Why are they still using tables for layout?

balinor · #21 07-12-2010, 07:45 AM

I dunno...they have been getting better about the beta testing of late. Used to be 6-9 months for a stable release, but 4.3.x was pretty workable at 4.3.1, and that wasn't that long after the beta.

hoosierglass · #22 07-12-2010, 07:47 AM

Yeah but 4.3 wasn't that far off of 4.1 or 4.2, just a bit of ajax added. They should of had very minor fixes for those releases.
v.5 is totally different so the learning curve will be more extreme.

cflsystems · #23 07-12-2010, 07:49 AM

If we ever get to see it...

ARW VISIONS · #24 07-12-2010, 07:52 AM

back to the original subject, are tables used becasue of the adjustable nature of products_t.tpl 1,2 or 3 column layout?

how could you count cells and adjust div width with css dynamically?

balinor · #25 07-12-2010, 07:55 AM

You don't need to count the cells with a <div> - they will wrap automatically based on the room available. Had a few clients want the number of products to increase with the width of the browser screen (dynamic layout) and divs work great.

ARW VISIONS · #26 07-12-2010, 08:39 AM

I understand that, but the admin area give you an option to have 1,2 or 3 column. For the non-pro store owner this option is nice. Not everyone has a Balinor in their back pocket

ARW VISIONS · #27 07-12-2010, 08:40 AM

PS - we need to start a store that sells back pocket clones of Balinor!!!!

joncampbell · #28 07-12-2010, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashley

PS - we need to start a store that sells back pocket clones of Balinor!!!!

Once purchased will it work for free forever?

gb2world · #29 07-12-2010, 01:28 PM

Quote:

how could you count cells and adjust div width with css dynamically?

You can set a countdown using smarty based on the administrative setting to insert a div that does a clear:both to start a new line.

If I recall correctly - X-CART used a table for product listings on a multi-column block because they were trying to keep uniform row heights, and it was easier to use a table rather than use css because of the way they were looping through the data. If you happen to have different heights of pictures, and product descriptions and prices are different heights, then you need to resolve all that in the css to keep the rows lined up, whereas using a table, the row heights set up in a grid, so it is easier to account for all the possibilities that users might require.

Sisom · #30 07-13-2010, 09:04 AM

Couldn't they use a container div to contain one, two or three product boxes (horizontally), and use Smarty to decide whether to loop once, or twice, to show two or three boxes horizontally within that container div?

The strange thing is that the way they have set up the table in 4.3.2 is a hundred times worse than it was in 4.1 - 4.1 works fine, I can put the product box in one table cell, whereas 4.3.2 uses a table cell for each part of the product box, the product title, price, etc.etc.