HTML & XHTML

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Various important things I noticed when writing HTML & CSS code.

HTML

Elements

  • <span> elements are like DIVs, but inline.
  • <div> elements are not permitted inside a <p> element; it is DIV elements that should englobe other elements, not the contrary.

Embedding style sheets, JavaScript in HTML documents

  • Not too sure about that, but it seems you can use a <link> tag only in the <head> section of the document.
  • Do not use <link> for JavaScript code. You must use <script src="code.js" > </script> syntax. Avoid closing the <script> tag in the same element (eg, <script />); it won't work, and will completely confuse the browser! It is maybe possible to use <link> for JS code but then the <script> tag must appear in the file (untested).

Forms

  • If you use the GET method on a form, on the action URL, don't give an URL already containing variables encoded in GET style. The browser will just rebuild the URL when you submit the form, and thus the variables will be ignored. Eg, something like:
<form action="myurl.html?myVariable=yes&myCounter=3" method="GET"><button type="submit></button></form>

won't work. If you want to pass variables and use a GET method, just create hidden input fields.

Tables

  • <div> elements are not permitted, only and .
  • The <tbody> tag is not mandatory, but the element is. This means a tbody element will be created in the DOM even if you don't specify the tags in your HTML source. Be aware of this as it can lead to subtle errors if you manipulate the DOM later.

Inner Frames (iframes)

  • DISCLAIMER: iframes are bad; do not use them if you can avoid that.
  • POSTing to an iframe from the outside is possible, see the code below:
  <iframe src='form_handler.php' frameborder="0"  name="reference_tag" />

  <form method='post' action='form_handler.php' target='reference_tag'>
      <input type='text' value='Random text'>
      <input type='submit'>
  </form>

Note that the src attribute on the iframe is not mandatory with this technique.

  • You can use an inner frame to "erase" Flash content. This is especially useful on Linux; it allows you to erase parts of a Flash to redraw dynamic HTML over it (the Flash player has a bug on Linux that normally prevents HTML content to be drawn over a Flash object). An useful link.

XHTML 1.0 & 1.1

  • Don't use the name attribute on forms, a, img or map elements. Only use id.
  • XHTML documents should be served with the MIME type "application/xhtml+xml" and NOT "text/html". If served properly as XML documents, this will cause Firefox to parse them using the XML parser, not the TagSoup parser. When served as text/html, the TagSoup parser will be used even if the document type is declared as XHTML.
  • However, currently there are lots of problems associated with XML documents. In particular, the JavaScript code document.write() does not work. This leads Script.aculo.us (for example) to fail. So actually it is almost impossible to use XML parsing.
  • Also note that IE 7 does not support "application/xhtml+xml" at all.

Validation

  • When using Firefox, be very careful of the difference between "generated source" or "simple source". The generated source is produced by Firefox, and so contains the changes brought by DHTML, Ajax etc. However, this also means that this is the source once it is reinterpreted by Firefox which may add elements or remove some...
  • Even if you save the page, it will save the source reinterpreted by Firefox. Almost the only way to obtain the source as first sent by the server is to view the source and then save it in Firefox. This of course precludes any DHTML changes.
  • So the real solution is to install a special Firefox extension for validation.

CSS

Margins, paddings and borders on a table

Margins don't seem to work at all with table elements (it would work with the table itself, though). Paddings seem to work only with elements, not . So the recommended way to specify spacings between elements in a table is through the specific 'border-spacing' property. Note that this property should be applied to the table element, not the . Note that the border property, specifying the border of the cell, should be on the contrary applied to each cell, like this: 

table.WithBorders td {border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;}

If you write this, borders will have in fact most of the time 2 pixels, because the borders will not be merged between two cells. If you want them to merge (and thus always have only 1 pixel), use border-collapse: collapse; in your table element.

You can specify certain properties to be applied to an entire column in a table (for exemple the 'border' property). However not all properties can be such applied, apparently. For example, I don't know how to apply the text-align property to an entire column (or if it is even possible).

Selectors

To apply an "AND" on a selector in CSS (for example, to apply a style to elements belonging to two classes), just repeat the normal selector, like this: 

*.first_class.second_class

This would probably also work on class and ID, etc (untested yet): 

*.first_class#my_id

To select every column in a table except the first one, use the following selector: 

tr td + td

To eliminate the first row from the selector, just add tr +: 

tr + tr td + td
  • There is no negative selector in CSS 2.1 (for example, select elements that don't have this class name). There is one in CSS 3.

Display

  • Note that display: inline; does not restrict the width whatsoever. This means that if you have a <div> element with display: inline, and a child that creates a block element like <p>, the child element will take all the place available. This will actually nullify the effect of the parent display: inline property.
  • Don't use an element that has display: inline property if it contains block children.
  • display: inline-block; is currently NOT supported on Firefox (although support is already implemented in CVS as of May 2007), and only partially supported in IE. This means: do not use it.

Absolute Positioning

  • This is done with respect to the parent element/block (the container). Thus, if you have a containing block, and inside a div with absolute positioning and bottom: 0px; it will get drawn at the bottom of the containing block. The parent block needs to have its positioning set as relative, fixed or absolute.

Floats

  • Floats don't work with absolutely or relatively positioned elements, only with those elements in the normal flow.
  • A div that is positioned to the right of a left floating block still takes the whole width that it is allowed to take. It is only its content that is positioned next to the floating block. This makes it impossible to use properties such as padding-left, they won't apply as expected. You can use a span instead of a div, or position the block as relative and use left: 25px instead of padding: 25px.

Containing Blocks

  • A containing block does not necessarily have the height of its children elements. Thus sometimes it is better to set the height on the containing block, and set the height of the child to 100% (with absolute positioning).

Widths and Heights

  • If you have an empty div, setting a width won't make it appear on the page. You will also need to set the height.

Empty Elements

  • Setting a height on an empty div will prevent Firefox from not inserting it into the DOM. This can be very useful.

Creating a box with custom borders

  • The best is to create a div with some margins. Then put inside 8 divs (if you want a complete custom box!) and set the background-position accordingly for each of the divs. The last thing is to add a last div, the content div, and set the padding in that div equal to the margin set in the outer div.

Vertical Centering

  • See here for a good article.
  • Basically the following code will work. It does require you to know the height of the block you want to center (another technique allows you to center without assigning a height to the element, but is more complex):
<div style="position: relative; height: 200px;">
    <div style="position: absolute; top: 50%; margin-top: -50px; height: 100px;">
	Hello World!
    </div>
</div>

Horizontal Centering

  • text-align: center will only work with inline elements. For block level elements you must specify a width on them and use the margin properties (margin: auto).

Forms

  • To get all form elements correctly aligned, the best is to set the width of the labels to an equal value (and to set them as floats, so this width actually applies).
  • Unfortunately, a div element floating next to input fields can mask access to these fields (making impossible to click on the field to select it). One work around is to use a span or restrict the width of the div.

Inline elements

  • You cannot force an inline element to have a given width. One workaround is to float this element.
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