HTML display error

c_tcp_ip

the following code displays paragraphs of white space between

<h2>Catalog</h2>

and when displaying the actual table. I'm at a lost of what this code be. I've put all the code here in case I'm missing something...thanks.

<?php
//start session
session_start();
//intialize session
if(!isset($_SESSION['cart'])){
	//create a multidimentsional array that will hold variables..
	$_SESSION['cart']=array();
}

//look for a catalog file
define("CATALOG","ShoppingCart.txt");
$catalogFile=CATALOG;

if(!file_exists($catalogFile)){
	die("<font color='red'>ShoppingCart Error: Unable to find file...
		</font>");
}
//file is available, extract data from it
//place into $CATALOG array with SKU as key

else{
	//create an array from file contents
	$data=file($catalogFile);
	//iterate over each element in data array--call it line
	foreach($data as $line){
		//separate each line by its ':' delimeter store in lineArray
		$lineArray=explode(":",$line);
		//trim all whitespaces from biginning and end of 1st element
		$sku=trim($lineArray[0]);
		//create 2d matrix where sku is key and can show description
		//and price..kinda convuluted and non sequential..
		$CATALOG[$sku]['desc']=trim($lineArray[1]);
		$CATALOG[$sku]['price']=trim($lineArray[2]);
	}
}
//check to see if the form has been submitted and which button
if($_POST['add']){//don't really need to say 'add'
	//for each k => v pair in post[a_qty]
	foreach($_POST['a_qty'] as $k => $v){
		if($v > 0){
			//so $v must be the quantity entered by user...
			$_SESSION['cart'][$k] = $_SESSION['cart'][$k] + $v;
		}
	}
}

if($_POST['update']){
	foreach($_POST['u_qty'] as $k=>$v){
	//if the value is empty, or negative don't bother changing cart
		if($v !="" && $v >=0){
			$SESSION['cart'][$k]=$v;
		}
	}
}

if($_POST['clear']){
	//reset session and cart
	$_SESSION=array();
	//destroy all data
	session_destroy();
}
?>
<html>
<head><title>Shopping Cart v1.0</title></head>
<body>
<h2>Catalog</h2>
Please add items from the list below to your Cart:
<form action="<?php $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>" method="post">
<table border="0" cellspacing="10">
<?php
//print the items from the catalog for selection
foreach($CATALOG as $k => $v){
	echo("<tr><td colspan=2>");
	echo("<b>"). $v['desc']. "</b>";
	echo("</td></tr><br />");
	echo("<tr><td>");
	echo("Price per Unit: "). $CATALOG[$k]['price'];
	echo("</td><td> Quantity: ");
	echo("<input size=4 type=text name=\"a_qty[" . $k ."]\">");
	echo("</td></tr><br />");
}
?>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<input type="submit" name="add" value="Add Items to Cart">
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<hr /> <hr />
<h2>Shopping Cart</h2>
<table width ="100%" border="0" cellspacing="10">
<?php
//initialize a variable to hold total cost
$total=0;
/*check shopping cart. if it contains values look up the SKUs in the
$CATALOG array, get the cost and calculate subtotals and totals*/
if(is_array($_SESSION['cart'])){
	foreach($_SESSION['cart'] as $k=>$v){
		if($v>0){
			$subtotal=$v * $CATALOG[$k]['price'];
			$total+=$subtotal;
			echo("<tr><td>");
			echo("<b>$v units ". $CATALOG[$k]['desc'] . "</b>");
			echo("<td><td>");
			echo("New Quantity: <input size=4 type=text 
			name=\"u_qty[" . $k ."]\">");
			echo("</td></tr>\n");
			echo("<tr><td>");
			echo("Price per unit: ") . $CATALOG[$k]['price'];
			echo("</td><td>");
			echo("Sub-total: "). sprintf("%0.2f", $subtotal);
			echo("<td></tr>\n");
		}
	}
}
?>
<tr>
<td><b>TOTAL</b></td>
<td><b><?php sprintf("%0.2f", $total) ?></b></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><input type="submit" name="update" value="Update Cart"></td>
<td><input type="submit" name="clear" value="Clear Cart"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
</body>
</html>

traq

you should actually have the text "Please add items from the list below to your Cart:" between the header and the table. are you saying you have an empty paragraph (like [font=monospace]<p> </p>[/font]) there instead?

c_tcp_ip

thanks for responding Trag. No there aren't any paragraphs. it's just a bunch of whitespace. the table litterally doesn't start till a few spaces down, as if there are invisible <br /> tags or something. It should start closer to the top, but I'm not sure why it isn't.

traq

have you checked your CSS? margin and/or padding on your <h2>s, <form>s, and <table> elements? otherwise, please post a link to your page and I'll have a look.

(also, no biggie, but it's traq - not trag.)

johanafm

traq;10988137 wrote:
you should actually have the text "Please add items from the list below to your Cart:" between the header and the table.

Should he?

<body>
<h2>Catalog</h2>
Please add items from the list below to your Cart:
<form action="<?php $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>" method="post">

body isn't allowed to contain character data or inline elements, so for any text to be between h2 and form, it would need to be wrapped in a block element. In my opinion it makes more sense to just ignore character data completely here, than to insert a block element since
1. What block element should that be?
2. And what should be put inside it?

In other words, validate your html code.

Usually, either there's nothing in the CSS specification specifying initial values for things like margins for different elements, or browsers just go ahead and use something they like. So you will have to specify everything you need to use to be able to use it. In this case, that would be h2's padding-bottom and margin-bottom and table's margin-top and padding-top, and obviously also form's margin and padding values.

traq

johanafm;10988171 wrote:
Should he?

I'm not saying it's proper; I'm saying that browsers will display it considering how his code is currently written. Yes, the text should be inside a paragraph.

c_tcp_ip

traq;10988153 wrote:
have you checked your CSS? margin and/or padding on your <h2>s, <form>s, and <table> elements? otherwise, please post a link to your page and I'll have a look.

(also, no biggie, but it's traq - not trag.)

Hey Sorry about that Traq. My bad.

Also there is no CSS file for this. I'm learning from a book and I could swear I copied the code correctly - been over it several times - but to no avail. Basically what you see is what you get there. Click to see the HTML source and that's it.

I guess it's not really a biggie, just annoying as I'd like to find out what the formatting problem is.

cretaceous

forms always add a chunk of space (can't remember if its margin or padding) above and/or below

add this to form : style='margin:0;padding:0'

h2 adds space by default as well

traq

yeah, if you didn't include any CSS, then everything will be styled according to your browser's default stylesheet (which vary by browser, and typically include padding and margins around elements that are intended to contain text).

I guess you know what you'll be studying next, huh? 😃

johanafm

If you never want them, until otherwise specified

*
{
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

c_tcp_ip

traq;10988223 wrote:
yeah, if you didn't include any CSS, then everything will be styled according to your browser's default stylesheet (which vary by browser, and typically include padding and margins around elements that are intended to contain text).

I guess you know what you'll be studying next, huh? 😃

yeah guess so. That is annoying! I didn't know browsers did that I thought the whole point of CSS was to cover styling, didn't know browsers had a hand in it as well. Never encountered that before.

thanks guys. much appreciated.

traq

well, it's very necessary, actually. (and it's not browsers "sticking their hand where they don't belong", it's just basic CSS values that the browser falls back on if there are no styles defined by the webpage.) otherwise, if someone didn't include a stylesheet, the entire webpage would be crammed into the top left corner, very unreadable.

(That's actually a mild example.)

c_tcp_ip

ahhh...got it. Thank you all for your help. You learn something new everyday. 🙂