CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

School of Information and Computer Technology

Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology
Thammasat University
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory

Laboratory #1: HTML & CSS

Objective: - To introduce the basic components of web applications.

- To study basic constructs of HTML.
- To learn how to improve on the tag and attribute-based style of
formatting using CSS.

Terminology

Basic Architecture of Web Application

A web application is a kind of applications that works through the Internet. It interacts with
user via a web browser application installed on the user's computer, but the processing is
mainly done at the server. Here are the basic steps involving with web application.
1. User enters a URL in the browser, for example, http://ict.siit.tu.ac.th/list.php. This
URL points to a script file of web application.
2. The browser connects to the web server specified in the URL (ict.siit.tu.ac.th), and
request the specified page (list.php).

1 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

3. The web server accepts the request, and reads the page from the disk.
4. The page, which is a PHP script, is sent to the PHP interpreter to be processed.
5. The PHP interpreter executes the script and generates the output in form of HTML. This
script may interact with the database server.
6. The output is sent back to the web browser.
7. The browser renders and shows the returned HTML contents.

Recommended Software Packages

OS Software Installation
MS XAMPP 1. Download the installation file from
Windows https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html
2. Execute the downloaded file and follow the installation steps.
Mac OS X MAMP 1. Download the installation file from http://www.mamp.info
/en/index.html.
2. Unarchive the downloaded zip file.
3. Double-click on the DMG file, and drag MAMP to the
Application folder. Here, we need to start /Applications/MAMP
when we want to use the web server.
Ubuntu Native 1. sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5
Linux Packages
2. sudo apt-get install mysql-server libapache2-
mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql phpmyadmin

DocumentRoot

Basically, web server does not share all the files on the hard disk, but it shares only the
files stored under the document root. The document roots are different in each platform.
OS Software Document Root Configuration File
MS XAMPP c:/xampp/htdocs/ C:/xampp/apache/conf/httpd.conf
Windows
Mac OS X MAMP /Applications /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache
/MAMP/htdocs /httpd.conf
Ubuntu Native /var/www /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
Linux Packages

We can change the document root by modifying the configuration in the configuration file.

2 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Suppose we have a file named "hello.html" in the document root, we can access it from the
browser by using http://localhost/hello.html. Note that localhost is the default host name
when we access the web server from the browser running on the same machine. The
followings are the example of matching between URLs and file locations.

Basic HTML

As stated before, HTML is a markup language for displaying web contents. An HTML file is a
text file with tags specifying formatting or type of information. Here is the basic structure
of an HTML file.

For example, the following HTML file sets the page title, and shows a heading.

Frequently-used HTML Tags

3 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Use Notepad++ to generate the following code and save it in DocumentRoot as main.html.

4 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Create another HTML file named "Timetable.html" under the document root as shown below.

Go to http://localhost/Timetable.html. The browser should show the content below.

Modify <table> tag in the file to be <table border="1">. Then, the browser should show
the table border.

5 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Modify <table> tag in the file to be <table border="1">. Then, the browser should show
the table border.

Add a reference from “main.html” to “Timetable.html”.

<a href="timetable.html">ITS331 time table</a>

6 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

1 What is CSS?
Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS was introduced in late 1996, as an elegant cousin to
HTML that promised several things, including:
more precise control than ever before over layout, fonts, colors, backgrounds,and
other typographical effects;
a way to update the appearance and formatting of an unlimited number of
pages by changing just one document;
compatibility across browsers and platforms; andless
code, smaller pages, and faster downloads.

CSS represents the Word Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) effort to improve on the tag
and attribute based style of formatting. The idea is that style sheets provide a way of
customizing a whole page and even whole sites at one time and in much richer detail
than the simple use of tags and attributes.

Plus, CSS is sort of like the cornerstone of Dynamic HTML, which is another subject
that you should investigate. So CSS is a technology that gives you, as a webmaster,
much more control over all these things that you would ever have in HTML alone.

2 Why we need CSS?

Let’s suppose for a minute that you wanted all your paragraphs in a multi-page
document to be center-aligned. If you omit the attribute and value for the <p> tag, what
do you think the browser will do? It will simply use its default setting, which is left-
aligned. So, every time you create a new paragraph, you have to remember to type
in the attribute and the value. If you forget, you document won’t look like you want it
to look.

Now that would be no big deal if you only had to deal with one or two pages and one
or two tags, but what if you are dealing with a website that has 50 pages and hundreds
of different tags. Now we are talking about hours and hours and hours of work. That is
when and where CSS becomes invaluable, and it is only one place that this technology is
a real time and headache saver.

3 How it works?
A CSS (cascading style sheet) file allows you to separate your web sites HTML content
from its style. As always you use your HTML file to arrange the content, but all of the
presentation (fonts, colors, background, borders, text formatting, link effects & so on...)
are accomplished within a CSS. At this point you have some choices of how to use the
CSS, either internally or externally.

3.1 Internal Style Sheet

First we will explore the internal method. This way you are simply placing the CSScode
within the <head></head> tags of each HTML file you want to style with the CSS.The
format for this is shown in the example below.

7 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

<head>
<title>...</title>
<style type="text/css">
CSS Content Goes Here
</style>
</head>
<body>

With this method each HTML file contains the CSS code needed to style the page.
Meaning that any changes you want to make to one page, will have to be made to all.
This method can be good if you need to style only one page, or if you want different
pages to have varying styles.

3.2 External Style Sheet

Next we will explore the external method. An external CSS file can be created with any
text or HTML editor such as "Notepad". A CSS file contains no HTML, only CSS. You
simply save it with the .css file extension. You can link to the file externally by
placing one of the following links in the head section of every HTML file you want to
style with the CSS file.

<head>
<title></title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="Path To
stylesheet.css" />
</head>

By using an external style sheet, all of your HTML files link to one CSS file which is
used to style the pages. This means, that if you need to alter the design of all your
pages, you only need to edit one .css file to make global changes to your entire
website. Here are a few reasons this is better.
• Easier Maintenance
• Reduced File Size
• Reduced Bandwidth
• Improved Flexibility

3.3 CSS Syntax

The syntax for CSS is different than that of HTML markup. It consists of only 3 parts.

selector { property: value }

1. The selector is the HTML element that you want to style.

2. The property is the actual property title.
3. The value is the style you apply to that property.

Each selector can have multiple properties, and each property within that selector can
have independent values. The property and value are separated with a colon and
contained within curly brackets. Multiple properties are separated by a semi colon.
Multiple values within a property are separated by commas, and if an individual value
contains more than one word you surround it with quotation marks. As shown below.

8 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

body {
background: #eeeeee;
font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, serif;
}

As you can see in the above code, the color and the font-family properties are
separated with a semi-colon. Specified font names are separated with commas. The
final result sets the body color to light grey (#eeeeee), and sets the font to ones that
most users will have installed on their computer.

We have changed the way we layout our code, but you can arrange it in one line if you
choose. We find that it is more readable if we spread each property to a separate line.

3.4 Inheritance

When you nest one element inside another, the nested element will inherit the
properties assigned to the containing element. Unless you modify the inner elements
values independently.

For example, a font declared in the body will be inherited by all text in the file no
matter the containing element, unless you declare another font for a specific nested
element.

body {font-family: Verdana, serif;}

Now all text within the HTML file will be set to Verdana.

If you wanted to style certain text with another font, like an h1 or a paragraph then
you could do the following.

h1 {font-family: Georgia, sans-serif;}

p {font-family: Tahoma, serif;}

Now all <h1> tags within the file will be set to Georgia and all <p> tags are set to
Tahoma, leaving text within other elements unchanged from the body declaration of
Verdana.

There are instances where nested elements do not inherit the containing elements
properties. For example, if the body margin is set to 20 pixels, the other elements
within the file will not inherit the body margin by default.

body {margin: 20px;}

3.5 Combining Selectors

You can combine elements within one selector in the following fashion.
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
color: #009900;
font-family: Georgia, sans-serif;
}

9 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

As you can see in the above code, the entire header elements are grouped into one
selector. Each one is separated by a comma. The final result of the above code sets all
headers to green (#009900) and to the specified font. If the user does not have the
first font “Georgia”, it will go to the next font “sans-serif” the user has installed on
their computer.

3.6 Comment

Comments can be used to explain why you added certain selectors within your css file.
So as to help others who may see your file, or to help you remember what you we're
thinking at a later date. You can add comments that will be ignored by browsers in the
following manner.

/* This is a CSS comment. Just like in C. */

You will note that it begins with a / (forward slash) and than an * (asterisks) then the
comment, then the closing tag which is just backward from the opening tag *
(asterisks) then the / (forward slash).
3.7 CSS Classes

The class selector allows you to style items within the same HTML element differently.
Except with classes the style can be overwritten by changing out style sheets. You can
use the same class selector again and again within an HTML file.

Let’s say the following style of <p> is defined.

p{
font-size: small;
color: #666666
}

The resulting text will be rendered small and gray. Pretty simple, but let’s say that we
want to change the word "sentence" to green bold text, while leaving the rest of the
sentence untouched. We would do the following to our HTML file.

<p>
To put it more simply, this <span class="greenboldtext">
sentence </span> you are reading is styled in my CSS file by the
following.
</p>

Then in CSS file we would add this style selector:

.greenboldtext{
font-size: small;
color: #008080;
font-weight: bold;
}

The final result would look like the following:

10 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Please note that a class selector begins with a (.) period. The reason we named it
"greenboldtext" is for example purposes, you can name it whatever you want. Though
we do encourage you to use selector names that are descriptive, you can reuse
the "greenboldtext" class as many times as you want.
3.8 CSS IDs

IDs are similar to classes, except once a specific id has been declared it cannot be
used again within the same HTML file.

We generally use IDs to style the layout elements of a page that will only be needed
once, whereas we use classes to style text and such that may be declared multiple
times.

For example, the main container for the page is defined by the following.

<div id="container">
Everything within my document is inside this division.
</div>

We have chosen the id selector for the "container" division over a class,
because we only need to use it once within this file. Then in our CSS file we have
the following:

#container{
width: 80%;
margin: auto;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #666;
background: #ffffff;
}

The final result would look like the following:

Notice that:
• The id selector begins with a (#) number sign.
• The class selector begins with a (.) period.
3.9 CSS Divisions

Now we will take a quick break from CSS and focus on the HTML side of using it.
Divisions are a block level HTML element used to define sections of an HTML file. A
division can contain all the parts that make up your website, including additional
divisions, spans, images, text and so on. You define a division within an HTML file by
placing the following between the <body></body> tags:

<div>
Site contents go here
</div>

Though most likely you will want to add some style to it. You can do that in the
following fashion:

<div id="container">
Site contents go here
</div>

11 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

The CSS file contains this:

#container{
width: 70%;
margin: auto;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #666;
background: #ffffff;
}

Now everything within that division will be styled by the "container" style rule. A
division creates a line break by default. You can use both classes and IDs with a
division tag to style sections of your website.
3.10 CSS Spans

Spans are very similar to divisions except they are an inline element as oppose
to divisions which are a block level element. No line break is created when a span is
declared. You can use the span tag to style certain areas of text, as shown in the
following:

<span class="italic">This text is italic</span>

Then in the CSS file:

.italic{
font-style: italic;
}

The final result is:

3.11 CSS Margins

As you may have guessed, the margin property declares the margin between an HTML
element and the elements around it. The margin property can be set for the top, left,
right and bottom of an element.

margin-top: length percentage or auto;

margin-left: length percentage or auto;
margin-right: length percentage or auto;
margin-bottom: length percentage or auto;

As you can also see in the above example, you have 3 choices of values for the margin
property
• Length (e.g., 10px)
• Percentage (e.g., 40%)
• auto

You can also declare all the margins of an element in a single property as follows:

margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px;

12 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

If you declare all 4 values as I have above, the order is as follows:

1. top
2. right
3. bottom
4. left

If only one value is declared, it sets the margin on all sides. (see below)

margin: 10px;

If you only declare two or three values, the undeclared values are taken from the
opposing side. (see below)

margin: 10px 20px; /* margin-bottom is 10px */

margin: 10px 20px 30px; /* margin-left is 20px */

You can set the margin property to negative values. If you do not declare the
margin value of an element, the margin is 0 (zero).

margin: -10px;

Elements like paragraphs have default margins in some browsers, to combat this set
the margin to 0 (zero).

p {margin: 0;}

Note: You do not have to add px (pixels) or whatever units you use, if the value is 0
(zero).

You can see in the example below, the elements for this site are set to be 20px (pixels)
from the body

body{
margin: 20px;
background: #eeeeee;
font-size: small;
font-family: Tahoma, Arial, "Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-align: left;
}

3.12 CSS Padding

Padding is the distance between the border of an HTML element and the content within
it.

13 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Most of the rules for margins also apply to padding, except there is no "auto" value,
and negative values cannot be declared for padding.

padding-top: length percentage;

padding-left: length percentage;
padding-right: length percentage;
padding-bottom: length percentage;

As you can also see in the above example you have 2 choices of values for the padding
property
• Length
• Percentage

You can also declare all the padding of an element in a single property as follows:

padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px;

If you declare all 4 values as above, the order is as follows:

1. Top
2. Right
3. Bottom
4. Left

If only one value is declared, it sets the padding on all sides. (see below)

padding: 10px;

If you only declare two or three values, the undeclared values are taken from the
opposing side just like in the case of margin. (see below)

padding: 10px 10px; /* 2 values */

padding: 10px 10px 10px; /* 3 values */

If you do not declare the padding value of an element, the padding is 0 (zero).

You can see in the example below, the main container for this site has 30px (pixels) of
padding between the border and the text.

#container{
width: 70%;
margin: auto;
padding: 30px;
border: 1px solid #666;
background: #ffffff;
}

14 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

3.13 CSS Text Properties

Color
You can set the color of text with the following:

color: value;

Possible values are

• color name - example:(red, black...)
• hexadecimal number - example:(#ff0000, #000000)
• RGB color code - example:(rgb(255, 0, 0), rgb(0, 0, 0))

Letter Spacing
You can adjust the space between letters in the following manner. Setting the value to
0 prevents the text from justifying. You can use negative values.

letter-spacing: value;

Possible values are

• normal
• length

Example:
These letters are spaced at 5px.

Text Align

You can align text with the following:

text-align: value;

Possible values are

• left
• right
• center
• justify

Examples:
This text is aligned left.
This text is aligned in the center.
This text is aligned right.

This text is justified. This text is justified. This text is justified. This text is justified.
This text is justified. This text is justified. This text is justified. This text is justified.

Text Decoration

You can decorate text with the following:

15 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

text-decoration: value;

Possible values are

• none
• underline
• overline
• line through
• blink

Examples:

Text Indent

You can indent the first line of text in an HTML element with the following:

text-indent: value;

Possible values are

• length
• percentage

Examples:
This text is indented 10px pixels.

Text Transform

You can control the size of letters in an HTML element with the following:

text-transform: value;
Possible values are
• none
• capitalize
• lowercase

Examples:
This First Letter In Each Word Is Capitalized.
THIS TEXT IS ALL UPPERCASE.
this text is all lowercase.

White Space

You can control the whitespace in an HTML element with the following:

16 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

white-space: value;

Possible values are

• normal: Sequences of whitespace will collapse into a single whitespace. Text
will wrap when necessary.
• pre: Whitespace is preserved by the browser. Text will only wrap on line break.
• nowrap: Sequences of whitespace will collapse into a single whitespace. Text
will only wrap on <br>.

Word Spacing

You can adjust the space between words in the following manner. You can use
negative values.

word-spacing: value;

Possible values are

• normal
• length

Example:
These words are spaced at 5px.
3.14 CSS Font Properties

Font

The font property can set the style, weight, variant, size, line height and font:

font: italic bold normal small/1.4em Verdana, sans-serif;

The above would set the text of an element to an italic style a bold weight a normal
variant a relative size a line height of 1.4em and the font to Verdana or another sans-
serif typeface.

Font –Family

You can set what font will be displayed in an element with the font-family property.
There are 2 choices for values:
• family-name
• generic family: serif, sans-serif, monospace, cursive, fantasy

If you set a family name it is best to also add the generic family at the end. As this is a
prioritized list. So if the user does not have the specified font name it will use the
same generic family.

font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;

17 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Font Size

You can set the size of the text used in an element by using the font-size property.

font-size: value;

There are a lot of choices for values:

• xx-large
• x-large
• larger
• large
• medium
• small
• smaller
• x-small
• xx-small
• length
• % (percent)

Font Style

You can set the style of text in a element with the font-style property

font-style: value;

Possible values are

• normal
• italic
• oblique

Font Variant

You can set the variant of text within an element with the font-variant Property

font-variant: value;

Possible values are

• normal

• small-caps ( )
Font Weight

You can control the weight of text in an element with the font-weight property:

font-weight: value;

18 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Possible values are

• lighter
• normal
• 100
• 200
• 300
• 400
• 500
• 600
• 700
• 800
• 900
• bold
• bolder

3.15 CSS Anchors, Links and Pseudo Classes

Below are the various ways you can use CSS to style links.

a:link {color: #009900;} /* link when no event is occurring*/

a:visited {color: #999999;} /* link already visited*/
a:hover {color: #333333;} /*link when there is a mouse over*/
a:focus {color: #333333;} /*in-focus link (when navigating with keys)*/
a:active {color: #009900;} /*link being pressed down*

Pseudo Classes

You can set links contained in different parts of your web page to be different colors by
using the pseudo class. For example, let’s say you want your links in the content area
to have a different color then the links in the left or right column of your webpage.

You can do this in the following fashion:

#content a:link {color: #009900;}

#content a:visited {color: #999999;}
#content a:hover {color: #333333;}
#content a:focus {color: #333333;}
#content a:active {color: #009900;}

Now assuming that you have your main content in a division named "content" all links
within that division will now be styled by this new style selector. If your selector has a
different name, just change the #content selector to match your division name.

For the links in a column you could use the following:

#column a:link {color: #009900;}

#column a:visited {color: #999999;}
#column a:hover {color: #333333;}
#column a:focus {color: #333333;}
#column a:active {color: #009900;}

Once again, this assumes the name of the column division, just change the name to
match yours.

19 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

This same method can be accomplished by declaring a class instead of an id.

a.column:link {color: #009900;}

a.column:visited {color: #999999;}
a.column:hover {color: #333333;}
a.column:focus {color: #333333;}
a.column:active {color: #009900;}

Though in this case you will need to add a class to each link

<a class="column" href="" title="">some link text</a>

But, there is still yet an easier way

.column a:link {color: #009900;}

.column a:visited {color: #999999;}
.column a:hover {color: #333333;}
.column a:focus {color: #333333;}
.column a:active {color: #009900;}

Then in the HTML file

<div class="column">
<a href="" title="">some link text</a>
</div>

There are other properties that can be added to links other than color. Almost any
property that can be used to style text and fonts can also be used to style links.

3.16 CSS Backgrounds

Background

You can style the background of an element in one declaration with the background
property.

background: #ffffff url(path_to_image) top left no-repeat fixed;

Values:
• attachment
• color
• image
• position
• repeat
Or you can set each property individually

Background Attachment

If you are using an image as a background, you can set whether the background
scrolls with the page or is fixed when the user scrolls down the page with the
background-attachment property

20 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

background-attachment: value;

Values:
• fixed
• scroll

Background Color

You can specifically declare a color for the background of an element using the
background-color property.

background-color: value;

Values:
• color name
• hexadecimal number
• RGB color code e.g., background-color:rgb(255,0,255);
• Transparent

Background Image

You can set an image for the background of an element using the background-image
property.

background-image: url(path_to_image);

Values:
• url
• none

Background Position

You can position an image used for the background of an element using the
background-position property.

background-position: value;

Values:
• top left
• top center
• top right
• center left
• center center
• center right
• bottom left
• bottom center
• bottom right

21 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

• x-% y-% (relative to top-left corner)

• x-pos y-pos (relative to top-left corner)

Background Repeat

You can set if an image set as a background of an element is to repeat (across=x

and/or down=y) the screen using the background-repeat property.

background-repeat: value;

Values:
• repeat
• no-repeat
• repeat-x
• repeat-y

3.17 CSS Borders

Border

You can set the color, style and width of the borders around an element in one
declaration by using the border property.

border: 1px solid #333333;

Values:
• color
• style
• width
Or you can set each property individually

Border Color

You can set the color of a border independently with the border-color property.

border-color: value;

Values:
• color name
• hexadecimal number
• RGB color code
• transparent

Border Style

You can set the style of a border independently with the border-style property.

22 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

border-style: value;

Values:
• hidden
• none

Border Width

You can set the width of a border independently with the border-width property.

border-width: value;

Values:
• Length
• Thin
• Medium
• Thick

Border Collapse

The border-collapse property sets whether the table borders are collapsed into a single
border or detached as in standard HTML.

border-collapse: value;

Values:
• collapse – Borders are collapsed into a single border.
• separate – Borders are detached (default)
• inherit

3.18 One-sided Border

Properties of border on each side of an element can be set separately. The syntax is

border-<direction>: 1px solid #333333; /*width, style, color*/

Where <direction> can be

• top
• bottom
• left
• right

Or you can set each property (i.e., width, style, color) individually by

border-<direction>-width: 1px solid #333333;

border-<direction>-style: solid;
border-<direction>-color: #333333;

23 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

For example, to set the left border to have width of 15px, dotted style, and red color,
we use

border-left-width:15px;
border-left-style:dotted;
border-left-color:#ff0000;
3.19 CSS Ordered & Unordered Lists

List Style

You can control the appearance of ordered and unordered lists in one declaration with
the list-style property.

list-style: value;

Values:
• image
• position
• type
Or you can set each property individually

List Style Image

You can use an image for the bullet of unordered lists with the list-style property

list-style-image: url(path_to_image.gif, jpg or png);

If you use an image, it is a good idea to declare the list-style-type also in case the
user has images turned off.

List Style Position

You can control the position of ordered and unordered lists with the list-style-position
property

list-style-position: value;

Values
• inside
• outside

List Style Type

You can control the type of bullet ordered and unordered lists use with the list-style-
type property.

list-style-type: value;

24 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Values
• disc
• circle
• square
• decimal
• lower-roman
• upper-roman
• lower-alpha
• upper-alpha
• none

3.20 CSS Width and Height Properties

Height

You can control the height of an element with the height property

height: value;

Values:
• auto
• length
• percentage

Line Height

You can control the height between lines with the line-height property

line-height: value;

Values:
• normal
• number
• length
• percentage

Max Height

You can control the maximum height of an element with the max-height property

max-height: value;

Values:
• none
• length
• percentage

25 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Min Height

You can control the minimum height of an element with the min-height property

min-height: value;

Values:
• length
• percentage

Width

You can control the width of an element with the width property

width: value;

Values:
• auto
• length
• percentage

Max Width

You can control the maximum width of an element with the max-width property

max-width: value;

Values:
• none
• length
• percentage

Min Width

You can control the minimum width of an element with the min-width property

min-width: value;

Values:
• length
• percentage

3.21 CSS Classification

Clear

26 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

You can control if an element allows floated elements to its sides with the clear
property

clear: value;

Values:
• none
• both
• left
• right

Now, what does all that mean?

None

This is the default setting, floated elements can appear on either side of the element
set to clear: none;

Both

Setting the value to both, causes no floated elements to appear on either side of the
element set to clear: both;

Left

Setting the value to left, causes no floated elements to appear to the left side of the
element set to clear: left;

Right
Setting the value to right, causes no floated elements to appear to the right side of the
element set to clear: right;

Clip

You can control how much of an element is visible with the clip property

clip: value;

Values:
• auto
• shape

Currently the only shape recognized by the clip property is rect (rectangle)

clip: rect(10px, 10px, 10px, 10px);

Cursor

You can control the style of cursor to be used in an element with the cursor property

cursor: value;

27 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Values:
• auto
• crosshair
• default
• help
• move
• pointer
• text
• url
• wait
• e-resize
• ne-resize
• nw-resize
• n-resize
• se-resize
• sw-resize
• s-resize
• w-resize

If you choose to use a custom cursor, it is always a good idea to declare a generic one
after the custom value.

cursor: url("image.cur"), default;

Display

You can control how an element is displayed with the display property

display: value;

Values:
• block
• inline
• list-item
• none

Now, what does all that mean?

Block
Creates a line break before and after the element

Inline
No line break is created

List Item
Creates a line break before and after the element and adds a list item marker

None
Makes an element not display on the page

Float

The float property changes how text and or images within an element are displayed

28 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

float: value;

Values:

• left
• right
• none

Now, what does all that mean?

Left
The image/text is displayed to the left of the parent element

Right
The image/text is displayed to the right of the parent element

None
There is no change in the way the image/text is displayed

Overflow

You can control what an elements contents will do if it overflows it boundaries with the
overflow property

overflow: value;

Values:
• auto
• hidden
• visible
• scroll

Overflow Example

Here is what we have in our CSS file.

#overflow_box {width:200px; height:200px; border-top: 1px solid

#eee; border-left: 1px solid #eee; border-bottom: 1px solid
#eee; padding: 10px; overflow: auto;}

29 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

Then in the HTML file, we have this:

<div id="overflow_box">Contents</div>

Visibility

You can control if an element is visible or not with the visibility property

visibility: value;

Values:
• hidden
• visible

Z-Index

You can control the layer order of positioned elements with the z-index property

z-index: value;

Values:
• auto
• number

The higher the number means the higher the level. Negative numbers are allowed.
3.22 CSS Positioning

Position

The position property (as you may have guessed) changes how elements are
positioned on your webpage.

position: value;

Values:
• static
• relative
• absolute
• fixed

Now, what does all that mean?

Static
Static positioning is by default the way an element will appear in the normal flow of
your HTML file. It is not necessary to declare a position of static. Doing so, is no
different than not declaring it at all.

30 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

position: static;

Relative
Positioning an element relatively places the element in the normal flow of your HTML
file and then offsets it by some amount using the properties left, right, top and bottom.
This may cause the element to overlap other elements that are on the page, which of
course may be the effect that is required.

position: relative;

Absolute
Positioning an element absolutely, removes the element from the normal flow of your
HTML file, and positions it to the top left of it's nearest parent element that has a
position declared other than static. If no parent element with a position other than
static exists then it will be positioned from the top left of the browser window.

position: absolute;

Fixed
Positioning an element with the fixed value is the same as absolute except the parent
element is always the browser window. It makes no difference if the fixed element is
nested inside other positioned elements.

Furthermore, an element that is positioned with a fixed value will not scroll with the
document. It will remain in it's position regardless of the scroll position of the page.

At this time IE6 (Internet Explorer 6) does not support the fixed value for the
positioning of an element. Thus it will not position fixed elements correctly and will still
scroll with the page. To see this effect in action you will need to use a standards
compliant browser, such as Firefox 1.0

position: fixed;

When positioning elements with relative, absolute or fixed values the following
properties are used to offset the element:
• top
• left
• right
• bottom

position: absolute; top: 10px; right: 10px;

3.23 CSS Pseudo Elements

The Syntax

The syntax for pseudo elements is a bit different than that of regular CSS, but it is
close.

selector:pseudo-element {property: value}

As you can see the only difference is that you place the pseudo element after the
selector, and divide the 2 with a (:) colon.
Or you can assign a class to a pseudo element as follows

31 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

selector.p:pseudo-element {property: value}

Using the above code would style all paragraphs within the declared selector with the
pseudo element.

The elements:

• first-line
• first-letter

First Line
The first-line pseudo element styles the first line of text in a block level element.

p{font-size: small;}
p:first-line {font-size: medium; color: #ff0000;}

As you can see in the above example paragraphs are set to be a small font size, but
the p:first-line is set to be a medium size and a red color. The result is that the first
line of all paragraphs will be red in color and a bit larger than the rest of the paragraph.

Though let’s say you only want to style a certain paragraph of text with the first-line
element. That is where declaring a class to the pseudo element comes into play.

first -line with class

p.special:first-line {font-size: medium; color: #ff0000;}

We have declared a class of special within our css file.

First-Line Example

This is a special sentence we wrote to demonstrate the use and look of the first-line
pseudo element. As you can see the first line of this paragraph is styled differently
than the rest of the text within it. All of this was done by simply adding class="special"
to the opening <p> tag for this paragraph.

<p class="special">the content</p>

Where the first-line ends depends on the width of the browser window or containing
element, you can resize this page and see that it adjusts as you change the size of the
browser window.
The following properties can be assigned to the first-line pseudo element:
• background
• clear
• color
• font
• letter-spacing
• line-height
• text-decoration
• text-transform
• vertical-align
• word-spacing

First Letter
The first-letter pseudo element styles the first letter of text in a block level element.

32 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

p{font-size: small;}
p:first-letter {font-size: medium; color: #ff0000;}

As you can see in the above example paragraphs are set to be a small font size, but
the p:first-letter is set to be a medium size and a red color. The result is that the first
letter of all paragraphs will be red in color and a bit larger than the rest of the
paragraph.

Though lets say you only want to style a certain paragraph of text with the first-letter
element. That is where declaring a class to the pseudo element comes into play.

first -letter with class

p.special_letter:first-letter {font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold;

color: #ff0000;}

We have declared a class of special_letter within our css file.

First-Letter Example

This is a special sentence I wrote to demonstrate the use and look of the first-letter
pseudo element. As you can see the first letter of this paragraph is styled differently
than the rest of the characters within it.

All of this was done by simply adding class="special_letter" to the opening <p> tag for
this paragraph.

<p class="special_letter">the content</p>

The following properties can be assigned to the first-letter pseudo element:

• background
• border
• clear
• color
• float
• font
• line-height
• margin
• padding
• text-decoration
• text-transform
• word-spacing

4 CSS 3
So far, the mentioned properties are mostly of CSS 1 and CSS 2. Recent development
of CSS has already gone to version 3. Even version 4 is already in its working draft
stage. Here, we will touch upon cool features offered by CSS3 a little bit. Although
they may not work in all major web browsers now, they will all work soon.

As a side note, when W3C sets a specification of a new CSS, most mainstream web
browsers (i.e, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari) will try to implement them as
soon as possible. However, immediately making them work as specified in the
standard can be challenging. So, when those web browsers test their new CSS
implementations, they will prefix those new not-fully-supported properties with their
own keywords, so that users know they are not yet fully supported.

33 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

• Firefox uses the prefix: -moz-

• Chrome and Safari use: -webkit-
• Internet Explorer uses: -ms-
• Opera uses: -o-

For example, you may need to use “-moz-box-orient” in Firefox for the new “box-
orient” property in CSS3. When it is fully supported, “-moz-” will be no longer needed.
To be safe, it is recommended that you specify “box-orient” and all of its variations if
you need to use this experimental property.

The following CSS3 properties are ones which should be supported by all major
browsers. If you use an older browser, prefix the property with “-moz-“ and/or “-
webkit-“ as already mentioned. In this course, everyone is strongly recommended
to use Firefox. Internet explorer is not recommended since it is specific for Windows.

border-radius

This property allows you to add rounded borders to elements. Variations for specific
sides also exist.
• border-top-left-radius
• border-top-right-radius
• border-bottom-left-radius
• border-bottom-right-radius
Since the borders are round, text inside the box may overflow. So, it is common to use
border-radius with padding. For example,

div{
border:2px solid #a1a1a1;
padding:10px 40px;
width:300px;
border-radius:25px;
}

This CSS code sets round borders to all <div> tags.

text-shadow

The text-shadow property attaches one or more shadows to text. Currently, it is

supported in all major browsers, except Internet Explorer.

text-shadow: h-shadow v-shadow blur color;

Value Description
Required. The position of the horizontal shadow. Negative
h-shadow
values are allowed
Required. The position of the vertical shadow. Negative
v-shadow
values are allowed
blur Optional. The blur distance
color Optional. The color of the shadow.
34 / 35
CSS326 Database Programming Laboratory: (Laboratory #1) HTML & CSS

For example, the following code sets <h1> heading to have a red shadow.
h1 { text-shadow:2px 4px 3px #FF0000; }

The result looks like

resize

The resize property specifies whether or not an element is resizable by the user. You
may want to use it with “overflow” property to control how content is handled with
overflowing. The property is usually used in a <div>.

resize: none|both|horizontal|vertical

Value Description
none The user cannot resize the element

both The user can adjust both the height and the width of the element

horizontal The user can adjust the width of the element

vertical The user can adjust the height of the element

35 / 35