9 replies to this topic

[smc_online]

I recently deployed a personal website designed completely in CSS. When setting up hosting, I choose Unix for the price. When I FTP the files to the production folder, the pages were not rendering correctly. After a number of attempts at correcting my CSS files, I resolved to making bandaid corrections using tables. The bandaid is working, but I prefer a CSS site so I am planning on switching to a .Net hosting.

I am wondering if one of the technical gurus could tell me if my issue is related to the server technology or not. If not, what should I have done to make it work properly?

[Michael Martinez]

The operating system you use should have absolutely no impact on how the pages appear, unless your CSS files are corrupted during the upload process. I think that's highly unlikely.

Your page rendering is handled completely by the browser. Each browser is a little different, and of course users may have different screen resolutions, different connection speeds, etc. that may impact the way the pages look for them.

While there is no reason not to use tables for page layout, CSS now has extensive layout capabilities that tables don't offer. If you feel like you're compromising your design concept by resorting to tables, you really should find out why the CSS isn't working. Most often it's a coding issue.

Warning: This thread could turn into a "CSS is better than tables" diatribe. Hopefully it won't. Your issue is clear to me: You wanted to use CSS for your design. You should be able to do that without having to resort to tables if you don't want to use them.

[Jill]

I'm confused as to why you think you can't use CSS on a unix host?

It works with any type of hosting.

[piskie]

Does the CSS work at all or is it part working with some display quirks ??

[Randy]

As a shot completely in the dark...

Check using WebBug one of the other HTTP Header Checkers to make sure the server isn't set up to deliver anything strange that doesn't appear in your code. Look for headers being delivered and that type of thing.

It has nothing to do with Unix or IIS, but Apache can be set up to do things that you might not necessarily want it to do.

[projectphp]

Or the CSS could be incorrect. When at home, you likely have you images ina folder like c:\website projects\thebigone\images. It is possible that the CSS editor you use has appended all that information into the CSS, and this is causing issues. It is also likely that the CSS is called incorrectly (usng an incorrect path).

The trick in diagnosis is to know what is actually happenning. Download Firefox, and get the extension Firebug: http://getfirebug.com/, and see what files are being downloaded, which redirect, what issues are caused etc etc.

Diagnosis always starts with information, and with the tremendous Firefox extensions, information si alway rigth at hand.

[smc_online]

Michael - Yes you are correct in your message. "wanted to use CSS for your design ...without having to resort to tables if you don't want to use them."

Jill - I had never had this "display" problem before and guessed it might be the hosting environment.

piskie - It is part working with some display quirks.

Randy - I will run it through WebBug and see what I get in response. Based on the feedback I am leaning towards a flaw in my code that I have to find. But its worth checking to be sure. Thanks for the tip!

projectphp - I agree that the CSS could be incorrect. I dont use a CSS editor (I use notepad), but I do use Dreamweaver to put my web pages together. I love Dreamweaver and never had this problem before, but I did throw the site together rather quickly (one day's time) so I am not surprise if my code is faulty.

Thanks everyone for all the thoughtful replies!

[Randy]

If you code CSS like I code CSS, check for a missing ; or a ( instead of a { or a ) instead of a } somewhere. I hate when one of those happens somewhere, especially if it's a large css file!

[smc_online]

check for a missing ; or a ( instead of a { or a ) instead of a } somewhere.

Trust me, the way I coded this site (while burning the midnight oil ), anything could be wrong or missing from the code!

[Edvin Eshagh]

Unix is case sensitive.
Make sure that your filenames have the same casing as what you've typed in the html page. Otherwise, the server will respond with 404 (page not found) and your page will look "broken"