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Use DIV and SPAN instead of TABLE

37 votes

Submitted by Choli, 18th March 2007, 10:02:06 PM

Using <div> and <span> instead of <table> has lots of advantages. For example:
- They are the recommended html tags to use to place the text in a web page, instead of using a table.
- It'd be easier to modify the templates, adding or removing fields, specially in postbit
- You could set maximun size (in pixels, for example) of avatars and signatures, preventing that the layout of the forums is deformed (this also happen in posts of users with a verylong nick) or that a ugly horizontal scroll bar appears in the browser.
- It'd be a next step towards to be fully html compliant (ie: mybb would pass the html validation tests: http://validator.w3.org/ )
- etc...

8 Comments

  1. I believe this is one of the goals in 2.0 when MyBB's skin will be redone

    Ryan Gordon, 19th March 2007, 4:54:23 AM

  2. Ugh... I don't care how many times the W3C chants that mantra, but I have yet to see divs and spans used effectively for producing the layouts that tables can.

    Oh, I know, it looks just *great* to most of you guys. But then, most of you guys aren't legally blind and running with an enlarged font size. What happens to your precious page layouts then? Everything overlaps everything else, because divs can't handle a larger font size. That is why they are made of 100% pure failure.

    Way to discriminate against the visually impaired. :)

    Galen, 20th March 2007, 3:47:25 AM

  3. @Galen: Actually, divs and spans (when used properly) scale better than a table based layout. But, like I said, only if they are coded correctly. Most the graphics heavy sites which require a given absolute size break, yes, but that is to be expected. You can see my front page to my website <http://www.thewickedflea.com/> as an example; the only thing which breaks is the top navigation for a strange reason (it is set to an absolute height so it shouldn't change in size).

    Div and span is useful, yes, but I also find myself using additional tags to make up the slack. It's not good to overuse divs either. That's why it is best to mix header tags (h2-h7 [technically only one h1 is permitted on a page for accessibility]) and lists into the fray. For example, on my front page each post is a UL>LI element, with the title being a H2 and the text a Paragraph, with the footer being a H3 element. It's really robust and hard to break by changing the font size.

    So... I say yes *IF* attention is paid to what element is being used for what, and in being not just elegant but expedient in design.

    The Wicked Flea, 20th March 2007, 12:33:29 PM

  4. "Galen: Actually, divs and spans (when used properly) scale better than a table based layout. But, like I said, only if they are coded correctly."

    Yeah, I kinda figured it was something like that. I would hope the MyBB coders can make it work properly. If they do this, they seriously need to check the page with IE and it's text size set to "largest."

    Galen, 20th March 2007, 7:23:20 PM

  5. <div's should be used with some caution too..

    If it's a <div-based system overall factor, then adding <div's within <div's becomes a nightmare when creating templates.

    Better to move / center / float a <table, <class with <div's rather than try to use <div's to create the whole environment..

    2c worth.. :)

    Lopalong, 5th April 2007, 12:56:34 PM

  6. nope bad idea.

    ELY_M, 9th April 2007, 1:01:19 AM

  7. tables are best way for presenting list of categories :/

    marines, 15th March 2008, 6:11:37 PM

  8. No <table>-Tags anymore?? Forget it..
    Never.

    As marines said "tables are best way for presenting list of categories :/"

    Kioshi, 19th June 2008, 8:52:57 AM

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