HTML/XML/CSS display problems on Apache shared host

[coachjerry]

I'm a senior citizen with a tech background, though a newbie to programming and style sheets. I'm usually able to make HTML and css changes to existing designs, but I'm stuck on this one and would like some help. I'm using Amaya as an HTML/XTML editor and my pages comply with the XML standards.

The web pages display perfectly on my Windows XP, service pack 3, home pc, with either Firefox 3 or IE 7 (I think). However, when I move the pages to my 1and1 shared Apache Linux host some aspects don't display properly. A properly displayed page from the template author is at http://www.dcarter.co. uk/green_80.html.

When I upload to my 1and1 host the images used to give the pages some depth and color variation don't show up. The dark vertical borders are missing, the top and bottom border green/white variation is missing, and the right sidebar link arrows are missing. They're all incompletely referenced in the color style sheet, but that doesn't seem to be the problem as the main logo image displays and I also tried complete path referencing to no avail.

The images in question are back.png, main.png, linkfoot.png, link_arrow.png, and link_arrow_sel. png. I also tried converting them to jpg but that didn't help.

The link to my main index page is www.balanced-life.biz. The style sheets are at www.balanced-life.biz/style/style.css and www.balanced-life.biz/style/colour.css (the template is from the UK). The images are all in the style folder along with style.css and colour.css.

I hope someone can help me as I've tried everything I can think of for the past couple of weeks and haven't found anything on the Internet referencing either Linux or 1and1 shared-host display problems.

[drhowarddrfine]

I'm getting ready for dinner and not on my dev computer but I can make a quick note till I get back.

XHTML1.1 is to be served as application/xml+xhtml only and I'd bet you are serving it as text/html. That probably has nothing to do with your problem but it is something you need to address.

Many times these free servers mess with the markup before they send it out but I don't see any such thing after a quick glance. Like I said, unless someone else like David jumps on this, I'll look when I get back from dinner.

[David Laakso]

I hope someone can help me as I've tried everything I can think of for the past couple of weeks and haven't found anything on the Internet referencing either Linux or 1 and1 shared-host display problems.

Do you have an (x)html/css question?

[drhowarddrfine]

As it turns out, I was looking at the wrong link. Which browser are you looking in where things are messed up? The very first line is the xml prologue. While this is proper usage, IE will go into quirks mode and not attempt to act like other modern browsers. I think that was fixed in IE7, though.

[coachjerry]

As it turns out, I was looking at the wrong link. Which browser are you looking in where things are messed up? The very first line is the xml prologue. While this is proper usage, IE will go into quirks mode and not attempt to act like other modern browsers. I think that was fixed in IE7, though.

Thanks for taking a look. It appears the same in Firefox 3 and IE 7, both look fine on my home pc, both lack the visual effects I noted when on the server.

[David Laakso]

It appears the same in Firefox 3 and IE 7, both look fine on my home pc, both lack the visual effects I noted when on the server.

Bear with me: What is the uri that: "appears the same in Firefox 3 and IE 7, both look fine on my home pc, both lack the visual effects I noted when on the server."

[coachjerry]

Bear with me: What is the uri that: "appears the same in Firefox 3 and IE 7, both look fine on my home pc, both lack the visual effects I noted when on the server."

The problem is evident at www.balanced-life.biz, which points to the index page, but any pages linked from there have the same problem.

[David Laakso]

With your page on my screen in FF/3.0.3, IE/7.0, and IE/6.0 at the same time and adjacent to each other, I am not able to distinguish any significant difference among them, other than the obvious-- you've not corrected IE/6 for quirksmode (and while that is correctable, neither it, nor the markup errors on the page, have anything to do with what you wrote about).

Are you certain you have uploaded all image to your host/server. Please confirm you have done so. Clear the cache in all your browsers. Close all browsers. Boot. Open browsers and view the page in them. And if you still have the same issue -- when viewed in real browsers (not your editor), on-line (not off-line), please write back-- providing a screen shot of how it should look. Thanks.

[coachjerry]

I've done all that you suggested but don't seem to be authorized to attach images. Or I don't understand how to do it. When I click insert image it asks me for text to include between IMGxxxx/IMG. How do I show you the screen shot of how the site should look?

[David Laakso]

The images appear to be on the server. These are two possibilities.
1/ The images paths are not correct.
2/ The image paths are correct, but the browser is not displaying the images because they are corrupt.

[coachjerry]

I'd like to attach a screen shot of the way the page should look but have no option to browse for an image to upload and when I click the insert image icon it asks me to enter [IMG]xxx/{IMG]. I don't know what that is nor how to do it.

Regarding your two suggestions, I'll triple check the image paths and reload the images from my home pc where they display just fine.

Thanks for all your help

[coachjerry]

The images appear to be on the server. These are two possibilities.
1/ The images paths are not correct.
2/ The image paths are correct, but the browser is not displaying the images because they are corrupt.

Thanks! I did both of your suggestions and it's looking fine now! Though the partial url's worked for one image I changed all image url's to the complete path name and I also reloaded the images. Perhaps they were corrupted in the initial upload.

Thanks again for being patient with a newbie.

[David Laakso]

Thanks! I did both of your suggestions and it's looking fine now!

Good. But you are not out of woods just yet. Or are you?
No version of Internet Explorer has a clue regarding the doctype you feed them. The document markup is invalid. And the page is whacked in IE/6.0.

[coachjerry]

Oh! OK, I see the problems now. I went to W3C's validator and now see the errors. I've been assuming that Amaya, a W3C product, is an accurate tool for compliance to the standards, but I may have a buggy version or it isn't as sound as I assumed. I'll use the validator to resolve what I can.

The pages look fine in Firefox 3 and IE7. I don't have IE6. What should I change about the doc type? It came automatically from Amaya when I opened a new page.

[drhowarddrfine]

Amaya is an editor like any other and you can type any ol' crap in it just like any other. It won't stop you from doing that.