Incorporating PMF into a table-based site

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skysaw
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 7:56 am

Incorporating PMF into a table-based site

Post by skysaw »

I'm looking to use PMF in a directory of an already existing, table-based site. I would like to recreate the site's look and feel in the PMF pages, and am therefore forced (AFAIK, or at least within the limits of my abilities) to use html tables instead of pure CSS.

I've run into an odd thing. So far, all I've put into index.tpl is the original site's header. In this header, certain td height and width dimensions are set by number of pixels (I know, it isn't best form according to many, but it's what I have to work with). There are also some classes and other style definitions involved (the original site has its own CSS styles, which I've placed in the PMF style.css file), but none that I can find conflict directly by name with the PMF styles, at least none involved in this snippet of HTML. Nor do I see (within my poor powers of analysis) any reasons why the two sets of styles might be interacting (as with a percentage applied on top of another percentage) to create this odd effect:

In both Firefox and IE, the table cells seem to be thicker in PMF than in the original site. That is, a td entry with height = 5px looks like 5px on one of the original site pages, but when reproduced in PMF it looks perhaps double that in height. (I choose this example because there are no line-height or font-size issues or other text-related issues that I can see, but it's still happening.)

1) Is there a known reason why this is happening, in terms of PMF's behavior in a table environment? Or do I have to dig further into the styles and table setups to try to suss this out?

2) Should I just stop now? That is, does PMF just not work well in a table environment?

3) Is there any documentation or are there particular threads in the forums (I've looked) that deal with configuring tabled PMF templates?

Thanks in advance,

Ed
Thorsten
Posts: 15758
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2001 11:14 am
Location: #phpmyfaq
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Post by Thorsten »

Hi Ed,

I've done some customized table based templates. Can you show me your current work? I could take a look at it and help you.

bye
Thorsten
phpMyFAQ Maintainer and Lead Developer
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skysaw
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 7:56 am

I'm amazed at the level of support you provide

Post by skysaw »

Thorsten, in looking through the forums the last couple of days after downloading PMF, I've been greatly impressed by how helpful you are to users. It's one of the reasons I've decided to try using PMF. Du bist ein mensch -- or however one says you're a real standup guy, as they used to say here in the States. But you have to promise not to laugh at my clumsy HTML coding. You'll recognize the first and last lines of this long snippet below. However, if you only look at the first nested <tr>:

Code: Select all

<tr>
      	<td bgcolor="#990000"><img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="100%" height="5" align="left"></td>
    	</tr>
... you'll see an example of a "thickened" <td>, where there are no CSS issues that I can see. Here's the whole thing.

Code: Select all

<body dir="{dir}">

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" >

<!-- Begin "banner" -->

  <tr>
    <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" >
  		<tr>
      	<td bgcolor="#990000"><img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="100%" height="5" align="left"></td>
    	</tr>
		</table>
	</tr>
	<tr>
    <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
      <tr> 
			  <td rowspan="3" width="1" height="100%" align="left" bgcolor="#990000">
				  <img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="100%" align="left">  
				</td>
        <td height="40" bgcolor="#990000" valign="top">
				  <img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="4" height="29" align="left">
					<div id="bannerLeft">
    		    GET PUBLISHED NOW!
					</div>

      	</td>
			  <td rowspan="3" width="1" height="100%" align="right" bgcolor="#990000">
				  <img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="100%" align="right">  
				</td>
		    <td rowspan="3" width="126" height="165" bgcolor="#990000">
			    <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
					  <tr>
  					  <td width="126" height="165">
  			        <img src="images/aliceorrphoto2.jpg" alt="Alice Orr" border="0" width="126" height="165" align="center">
  			      </td>
					  </tr>
				  </table>
			  </td>
			  <td rowspan="3" width="1" height="100%" align="right" bgcolor="#990000">
				  <img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="100%" align="right">  
				</td>
				
      </tr>
    	<tr>
    		<td height="85" bgcolor="#FFCC66">
    		  <div id="bannerCenter">
						Alice Orr
					</div>
    		</td>
      </tr>
      <tr> 
        <td height="40" bgcolor="#990000" valign="bottom">
	        <img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="4" height="29" align="left">
    			<div id="bannerRight">
    				{header}
    		  </div>
    		</td>
    	</tr>   			       	
    </table>	
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" >
  		<tr>
      	<td bgcolor="#990000"><img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="100%" height="5" align="left"></td>
    	</tr>
		</table>
	</tr>

</table>

<!-- End "banner" -->

<div id="wrapper1">
Again, thanks!

Ed
aldo
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:39 pm

Post by aldo »

we have a simlar issue we are trying to remove the right hand colum completely from our pmf installation as we have no need for it.

Would it be better to try to recreate the template in tables or could yo please point us in the right direction for how to ammend the column numbers in pmf
Thorsten
Posts: 15758
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2001 11:14 am
Location: #phpmyfaq
Contact:

Post by Thorsten »

Hi,

we can build a costum layout for you if you like. For more informations just write a mail.

bye
Thorsten
phpMyFAQ Maintainer and Lead Developer
amazon.de Wishlist
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