Shop layout mashed in netscape since my upgrade

[kevin_a]

I recently upgraded from1.3. 5 to 1.3.7
In the former, both netscape and IE were displaying well, but since upgrade, netscape is doing wierdness.

ie in netscape:
nav bar at top not show home/login, but is showing search which I dont want.
Width is dynamic, so spreads to 100%, not 786px as in IE
Background colour of centre column is green, not white.

http://www.pennyfarthinggallery.co.uk/shop/index.php

I dont really understand why this should now misbehave whereas formerly it didnt.
Any suggestions where to look appreciated.
Kevin_a

[Sketchy]

For starters, you can't make comment statements like so:

<!--ka-edit removed whole section to clear away nav bar at the top   bof-eofnavigation display-----------put back 14 may------------------------------------------->

Waaaayy to many dashes at the ends and middles. You can probably go as far as this:

<!--ka-edit removed whole section to clear away nav bar at the top   bof-eofnavigation display-put back 14 may-->

For your search box, make sure all instances are set accordingly in the Layout Boxes Controller. Specifically, the "sideboxes/search_header.php" should be single column status - OFF.

[kevin_a]

Thanks sketchy
I got rid of the search box by following that suggestion

As for the dashes! I put these into comment on edits to help me scan the code quickly and locate where I have personally made changes.
I read that ANYTHING inside a comment was ignored by the browser etc, so didnt think it would affect anything. I still dont undestand why a comment string can have 'x' no. of words, but not the same no. of the any other text input. I''ll have to find another way to tag my edits for quick retrieval.

Ive still got the problem that the text in the ezpages header bar text is now black in netscape, and the center panel is the same as the body colour, which doesnt happen in IE.
and

the whole page is left align in Netscape, and center in IE with the exception of the top navigation bar.


This was sorted before upgrading.
Any pointers appreciated
cheers

[Sketchy]

As far as comment tags go, it's a non issue about the amount of text in between the start and finish.. the start and end tags are part of compliance rules. Sometimes, you just can't bend the rules. Don't take my word on it though, Google "comment tags" for CSS, (X)HTML, PHP, and Java. It's important to gain knowledge on those types of things.

I saw them in your rendered page source, so I don't know of their exact locations. Here nor there, they are fudging browsers out there. I know it's a handy reference, but they have to be done right and within each files.. there are good examples of how they should be implemented.

-As I mentioned before, your comment lines are messing up the page in Firefox and whatever other browser. IE is notorious for not being compliant to web standards, but I'm simply amazed how it slides errors through. Well, I guess I'm not that amazed. The only way to align the page is to remedy those comments, one way or another. Either fix them or delete them.

-For the text and body color problems.. I'll have to get back to you on that, your stylesheet failed validation. So, I have to look through it and see where the errors are.

[kevin_a]

Thanks sketchy

Ive trawled my edited files, checked the comment entries, and amended to remove proliferation of ---------'s. I had't 'counted them as 'making changes', so didnt think to look there.

Netscape has forgiven with good humour, and restored the layout!!
Now,........if I can just separate out those ezpages and nav bar css entries to get the text white again, I'll be back at square one, not square one minus some.

Thanks again.

[Sketchy]

You're welcome.

So did Firefox, things are looking up.

How's your stylesheet coding coming along? There's a lot of errors and it should be upgraded to the 1.3.7 version. I may download your current stylesheet, run it for errors after you are done with it.

[kevin_a]

"your stylesheet ...There's a lot of errors and it should be upgraded to the 1.3.7 version"

Oh my.

I didnt realise that the stylesheet was changed between1.3.5 to 1.3.7
I gathered that when upgrading, the core files were changed, and I then only needed to ftp my CUSTOM css(and other custom files in overrides) to recover the appearance of the site, and that was it.
If the style sheet is changed with each version, do I need to trawl through it each time, and reedit the changes I made in a previous version( always assuming I can identify them all!)?
What with learning,building, upgrading, preparing to transfer from an unhelpful host, I feel I'm about to disappear up my own website

I am very grateful for your responding nevertheless.
cheers

[Sketchy]

Unfortunately, every custom template may be affected. Tis true about a need for the current 1.3.7 stylesheet upgrade. However, if you haven't installed too many mods, then it's not so bad. I'm assuming that all you have in your current template folder are the images and stylesheets, so you aren't too badly off. That is, if you haven't applied many core mods to the cart itself.

Not to worry. In the matter of upgrading your stylesheet, it's really only a matter of adding some new code.. not much else. When I have time, I'll set your stylesheet straight.

[kevin_a]

Thanks again Sketchy
I found the gremlin in the stylesheet messing up the top nav bar.
A floating random hyphen in the line preceding the selector for #navMain ul li a was preventing the browser reading this block.
delete hyphen -problem solved!
bet wishes
kevin_a

[Sketchy]

Well Sir, you seem to have a handle on everything. You're welcome, but you're doing well all the same. I'm always here to lend a hand and a spare set of eyes, if need be.

You can validate all your code here:

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

http://validator.w3.org/

Those links are pretty handy to get a head's up about problems or potential problems to be.