirements)?

the real thing is... i want to find out how to vertically center that
text on the right without using table but just using div and span.
turns out it is rather difficult... and maybe i can do it after
reading the whole chapters of CSS Definitive Guide for Inline elements
and Positioning. I already read the whole chapter for Block elements.

What do you find difficult or perhaps wrong with my suggestion?

Possibly the difficulty is that the OP can't see your post. I can't.

 

[liketofindoutwhy]

What do you find difficult or perhaps wrong with my suggestion?

Right, Hi Gus... the previous post you put there is the only post i
see in this thread...

 

[Gus Richter]

Right, Hi Gus... the previous post you put there is the only post i
see in this thread...

Don't know why since I see it, LOL. Here it is again:

Give the div position:relative;
Give the span position:absolute;top:45%;

 

[Gus Richter]

Don't know why since I see it, LOL. Here it is again:

Give the div position:relative;
Give the span position:absolute;top:45%;

This wa in reply to the OP.

 

[Gus Richter]

Don't know why since I see it, LOL. Here it is again:

I took out ALT.HTML and left only CIWAS so you guys looking at
ALT.HTML don't see it. Did so since it's a pure CSS problem.

 

[rf]

I took out ALT.HTML and left only CIWAS so you guys looking at
ALT.HTML don't see it.

So you intentionally confused us? Dipstick!

If you took out alt.html in your first post why did you not take alt.html
out of your second post? Perhaps the OP was only looking at alt.html,
knowing, or at least hoping, that messages would be crossposted to both
groups. Maybe the OP was like me, in a hurry, and only checked alt.html,
leaving CWIAS for later in the day.

And what is wrong with CSS problems in alt.html anyway, which covers just
about everything?

 

[Gus Richter]

So you intentionally confused us? Dipstick!

If you took out alt.html in your first post why did you not take alt.html
out of your second post? Perhaps the OP was only looking at alt.html,
knowing, or at least hoping, that messages would be crossposted to both
groups. Maybe the OP was like me, in a hurry, and only checked alt.html,
leaving CWIAS for later in the day.

And what is wrong with CSS problems in alt.html anyway, which covers just
about everything?

If he's going to post to both, then he should check both.
I don't like posting to where I don't subscribe, because I might not see
responses to what I wrote. Just as happened to you here.

One good thing is that next time you won't be so easily confused.

 

[Summercool]

so this is absolute within a relative positioned div... i think it
will work almost... because the top: 45% is more like 50% - 1em
(50% minus 1em). Another person in sitepoint or digitalpoint
suggested using relative div outside and absolute div inside with
bottom and right being 0, and height: 60%... so it is more like 50% +
1em... and if using table, the text can be 1 line or 2 lines or 3
lines... it is still centered. if done using this method, it is "sort
of" centered...

 

[liketofindoutwhy]

so eric.j had a nice solution on

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3761981#post3761981

it is simplest... and probably can lead to more understanding of the
inline elements (probably need to read some reference like the CSS
Definitive guide by Eric Meyer)

 

[Neredbojias]

A simple layout is attempted in CSS but can't be made into practice...


The result desired is displayed on:
http://www.0011.com/layout/want_to.html

(it is validated as HTML 4.01 Strict)

but that is done using a table. I don't want to use a table because i
think for some browsers, if there are 100 rows... then the table won't
be rendered until all 100 rows of images have been detected for the
width and height... the page may be empty until all 100 images are
loaded. (that might be for some older browsers). Nevertheless, I want
to try using span or div to do it.


A big issue is that I don't know the size of the image in advance (it
can be any image in the database).

Uh, text can be vertically-aligned to an image as in the following example.
Dunno what else you mean.

http://www.neredbojias.com/tsttst/vctst.html

Sorry if this was covered in the thread, but I didn't grok it.

 

[Gus Richter]

so eric.j had a nice solution on

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3761981#post3761981

it is simplest... and probably can lead to more understanding of the
inline elements (probably need to read some reference like the CSS
Definitive guide by Eric Meyer)

Does not work right for me. Had to use 11% for 300x300 img.
Try using different size images.