Tables in an entry always show after a huge BLANK space!

starryalley · Post by **starryalley** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 8:36 pm

My problem is exactly shown in my own blog in this address
http://starryalley.twbbs.org/blog/index ... cling.html
This problem has been found by me since the time I was using s9y version 0.7.

As you can see, whenever I insert a table, the final result is that the table always shows after a huge blank space, which is annoying. I've tried two WYSIWYG editors and checked the html generated. I cannot see any weird things.

Any suggestions? (I've done a little search but in vain. )
Thanks in advance.

Post by **Don Chambers** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:38 pm

Here is the HTML from that table:

Code: Select all

<table width="80%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="1" align="left" summary="Sport Activities"><br />
    <tbody><br />
        <tr><br />
            <td style="font-weight: bold;">Date</td><br />
            <td style="font-weight: bold;">Time</td><br />

            <td style="font-weight: bold;">Duration</td><br />
            <td style="font-weight: bold;">HeartRate (Max)</td><br />
            <td style="font-weight: bold;">HeartRate (Avg)</td><br />
            <td style="font-weight: bold;">Zone1</td><br />
            <td style="font-weight: bold;">Zone2</td><br />
            <td style="font-weight: bold;">Zone3</td><br />

            <td style="font-weight: bold;">Calories,%Fat<br />(KCal.%)</td><br />
            <td style="font-weight: bold;">Notes</td><br />
        </tr><br />
        <tr><br />
            <td>2007/08/15</td><br />
            <td>17:27</td><br />

            <td>01:14:11</td><br />
            <td>172,88%</td><br />
            <td>139,71%</td><br />
            <td>(<136)<br /> 00:24:40</td><br />
            <td>(136-155)<br />00:42:08</td><br />

            <td>(>155)<br />00:07:23</td><br />
            <td>691,45</td><br />
            <td>Gym</td><br />
        </tr><br />
        <tr><br />
            <td>2007/08/20</td><br />

            <td>19:28</td><br />
            <td>00:50:35 </td><br />
            <td>152,76% </td><br />
            <td>133,67% </td><br />
            <td>(<119)<br />00:10:31 <br /></td><br />

            <td>(119-178)<br />00:26:23 <br /></td><br />
            <td>(>178)<br />00:13:41 <br /></td><br />
            <td>422,55</td><br />
            <td style="text-align: left;">Gym</td><br />
        </tr><br />

        <tr><br />
            <td>2007/08/21</td><br />
            <td>18:21</td><br />
            <td>00:58:20 </td><br />
            <td>169,85% </td><br />
            <td>130,65% </td><br />

            <td>(<119)<br />00:33:56</td><br />
            <td>(119-158)<br />00:21:06 <br /></td><br />
            <td>(>158) <br />00:03:18</td><br />
            <td>459,50</td><br />

            <td>Gym </td><br />
        </tr><br />
    </tbody><br />
</table></div>

You can start by getting rid of all those 's.

starryalley · Post by **starryalley** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:05 am

Actually I notice that the WYSIWYG editor does not show the tag in every column or rows of the table. I'm wondering why those came out after saving the entry.

Thank you anyway for pointing out the trailing 's in those lines.

Post by **garvinhicking** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 11:32 am

Hi!

Those br-Tags come from the "nl2br" event plugin!

You can configure that plugin to not insert breaks within <table> tags, or you can temporarily disable the plugin for postings where you use a HTML table.

Actually, when you use the WYSIWYG Editor, you should alltogether remove the nl2br event plugin.

Regards,
Garvin

starryalley · Post by **starryalley** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:28 pm

Hi Garvin,

All those years I've been using WYSIWYG Editor, the NL2BR plugin is always active! Thank you for pointing me out. This immediately solves everything.

Thanks for this great software for blogging.

Michele2 · Post by **Michele2** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:31 pm

I turned that plugin off and I'm still getting the huge space.

Any ideas what could be causing this? Here's the page: http://www.my2words.com

Post by **Don Chambers** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:02 am

Are you sure it is disabled? Your entry still contains a ton of 's causing the space. I should also warn you that the template you are using (youngbutstrong) is loaded with problems. Many errors, and the template files included do not conform to the usual serendipity id & class naming scheme, and are missing many features. I spent a lot of effort fixing this template for someone else. Unfortunately, it was a very specific need, and many of my modifications would not be applicable to an update of the existing port. I also did not fix every problem I saw - only those I absolutely had to. Anyway - did you disable the plugin, or remove it? If you merely disabled it, fully remove it since you will not need it at all if you always use the wysiwyg editor.

blog.brockha.us · Post by **blog.brockha.us** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:12 am

That's not the complete truth, I guess.

It is still needed for comments. But it can be configured, where it should be used. I have disabled it for entries but let it work on comments. As comments are entered as normal text, the nl3br make the comments look much better.

Post by **Don Chambers** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 2:24 am

Grischa - good point. How exactly do you have it configured to work with comments, but not entries?

Michele2 · Post by **Michele2** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:10 am

Your comments would explain why I had so many problems with the template. I thought it was mainly CSS/HTML syntax type errors that are so common with most of the free templates I've seen for webpages. Perhaps I need to find another template; though I do like the way this one looks.

If this template is so bad, why was it left in the Spartacus library? If the template is not compliant with the Serendipity standards, why leave it? What other templates should be avoided?

So, by deleting the plugin, have I now made it so comments won't have blank lines between the paragraphs? And I still have the giant white space if I use a table?

What a disappointment this blog is turning into in so many ways.

I have no idea what is happening, the post originally had content in front of the table, yet there was still a space. Deleted the content and posted with the space. Now I went back to put the suggestion to scroll to the displaced content and suddenly with any text in front of the table, the table displays where it is supposed to.

Meanwhile, have I lost where comments get paragraph breaks and should I still look for a different template to use? I did spend a great deal of time trying to fix/correct this one already.

Post by **Don Chambers** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:51 am

Michele2 - do not dispair - your site is looking better! It appears you finally got rid of the plugin that was inserting 's, so the table entry looks much better! Let's wait to see what Grischa has to say about disabling that plugin for entries, but leaving it intact for comments.

Serendipity rocks as a blog engine compared to the competition - don't draw conclusions about serendipity due to one particular template. I cannot tell you what other templates to avoid - I have not viewed them all. There is no real "standard" by which a template is accepted into spartacus. This is all a volunteer effort. The hope is that template designers will utilize care and dilligence in their design efforts. That is not always the case. I just happen to have looked into this particular template and REALLY do not like what I see. No single designer or developer can correct every single template, as such an effort is quite subjective and time consuming... the very same reason none of us can CREATE every single template.

The efforts of this particular template's designer (port author, actually) is sincerely appreciated as it continues to expand the library of s9y templates. I PERSONALLY feel it could use quite a bit more attention to detail, error correction, and comformance to s9y id/class naming - the latter of which will prevent this template from working with certain plugins.

Hang in there if you really love the template. Hopefully Grischa will share his concept of disabling the wysiwyg editor for entries but not comments. I do not use the wysiwyg editor, so I am not really sure how to go about that.

Your own blog may not encounter the potential problems this template offers, and if that is the case, you have nothing to worry about!!!

Meanhwhile, keep blogging away! What you have to say to the world is usually more important than the formatting of how you say it!!!

blog.brockha.us · Post by **blog.brockha.us** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:52 am

Don Chambers wrote:Grischa - good point. How exactly do you have it configured to work with comments, but not entries?

Well.. At the plugins configuration screen. There you can switch on and off, if you want to have it in entries, in extended entries, in comments and in HTML nuggets. I only use comments personally.

P.S.: At the moment there doesn't seem to be any design problem on the URL you've given in the first entry? So enabling the nl2br plugin only in comments should solve it all now, I guess.

Post by **Don Chambers** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 4:59 pm

I'll be!!! I never noticed that!!! Learn something new all the time. Gotta tell YL about this since he is having an issue with <pre>, and I see there is also a field to list tags so ignore. That feature does not exist in the s9y markup plugin... would be nice if it did. Hint.... Hint..... Hint!!!

Michele2 · Post by **Michele2** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:03 pm

I turned it back on and no matter what I did, it still pushed the content down. I even used the part that says to enter HTML tags to not be effected - it seems to ignore this?

I finally got it reasonably OK by allowing the markup for comments and putting a small negative top margin for the table. What a nuisance. Hopefully, I won't have need for another post that uses a table anywhere.

When I mentioned this blog being problematic it related more to getting it set up and how long it is taking me to post daily. This is my second Serendipity blog - I had not planned on using anything else.

I do remember a time when templates were held to strict compliance with formatting standards. Is the community not doing that anymore? It would be a shame to lower quality in order to get more templates.

I don't suppose you remember which plugins would not work with this theme? If I don't plan on using them, maybe I could just keep the one I'm using. Otherwise it would be good to know before I try something and spend hours on something that won't work in the first place.

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Michele2 · Post by **Michele2** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:46 pm

So, now when I create entries I have to put every line break in by hand? This doesn't make sense. If I switch to another template will the plug-in work without messing up tables?