I see what you mean. Weird... Let me ask you two questions for some background. Did you change anything recently and if so can you undo it to see if it is associated with the problem? Second, and this one might be a biggie, have you tried testing your page for valid xhtml? I just did and got 55 errors. One near the top of the list that might be very important is that you use id="bloglist" twice - once for a div and then again for a ul tag. IDs can only be used once, so you might want to change one to "bloglistdiv" in both your code and your css. I can't say it is for sure the cause, but if it was my page I would be trying to get those validation problems cleared up.

EdB wrote:

I see what you mean. Weird... Let me ask you two questions for some background. Did you change anything recently and if so can you undo it to see if it is associated with the problem? Second, and this one might be a biggie, have you tried testing your page for valid xhtml? I just did and got 55 errors. One near the top of the list that might be very important is that you use id="bloglist" twice - once for a div and then again for a ul tag. IDs can only be used once, so you might want to change one to "bloglistdiv" in both your code and your css. I can't say it is for sure the cause, but if it was my page I would be trying to get those validation problems cleared up.

Thanks. I will try what you said. I did do a little tweaking so I must have done something weird.

EdB wrote:

I see what you mean. Weird... Let me ask you two questions for some background. Did you change anything recently and if so can you undo it to see if it is associated with the problem? Second, and this one might be a biggie, have you tried testing your page for valid xhtml? I just did and got 55 errors. One near the top of the list that might be very important is that you use id="bloglist" twice - once for a div and then again for a ul tag. IDs can only be used once, so you might want to change one to "bloglistdiv" in both your code and your css. I can't say it is for sure the cause, but if it was my page I would be trying to get those validation problems cleared up.

Hmm...OK, I'm a bit clueless here. I ran a check too, but when I go to the _main.php of my style (leaf) it is totally different...and _main.php is the only file I have tampered with.

For instance, it says that it is repeated as <ul id="bloglist"> but that is not even on _main.php! Would it be on a different file? (When I go to the actual page and check the source, I <em>can</em> see it!) I also checked my 01_style0101.css file and it's not there either. Ach! Where is it?

Okay I just looked a bit deeper. Go to the skins page and pick the leaf skin (demo - not download) and you will see two things. First, it doesn't have the problem yours does. Second, it too fails validation for the double-used ID.

Therefore the problem is not the double-used ID. By the way it is probably in the skins/leaf/_bloglist.php file. Here's a brief explanation of how b2evo does it's thing: you see in your _main where it has lines like "require(__file__)._somethingorother.php"? That simply tells b2evolution to go get that file and use it. Those files usually have stuff like "if !isset $this then $this is 'that'", and most of the time they end with something like "require(__skins__)._somethingorother.php". I call the files in your skins/skinname folder the decorators and the ones in the skins folder the generators because that is sort of what they do. None of that helps you right now though.

Here's the deal: Since the leaf demo in the skin repository doesn't get weird in Firefox we know the skin can look good. Since we know you did some changes to your _main.php and your skin doesn't look good it's pretty easy to say "you broke it" with confidence. Undo your hacks one by one until it doesn't get weird, then ask yourself how this exact change made it wierd. A simple rule to help you in that quest: be careful when you open a div that you also close it at the exactly correct time (place in the file). Same holds true for any other tag, but I suspect it's a div-related issue. I don't know why I feel that way but I do.

Here's an idea: save your leaf skin as "myleaf", then download the original leaf again. Now open both _main.php files in an editor and slowly compare the two. Add your changes one at a time and keep checking the results. Eventually you will know "these changes are okay but this one breaks the blog". You will then be in a position to either find and fix or ask for more help armed with very specific information.

It'll take some time, but look on the bright side: you get (a) a good looking blog and (b) smarter than you were yesterday.

EdB wrote:

Okay I just looked a bit deeper. Go to the skins page and pick the leaf skin (demo - not download) and you will see two things. First, it doesn't have the problem yours does. Second, it too fails validation for the double-used ID.

Therefore the problem is not the double-used ID. By the way it is probably in the skins/leaf/_bloglist.php file. Here's a brief explanation of how b2evo does it's thing: you see in your _main where it has lines like "require(__file__)._somethingorother.php"? That simply tells b2evolution to go get that file and use it. Those files usually have stuff like "if !isset $this then $this is 'that'", and most of the time they end with something like "require(__skins__)._somethingorother.php". I call the files in your skins/skinname folder the decorators and the ones in the skins folder the generators because that is sort of what they do. None of that helps you right now though.

Here's the deal: Since the leaf demo in the skin repository doesn't get weird in Firefox we know the skin can look good. Since we know you did some changes to your _main.php and your skin doesn't look good it's pretty easy to say "you broke it" with confidence. Undo your hacks one by one until it doesn't get weird, then ask yourself how this exact change made it wierd. A simple rule to help you in that quest: be careful when you open a div that you also close it at the exactly correct time (place in the file). Same holds true for any other tag, but I suspect it's a div-related issue. I don't know why I feel that way but I do.

Here's an idea: save your leaf skin as "myleaf", then download the original leaf again. Now open both _main.php files in an editor and slowly compare the two. Add your changes one at a time and keep checking the results. Eventually you will know "these changes are okay but this one breaks the blog". You will then be in a position to either find and fix or ask for more help armed with very specific information.

It'll take some time, but look on the bright side: you get (a) a good looking blog and (b) smarter than you were yesterday.

Thank you very much. I simply took the "untainted" _main.php from the original Zip file and am simply going to do the side bar again (I am pretty sure that is where the problem lies.)

Thank you very much!

Cool. I'm going to lock the thread because you seem to have a firm grip on resolution of the issue.