Problem correctly displaying custom content module

[HiTekJeff]

Hello,

I'm having trouble displaying a custom content page in all of my pages. Here's the details:

All pages except for "home page" is set to "HTML" type.

I have turned OFF the process module wrapper on all those pages.

The HTML page will display everything OK, including images and my custom CSS tags. It will NOT display the table border color defaulting to no color at all and the BIG issue is -- it does NOT display extra tables inside the table I am displaying. In other words, I have a standard HTML file and it will only display the center content table, any tables inside that table are not displayed. So, my nest tables (tables within tables) don't show up at all. I CAN SEE THEM FOR 1 SEC ON FIRST PAGE LOAD, THEN NOTHING.

I have checked my setting and I think they are all OK. But I can't seem to figure out what's going wrong with the HTML code displaying the tables, table color and table border color.

NOTE: My table borders and everything appears just fine for the vBAdvanced tables on the left and right using the "style" I have defined in vB. It's just the custom HTML file having trouble displaying it's tables and table colors. I can't show an example because it will look OK (except you will notice no table border color) unless you see the code. Also, IT DISPLAYS JUST FINE IN DREAMWEAVER USING THE SAME CODE, JUST NOT vBAdvanced.

Any help is appreciated.

Jeff

[Brian]

Can you post a link to that CMPS page, along with the HTML file you're including?

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[HiTekJeff]

Brian:

I sent a support ticked because I couldn't find the answer in the forum that was specific to what I'm seeing. Anyway, I have no links right now because I'm just setting up the site as a test server. Will need to contact main site admin people to get that info.

If a must, I'll try to post what you asked for later today. Let me know if fully required and I'll try to get things going. I can however post the basic HTML code I'm using to display in the custom content module. Like I said, very simple, just not displaying right.

Thank you.

[HiTekJeff]

Brian:

The best way to show you is to attach images. One says vBA_issue.jpg is the error on how all HTML pages appear inside vBA. Outside vBA called from a browser it displays correct. NOTE: I tried to put the cursor arrow next to the table that does not appear and is in the one outside vBA. Also, notice the table border color is missing from the vBA version too compared to the one called from a browser outside vBA.

One last thing, the reason the 2 files look different is the one in the web browser outside vBA has no head or body code, it's just all the HTML code of that content table. It's also the reason why the image in the "blue" table at the bottom does not show up, the path is not adjust yet (so the image place holder is not an error).

Thanks for any thoughts.

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[Brian]

The only thing I can assume is that you're missing some style tags or something like that. Can't really tell without being able to see the actual files and source code though.

[HiTekJeff]

Brian,

Here's the code you asked for. Note that I don't think anything is missing though since it displays OK outside of vBA. Otherwise if it was the HTML then it would display the same both ways, or at least I'm assuming it would.

Notice the bottom of the code where the table has the bg color and place for my "top" image holder. This is the code I pointed out in the photos that doesn't show up. Also, my entire table border does not appear in color at all and you can tell it's there in the HTML tags. It seems that nesting tables doesn't work well? Works OK like I said outside vBA though.

Thanks.

<table width="100%" border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#ABCDEF">
<tr>
<td valign="top"> <table width="100%" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="10" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td><div align="center">
<h2><img src="images/main/about_us.gif" width="170" height="35"><a name="pagetop"></a></h2>
</div></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" align="center">
<tr>
<td><p class="paragraphheadingstyle"><u><font color="ABCDEF"><strong>Who
We Are:</strong></font></u></p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="30">
<tr>
<td width="50%"><div align="center"></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p class="textbody">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="textbody">If at any time you need anything or
I may be of service in some way, please don't hesitate
to contact me. I welcome everyone to share their thoughts
and input.</p>
<p class="textbody"><br>
Best Regards,<br>
</p>
<p><br>
Jeff Hall<br>
Owner/Founder<br>
<br>
</p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#ABCDEF">
<tr>
<td><div align="center"><a href="#pagetop"><img src="/images/main/top_small.gif" width="100" height="30" border="0"></a></div></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table>

Here's another display issue I'm having:


<hr color="990033" width="100%" size="5"><div align="center">


This is just a simple horizontal rule with a color specified. Everything appears OK, but the color does NOT show up. Again, works fine for the color in Dreamweaver or outside vBA. This was put in the vBA "footer" template code.

[Brian]

For your HTML page, I'm not seeing anything obvious there, or having any problems when I create a file with that code and add a new CMPS page. Can you view the source from the CMPS page where the color is not showing up so I can see if there's anything that's somehow being changed there?

As for your <hr /> tag, I would assume that you need to change the color to "#990033".

[HiTekJeff]

Brian:

Thanks, that did it for the "#" HR tag. It seems vB does not display it despite the fact IE and Firefox works just fine. If you pass it though vB and not as just an HTML file it gets messed up.

Here is the table code you asked for, I've been over this several times and can't find anything either.


<!-- content table -->
<!-- open content container -->

<div align="center">
<div class="page" style="width:100%; text-align:left">
<div style="padding:0px 25px 0px 25px">





<table align="center" class="page" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
<tr valign="top">

<td width="175" style="padding-right: 15px">


<div style="padding-bottom:15px">
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" class="tborder" width="100%">
<thead>
<tr>

<td class="tcat" colspan="0">

<span class="smallfont"><strong>&raquo; Site Navigation</strong></span></td>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody id="collapseobj_module_14" style="">

<tr>
<td class="alt2">
<div class="smallfont">&raquo; <a href="/index.php?pageid=home">Home<p></a></div><div class="smallfont">&raquo; <a href="/index.php?pageid=http://mysite.us/index.php?page=about"><strong>About Us</strong><p></a></div>

<div class="smallfont">&raquo; <a href="http://www.mysite.us/forums/index.php">Forum<p></a></div><div class="smallfont">&nbsp;&gt; <a href="http://www.mysite.us/forums/usercp.php">User CP<p></a></div><div class="smallfont">&nbsp;&gt; <a href="http://www.mysite.us/forums/faq.php">FAQ<p></a></div>
</td>
</tr>

</tbody>
</table>
</div>

<div style="padding-bottom:15px">
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" class="tborder" width="100%">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="tcat" colspan="2">

<span class="smallfont"><strong>&raquo; <a href="http://www.mysite.us/forums/usercp.php?">User CP</a></strong></span></td>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody id="collapseobj_module_9" style="">

<tr>
<td class="alt2">


<span class="smallfont">Welcome back <strong>MSCA_Jeff</strong></span><br />


<div style="padding:4px">
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</td>
</tr>


</tbody>
</table>
</div>

</td>


<td valign="top">

<table width="100%" border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#ABCDEF">
<tr>
<td valign="top"> <table width="100%" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="10" cellpadding="0">

<tr>
<td><div align="center">
<h2><img src="images/main/about_us.gif" width="170" height="35"><a name="pagetop"></a></h2>
</div></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" align="center">
<tr>
<td><p class="paragraphheadingstyle"><u><font color="ABCDEF"><strong>Who
We Are:</strong></font></u></p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="30">

<tr>
<td width="50%"><div align="center"></div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p class="textbody">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="textbody">If at any time you need anything or
I may be of service in some way, please don't hesitate
to contact me. I welcome everyone to share their thoughts
and input.</p>
<p class="textbody"><br>
Best Regards,<br>
</p>

<p><br>
Jeff Hall<br>
Owner/Founder<br>
<br>
</p>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#ABCDEF">
<tr>
<td><div align="center"><a href="#pagetop"><img src="/images/main/top_small.gif" width="100" height="30" border="0"></a></div></td>

</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>

</table>

</td>


</tr>
</table>


Also, when you first go to the home page, I'm getting a table display error in regard to spacing. Attached is a picture. This table should have no spaces, I have put the arrow where the gap is and there shouldn't be one there. If you re-load the page, it is better with just about a 5px gap between them. What's strange is this displays fine in the forum though, only NOT when using vBA.

Thanks for the continued help, maybe we can figure it out.

[HiTekJeff]

Brian:

Just checking to see if you may have figured this out. Others are mentioning their home page disappearing and I'm just worried my visitors will see all sorts of anomalies.

I can't do much with vBA unless this is solved because ALL my content is custom so I need the custom content module working on all my pages. Without that, I'm afraid I'll have to uninstall. What is this code like in yours?

Tried in both current versions of Firefox and IE, same thing as posted above.

Thanks.

[HiTekJeff]

Brian:

If you get it working in yours, I would like to see you post some screenshot captures of it showing the colored table borders and nested tables. Like I said, I've been over it myself and can't see what the problem is since the exact same html code works fine outside of vBA.

Also, that table offset as mentioned above works fine in both vB and regular HTML, but not when using vBA. Maybe you can point me to something to check in my "style" setting, otherwise that's another issue to deal with too.

[Brian]

Admin CP => Style Manager => {select style} => All Style Options => Miscellaneous => HTML Doctype

What do you currently have set for that option?

[HiTekJeff]

Brian:

Here's the code you asked for:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

[Brian]

That looks fine, so unfortunately I'm not sure what else might cause a problem like that.

[HiTekJeff]

Brian:

Does this code work OK with you? If you are using the current version of vB and vBA, then you should be seeing the exact same thing I am. If not, then I would ask for you to please post some screen captures showing what it looks like when you test it. It has to be something in the vB or vBA code making this happen because the HTML when separate from vB/vBA works perfect as mentioned in this thread. So, there has to be a problem somewhere or else the vBA code has a bug that needs fixing. Otherwise, if vBA is fine then it should work for both of us the same way.

[HiTekJeff]

OK, I've been able to confirm with another person I know using vB and trying the most current version of vBA that the code above is OK and it's indeed either vB or vBA causing the issue described in this thread. He used the exact same code above and put it in an HTML page, turned off the wrapper module setting for the page and called it just like I am in vBA. He too has trouble with both the table color showing up and nested tables within tables appearing.

Seems to be a major issue for those of us that have a custom layout or code for a web site wanting to integrate it into vB/vBA because it does not pass the HTML as it should appear. Not sure why this hasn't turned up more before, but most sites I see just have simple HTML/Javascript type code they call and place the content in the left/center/right custom content module. This works OK, but NOT if you use table border colors NOT in your style template for that page or if they are nested tables within tables.

Like I said, if anyone can get this code working as posted here with the most current version of vB and vBA then PLEASE POST SCREENSHOTS because I would love to know how you did it and what the EXACT setting are in your vB styles and vBCMPS to get this to work. This is a serious design flaw somewhere in vB, vBA or both for those of us working with more custom HTML code. Hopefully it will get patched in a future release of vBA or a solution found.

[Brian]

Here's your screenshot. Default version of vBulletin, vBa CMPS, and default style. So it's something to do with your style settings or code.

[HiTekJeff]

Here's your screenshot. Default version of vBulletin, vBa CMPS, and default style. So it's something to do with your style settings or code.

Brian:

I was 100% correct and it is indeed something to do with BOTH vB and vBa messing up the code. It has to do with the fact that vB handles tables somewhat differently in they have re-coded a lot of the table HTML with their .td, .tr, etc. defined in their use of "styles". Since both vB and vBa use each other, there is where the issue lies. What I mean is that vBa is essentially just a portal and not a full blown CMS based on vB. As vBa stands now, you MUST choose one of the vB styles for a custom content page (i.e. HTML) thus forcing you into the vB HTML coding.

So, you have 2 choices, totally wipe a vB style template OR code your tables to match the vB style of doing things. Once I figured this out, I was able to get the border and table to appear. The reason the table was not showing up in the pictures here was due to the way vB handles this table coding in the "styles" section. Re-working the code to a vB style code worked.

Therefore, I would like to make a strong recommendation that to make vBa more useful for those of us wanting NOT to code tables like vB does, the programmers make vBa non dependent on having a vB "style" attached and instead select "none" for allowing just straight HTML code to pass through. Now, you must choose a vB "style" or else you can't add new pages. This would save a LOT of time so you don't have to re-code the way vB uses tables just to get them to work.

More details for those that follow this thread can be found here on vB tables. I have spent a LOT of time the past week talking with others and figuring out what and why this was happening. This post explains it fully, it's the way vB handles things AND the way vBa uses vB to integrate your custom pages.

Hope this helps some others to understand. So, until vBa is updated to just pass HTML code without making a user select a "style" for their custom pages (i.e. add page), you will have to re-work some tables to vB code to get it to appear OK at times.

To know more about vB tables see:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230929

That should do it for now. :)