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CSS - Practicallity Of Sprites, Sliding Doors, Suckerfish Etc.
In the past year or two I've been playing with CSS layout techniques, and have grown to the point where I consistently use CSS instead of tables. I'm all for it. But as much as I love them, some of the trendy practices seem to be a little impractical - particularly sliding doors, sprites and the suckerfish dropdowns.
With sprites, I can see the benefits of having fewer HTTP requests and having all rollover images in one file. With suckerfish dropdowns, it's definitely nice to have the navigation and subnavigation organized into lists. Sliding doors can certainly save a lot of bandwidth and load time, and make editing graphical navigation much easier. I'm sure all of these are terrific from SEO and accessibility standpoints, too. But the code for these techniques seems extremely convoluted and bloated. My personal experience with suckerfish dropdowns and sprites both are that they require hacks to get them to work smoothly in browsers as recent as IE6. After all is said and done, there's actually more code required to attain the same functionality that could be achieved using HTML and JavaScript. I'm curious to see what input everyone has. I'd love to justify styling unordered lists into sliding door dropdown nav tabs with sprite backgrounds, just because I have so much fun doing it. But is it really practical? Similar TutorialsMy first new thread here! Hoping for some quick review and suggestions - any input is much appreciated. I have a site in the *early* stages of development and I'm using the "sliding doors" technique for tabbed navigation. Not sure if I'm allowed to post links, so below are some code snippets and I've also attached a screenshot. The nav container (#nav) temporarily has a yellow background just as a clear visual cue and it is not positioned on the page yet - so forgive the ugliness! - but the code for the actual tab effects is complete, or so I thought. CSS: Code:
/* horizontal main menu navigation */
#nav {
float:left;
width: 100%;
background: yellow; /*temporary color just for visual cue */
}
#nav ul {
margin: 0;
padding: 0 0 0 300px;
list-style: none;
}
#nav ul li {
float: left;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
font: bold 1em/2em Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
background: url(images/tab_right.gif) no-repeat top right;
}
#nav a {
float: left;
display: block;
margin: 0 10px 0 0;
padding: 5px 2px;
color: #fff;
text-decoration: none;
background: #284d73 url(images/tab_left.gif) no-repeat top left;
}
HTML: Code: <div id="nav"> <ul> <li id="t-index"><a href="/" title="Gonzi's home page">HOME</a></li> <li id="t-about"><a href="#" title="About Us">ABOUT US</a></li> <li id="t-services"><a href="#" title="Our Services">OUR SERVICES</a></li> <li id="t-fleet"><a href="#" title="Our Fleet">FLEET</a></li> <li id="t-reserve"><a href="#" title="Reservations">RESERVATIONS</a></li> </ul> <!-- end #nav --> </div> Problem is two fold: 1. The 'a' elements are styled to 'display: block' to make the entire tab clickable, yet it isn't actually rendering this way, and I'm at a loss to explain why. Perhaps something obvious I'm just missing... 2. The 'tab_right.gif' background image (in 'li' elements) and the 'tab_left.gif' background image (in the 'a' elements) don't appear to be meeting up correctly, leaving an area with no image. Again, no idea why and I'm hoping a 2nd pair of eyes may find something I'm missing... If it would help to see the actual implementation, I can send a URL - just let me know how to get that to you (email?). Thanks for any suggestions! luispunchy So my webpage is using a sliding doors type navigation bar while also implementing a php includes in the content area. One of the problems here is on showing the "selected" or "you are currently here" state of a navigation button. Normally, it seems you would simply specify the class of the li element that corresponds to the page the user is on as "selected". However in this case, the navigation code is in the index.php and therefore constant and unchanging. So how would I implement this feature on my website? I've tried using javascript to manually change the styles, but either thats not possible or I have no idea what I'm doing. I realize my post may not be very clear as I am not sure how else to explain it. I will gladly clarify. Thanks! I am constructing a website using the sliding doors navigation (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/slidingdoors/ and http://www.alistapart.com/articles/slidingdoors2/). I have gone through both articles to successfully create the sliding doors naviagiton that I require. My header image that I wish to place behind the navigation is 780px wide by 263px high. Therefor, I will be placing this navigation at the bottom (baseline) of this image. I have increased my header div size to fit the image (780px x 263px). Then I have padded the navigation to try to make it position on the bottom of the image (padding-top: 236px). Unfortunatly, doing this give a 1px padding difference for IE and Firefox. IE shows it up fine, but Firefox does not. Firefox makes it look like its spaced 1px to many. If i decrease the padding to 235px, Firefox looks fine but IE displays it with 1px to less...I dont want to have to result to browser dependant css, but all hacks are welcome. Heres the code: Code:
body {
text-align: center;
background-color: #7999E4
}
#header{
width: 780px;
background: url('images/head.gif') repeat-x bottom;
font-size: 93%;
line-height: normal;
height: 263px;
padding: 0;
margin:0;
border:0;
}
#main {
background-color: #ffffff;
width: 780px;
height: 500px;
}
#nav2 {
background-color: #e7e7e7;
width: 100%;
border-bottom: 1px solid #000;
height: 20px;
}
#header ul {
margin: 0;
padding:0;
padding-top: 236px;
padding-left: 10px;
list-style: none;
}
#header li {
display:inline;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
#header a {
float: left;
background: url('images/left_both.gif') no-repeat left top;
margin: 0;
padding: 0 0 0 9px;
border-bottom: 1px solid #765;
text-decoration: none;
}
#header a span{
float: left;
display: block;
background: url('images/right_both.gif') no-repeat right top;
padding: 5px 15px 4px 6px;
font-weight: bold;
color: #765;
}
/* Commented Backslash Hack
hides rule from IE5-Mac \*/
#header a span{float: none;}
/* End IE5-Mac hack*/
#header a:hover span{
color: #333;
}
#header #current a{
border-width: 0;
background-position: 0% -150px;
}
#header #current a span{
background-position: 100% -150px;
padding-bottom:5px;
color: #333;
}
#header a:hover {
background-position:0% -150px;
}
#header a:hover span {
background-position:100% -150px;
}
Code:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE></TITLE>
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="">
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="">
<link title="Style" href="style2.css" type="text/css" rel="STYLESHEET">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<center>
<div id="header">
<ul>
<li><a href="#"><span>Home</span></a></li>
<li id="current"><a href="#"><span>Properties</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#"><span>Quick Searches</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#"><span>Holidays</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#"><span>Contact</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="main">
<div id="nav2"></div>
</div>
<div id="footer">
</div>
</body>
</html>
Hi, does anyone know how to do sliding doors where the "a" element is active rather than the "li"? I'm using drupal, and it makes the "a" element active, and I'm having a hard time porting the code over... Trying to figure how how to turn my nav bar into where if you hover over one of the parts of the nav bar it turns into the highlighted version of that part. Web Site: http://kansasoutlawwrestling.com/v3/index.php Nav Bar: http://kansasoutlawwrestling.com/v3/images/nav.png Highlighted Nav Bar: http://kansasoutlawwrestling.com/v3/images/nav2.png Dear Friends I implemented the css sprites in my application.css sprites working well in all browser except IE 6 and IE 7.I cannot know i do it .Please Help me.......... My CSS File .follow_us_blogger { background: no-repeat url('/design/csssprites/follow_us.png') 0 0px; width: 100px; height: 31px;} MY HTML page <div class="follow_us_blogger"><div> Hello, I'm having an issue with sprites. I have a few images on my hompage (not a menu), and when a user hover over those images, the image will swap with another one. Here is the HTML Code: <table width="100%" border="0"> <tr> <td align="center"> <a id="sw_sN_facebook" href="social-networking.php"></a> </td> <td align="center"> <a id="sw_sN_myspace" href="social-networking.php"></a> </td> <td align="center"> <a id="sw_sN_flickr" href="social-networking.php"></a> </td> <td align="center"> <a id="sw_sN_twitter" href="social-networking.php"></a> </td> </tr> </table> And here is the CSS Quote: #sw_sN_facebook, a#sw_sN_facebook, a#sw_sN_facebook:link, a#sw_sN_facebook:visited, a#sw_sN_facebook:active{ background:url(../images/logo-social.png) 0 0 no-repeat; width: 101px; height: 20px; } a#sw_sN_facebook:hover{ background:url(../images/logo-social.png) 0 -20px no-repeat; } #sw_sN_myspace, a#sw_sN_myspace, a#sw_sN_myspace:link, a#sw_sN_myspace:visited, a#sw_sN_myspace:active{ background:url(../images/logo-social.png) -101px 0 no-repeat; width: 78px; height: 20px; } a#sw_sN_myspace:hover{ background:url(../images/logo-social.png) -101px -20px no-repeat; } #sw_sN_flickr, #sw_sN_flickr a, #sw_sN_flickr a:link, #sw_sN_flickr a:visited, #sw_sN_flickr a:active{ background:url(../images/logo-social.png) -179px 0 no-repeat; width: 72px; height: 20px; } #sw_sN_flickr a:hover{ background:url(../images/logo-social.png) -179px -20px no-repeat; } #sw_sN_twitter, #sw_sN_twitter a, #sw_sN_twitter a:link, #sw_sN_twitter a:visited, #sw_sN_twitter a:active{ background:url(../images/logo-social.png) -251px 0 no-repeat; width: 86px; height: 20px; } #sw_sN_twitter a:hover{ background:url(../images/logo-social.png) -251px -20px no-repeat; } For a better understanding, here is the homepage: www.lightblu.com The problem: Nothing displays. Now I've tried many different codes, and the best result I had was to display all the images like they should, but they're not hyperlinked, and they don't swap images on mouse over. Please help Thanks So, I have an app that allows the user to select images from a list of thumbnails. The thumbnails have an 'on' and 'off' state, but also have a drop shadow. I can get the drop shadow to render nicely in IE6 using a PNG hack, but I can't seem to find a hack that will allow me to use a PNG sprite so I can have the on and off state in the same image. Any suggestions would be great. I've got a problem with my sprites in IE6. I'm not sure if this is a simple fix, or just something I can't fix, but an extensive search online produces no meaningful results. Code: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Testing Sprites</title>
<style type="text/css">
h1 {height:24px; width:25px; font-size:14px; padding-left:30px;}
#hd2 {background:url(images/sprite-popHelpH1.jpg) 0 0 no-repeat;}
#hd2 {background:url(images/sprite-popHelpH1.jpg) 0 -24px no-repeat;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1 id="hd1">Hello World!</h1>
<h1 id="hd2">Hello World!</h1>
</body>
</html>
Unexpected IE6 Expected IE7 and FF3 Obviously the FF3 one isn't 100% how I would like it, but that isn't issue i'm trying to deal with. Clearly IE6 is expanding the entire H1's height past what I specified in the CSS, as where IE7 and FF3 listen to me and wrapped text flow outside the height I specified. Anyhow, thanks very much for any help! In my website (geotool.flagfox.net) I have a drop-down menu which allows people to change to locale of the website. If you look at this menu you can see that I have placed flags next to each country, but as I now have 35 different languages I don't really want to load 35 separate images (especially as most visitors never even look at this menu). Is there a way of using CSS sprites for this? I've made a small test website to make it easier to look at this: test.rleeden.no-ip.com. You can see that I can successfully use a CSS sprite image in the main body, but I've not been able to achieve the same affect in the select menu. Or alternatively somehow make it that the images are only downloaded if the menu is shown?? Any advice or help most welcome. Richard Hi guys I have been reading about sprites and CSS. The fact you can load an image that contains all the state the image can have on hovers is excactly what i am looking for. also the fact that you can do it without javascript makes it even better. But i have a problem that i need to create a menu, where the text turn blue on hover. Here it is (danish text): As far as I know, I need to map all areas the with polygon to make the links work. And then apply sprite functionality. But I haven't seen any 'sprites and maps' tutorials, so I am beginning to think that it cant be done with CSS. But before I give up, I would like to ask you if it can be done, and maybe give me some tutorial link or suggestions. I have tried to do some tutorials, so I think I have the basic idea. Thanks in advance Hi I have been making a world map with hover tooltip effects using css sprites. it works fine on ff and chrome but in ie and opera it is messed up. everything checks out to be valid xhtml and i get no errors listed anywhere. i have heard some issues with older versions of those browsers but my ie is 7 and my opera is 9. i based my map on this tutorial so css is the same except for positioning. http://www.alistapart.com/articles/sprites also the master image is 800 wide and 1224 tall, maybe that is a problem? i ma stuck and dont know what is wrong could anybody take a look and offer some advice to what is wrong or offer a suggestion? thanks, the map i ma referring to can be found at: travelmagoo.com I can't see it working (and in practice it hasn't). Surely the background position needs to be fixed as the image is not scalable. I hope I am right on this or it's back to the drawing board. I am working on a website for a client and I am having trouble following A List Apart's tutorial (I can't link yet). I have a working css dropdown menu using a css sprite. But what I am trying to do, is when you mouse over a dropdown and go down the dropdown, that the parent menu remains at it's hover state. Currently what is happening is as soon as I mouseout of the parent level it goes back to the normal state. I don't really want to post the link to the test site itself if I don't have to for client privacy. Please help! I'm getting way too frustrated now, I've look at so many examples and nothing seems to work. I don't even need the javascript, I just need it to work. I've experimented with javascript and without. This is the code I am using: javascript: Code:
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
startList = function() {
if (document.all&&document.getElementById) {
menuRoot = document.getElementById("menu");
for (i=0; i<menuRoot.childNodes.length; i++) {
node = menuRoot.childNodes[i];
if (node.nodeName=="LI") {
node.onmouseover=function() {
this.className+=" over";
}
node.onmouseout=function() {
this.className=this.className.replace(" over", "");
}
}
}
}
}
window.onload=startList;
//->
</script>
HTML Markup: Code: <div id="nav"> <ul id="menu"> <li><a href="index.php" class="home"></a></li> <li><a href="link" class="tour"></a></li> <li><a href="link" class="events"></a> <ul class="drop"> <li><a href="/events/calendar">Calendar</a></li> <li><a href="/events">Ag Science Hall of Fame</a></li> <li><a href="/events/tastes">TASTES</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="news" class="news">News</a> <ul class="drop"> <li><a href="link">Legislation</a></li> <li><a href="news/latest-news">Latest News</a></li> <li><a href="/news/newsletter">Newsletter</a></li> <li><a href="news/in-the-media">In the Media</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="link"></a></li> <li><a href="link"></a></li> </ul> </div> Menu CSS: Code: #nav {
position: relative;
float:left;
width:940px;
height:35px;
z-index: 9;
background: #fff;
}
#menu, #menu ul {
position: relative;
padding:0;
margin:0;
clear:both;
float:left;
width:455px;
z-index: 9;
}
#menu ul.drop {
background:#520006;
/* padding:10px;*/
width:inherit;
clear:both;
float:left;
margin-top:35px;
z-index: 9;
}
#menu ul.drop li {
width: 130px;
clear:both;
padding: 5px;
z-index: 9;
}
#menu ul.drop li:hover {
background: #c10101;
z-index: 9;
}
#menu ul.drop a {
color:#fff;
font-size:11px;
text-decoration:none;
font-weight:normal;
clear:both;
float:left;
z-index: 9;
}
#menu a {
display: block;
/*width: 10em;*/
float:left;
clear:both;
width:130px;
}
#menu li {
float: left;
/*width: 10em;*/
}
#menu li ul {
position: absolute;
width: 10em;
left: -999em;
z-index: 9;
}
#menu li:hover ul {
left: auto;
}
#menu li:hover ul, #menu li.sfhover ul {
left: auto;}
/*SPRITE BACKGROUP POSITIONING*/
#menu li a.home, #menu li a.tour, #menu li a.events, #menu li a.news, #menu li a.donate, #menu li a.involved, #menu li a.resources, #menu li a.about, #menu li a.contact {
float:left;
background:url('images/menu.jpg') no-repeat;
height:35px;
text-indent:-999999px;
}
#menu li a.home:hover, #menu li a.home.over {background-position: 0px -35px;}
#menu li a.home {width: 62px;}
#menu li a.tour:hover {background-position: -62px -35px;}
#menu li a.tour {width: 63px; background-position: -62px 0px;}
#menu li a.events:hover, #menu li a.events.hover {background-position: -125px -35px;}
#menu li a.events {width: 101px; background-position: -125px 0px;}
#menu li a.news:hover {background-position: -226px -35px;}
#menu li a.news {width: 80px; background-position: -226px 0px;}
#menu li a.donate:hover {background-position: -306px -35px;}
#menu li a.donate {width: 75px; background-position: -306px 0px;}
#menu li a.involved:hover {background-position: -381px -35px;}
#menu li a.involved {width: 74px; background-position: -381px 0px;}
ul {list-style: none;}
Hi, Instead of organising an image sprite as follows: image image image image image image i'm wondering if there are any negative effects to organising the images in a linear fashion as follows image image image image image image I know that Flash will only render images that are a certain width or height but is there any such limitations when using css sprites? Thanks Hi, Can anyone help me. I am using a son of suckerfish dropdown menu on a joomla 1.5 site I am working on. laminatefabricators.com The menu is dropping down fine on all of my browsers (apple mac: safari, camino, firefox). & are fine on firefox for pc. The menus aren't displaying at all on Internet explorer. Please help... I have wasted so much time trying to fix it/find a fix. Hey Everyone! I'm having issues with a custom sliding panel showing correctly in IE. It works EXACTLY as I'd like in Firefox, but breaks in Internet Explorer. I tried different positioning items, and tweaking everything I could think of, but it would appear that I'm stumped. knockoutsadvertising[dot]com/gaptest/ In the right hand sidebar, clicking 'Learn More' will open the panel. There's a link within the panel to close it again. Any help on how to get this thing positioned correctly in IE would be awesome. Brad I've messed with this for a couple days now. I can't seem to get it to do what I need it to. Any help would be much appreciated I need to add a 3rd column to the menu My code between the body and /body tags I marked the place I need the 3rd column with: *** ( Need to add a 3rd column for the filters ) *** Code: <ul id="nav"> <li><a href="#">Home</a> </li> <li><a href="#">Maps</a> </li> <li><a href="history.php">History</a> </li> <li><a href="#">Contractors We Recommend</a> </li> <li><a href="#">Products We Recommend</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Pool Accessories</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Pool Accessories</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Accessories</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Accessories</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Accessories</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Accessories</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#">Pool Chemicals</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Pool Chemicals</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Chemicals</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Chemicals</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Chemicals</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Chemicals</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#">Pool Filters</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Pool Filters</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Filters</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Filters</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Filters</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pool Filters</a></li> </ul> </li> *** ( Need to add a 3rd column for the filters ) *** <li><a href="#">Pool Heaters</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Hayward</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pentair</a></li> <li><a href="#">Sta-Rite</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#">Pool Motors</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Pool Motors</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#">Pool Sweeps</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Hayward</a></li> <li><a href="#">Pentair</a></li> <li><a href="#">Sta-Rite</a></li> </ul> </li> <div id="content"> </div> Thanks for any help! If you are having problems with Son of Suckerfish and IE7, where the drop down menu will not disappear like it should. Take out the javascript because you do not need it with IE7, but if you still want IE6 to work then put it in. For IE7, you need to add Code: *:first-child+html #nav {
height: 1%;
}
*:first-child+html #nav li {
height: 1%;
}
to your css and you will be fine. Don't ask me why, Don't ask how, i just chalk it up to just IE Hi, q1)I can't move the menu to the right without problems as i set a margin on #headlinks2 and the links get cluttered? Code:
#headlinks2 {
height:25px;
}
#headlinks2 a {
color:green;
display: block;
text-decoration:none;
width: 100px;
font-size:13pt;
padding-right:5px;
//margin-left:205px;
}
#headlinks2 a:hover {
color: white;
}
#headlinks2, #headlinks2 ul {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
list-style: none;
}
#headlinks2 li {
float: left;
width: 100px;
}
#headlinks2 li ul {
position: absolute;
width: 100px;
left: -999em;
}
#headlinks2 li:hover ul {
left: auto;
}
#headlinks2 li:hover ul, #headlinks2 li.sfhover ul {
left: auto;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
sfHover = function() {
var sfEls = document.getElementById("nav").getElementsByTagName("LI");
for (var i=0; i<sfEls.length; i++) {
sfEls[i].onmouseover=function() {
this.className+=" sfhover";
}
sfEls[i].onmouseout=function() {
this.className=this.className.replace(new RegExp(" sfhover\\b"), "");
}
}
}
if (window.attachEvent) window.attachEvent("onload", sfHover);
</script>
//html
<div id="headlinks2">
<li><a href="#">Percoidei</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Remoras</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Tilefishes</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Bluefishes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#">Anabant</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Climbing perches</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Labyrinthfishes</a></li>
<li><a href="#">mex</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#">Percoidei</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Remoras</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Tilefishes</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Bluefishes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#">Anabant</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Climbing perches</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Labyrinthfishes</a></li>
<li><a href="#">mex</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#">Percoidei</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Remoras</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Tilefishes</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Bluefishes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<!-- etc. -->
</div>
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