Blank side box issue

[kuroi]

When I look at the XHTML being generated for this page, it reads

<p></p>Get an instant 10% discount for opening an account. A "10% off your first purchase" coupon will be emailed to you as soon as you create a new account. Simply go to the "<a href="https://robertensing.com/index.php?main_page=login">Log In</a>" page and create a new account.

Those empty paragraph tags at the beginning are what is causing your unwanted space. I suspect you meant to wrap the paragraph tags around the text.

[Rob905]

When I look at the XHTML being generated for this page, it reads

<p></p>Get an instant 10% discount for opening an account. A "10% off your first purchase" coupon will be emailed to you as soon as you create a new account. Simply go to the "<a href="https://robertensing.com/index.php?main_page=login">Log In</a>" page and create a new account.

Those empty paragraph tags at the beginning are what is causing your unwanted space. I suspect you meant to wrap the paragraph tags around the text.

Actually, the only paragraph tags left are the ones in the heading and the gap is still there.
All I did was follow the directions and put the text exactly where your instructions told me to put the text.
Here is the actual code as it is now:
.
.
$content .= '<p>' . Instant_10%_Discount . '</p>';
$content .= 'Get an instant 10% discount for opening an account. A "10% off your first purchase" coupon will be emailed to you as soon as you create a new account. Simply go to the "<a href="https://robertensing.com/index.php?main_page=login">Log In</a>" page and create a new account.';

$content .= '</div>';
?>

[kuroi]

The header text is actually being picked up from your language file, not from the bit of code that you have just posted.

That code is invalid. and everything between the paragraph tags is being ignored, which is why you get an empty paragraph.

Upon reflection, though it would probably be a good idea to wrap your other text in paragraph tags as although not strictly necessary, Internet Explorer prefers it and some of the bugs in version 6 are associated with text wrapped in div tags only.

[Rob905]

The header text is actually being picked up from your language file, not from the bit of code that you have just posted.

That code is invalid. and everything between the paragraph tags is being ignored, which is why you get an empty paragraph.

Upon reflection, though it would probably be a good idea to wrap your other text in paragraph tags as although not strictly necessary, Internet Explorer prefers it and some of the bugs in version 6 are associated with text wrapped in div tags only.

I'm confused.
The file that has that info is located in my ../templates/MY_TEMPLATE/sideboxes/tpl_blank_sidebox.php and with or without the <p></p> tags the space is there.
In the laguage file there is a header and some text, but none of that is showing up on the site. That file is located at ../languages/english/extradefinitions/blank_sidebox_defines.php

[kuroi]

Unless you have changed code in the template that you're not showing us, the header for the blank sidebox is held in the constant BOX_HEADING_BLANK_SIDEBOX, which is output between header tags by tpl_blank_sidebox.php and defined in blank_sidebox_defines.php.

The line

$content .= '<p>' . Instant_10%_Discount . '</p>';

is causing most of your blank space since you have no constant defined called Instant_10%_Discount and so this is treated as NULL by PHP. To satisfy yourself that this is not the text being output, I suggest that you form it correctly i.e.

$content .= '<p>Instant_10%_Discount</p>';

and you will see that it duplicates the text in the title.

When that line is then deleted, most of the space at the top will disappear. You'll still have some, and it will be equal at the top and the bottom of the box. If you wish to eliminate it, you would add the following to your stylesheet no earlier than line 140:

#blanksideboxContent p {padding: 0 0.5em}

[Rob905]

Unless you have changed code in the template that you're not showing us, the header for the blank sidebox is held in the constant BOX_HEADING_BLANK_SIDEBOX, which is output between header tags by tpl_blank_sidebox.php and defined in blank_sidebox_defines.php.

The line is causing most of your blank space since you have no constant defined called Instant_10%_Discount and so this is treated as NULL by PHP. To satisfy yourself that this is not the text being output, I suggest that you form it correctly i.e. and you will see that it duplicates the text in the title.

Than'ts exactly what happened and showed me that the title was defined in a different file, I just happened to have the same text in two files (although one was ignored until I put in the correct codes.)
Looks like I have it figured out now, thanks

When that line is then deleted, most of the space at the top will disappear. You'll still have some, and it will be equal at the top and the bottom of the box. If you wish to eliminate it, you would add the following to your stylesheet no earlier than line 140:

If I decide to add this to my style sheet, what tag whould I use, "BOX_HEADING_BLANK_SIDEBOX" ?

Thanks again.

[gjh42]

No, BOX_HEADING_BLANK_SIDEBOX is a PHP constant, not an HTML tag.

What you would add to your stylesheet is exactly what Kuroi posted:

#blanksideboxContent p {padding: 0 0.5em}