CSS
Applications to XML
26-Jul-16
A different emphasis

CSS is the same for XML as it is for HTML, but-



HTML already does a pretty good job of layout (arranging elements on the
page)
XML contains no layout information, so by itself it will typically be
displayed as one single huge blob of text
When writing CSS for XML, typically the first thing you need to
worry about is arranging text on the page
No current browser does a good job of supporting CSS,
particularly when used with XML, so:


You should make sure everyone who views your pages uses the same
version of the same browser (this is possible in some companies), or
You should test your pages in all the most common browsers
2
The display property


Every XML element that is formatted by a CSS
command is considered to be in an invisible “box”
The box containing an XML element can have one of
three display properties:

display: block


display: inline


The element will start on a new line, and so will the element that
follows it (an HTML paragraph is an example)
(default) The element will not start on a new line, or cause the next
element to start on a new line (bold is an HTML example)
display: none

The element is hidden and will not appear on the display
3
CSS units

For many of the remaining CSS values, we will need to be
able to specify size measurements



These are used to specify sizes:
 em
width of the letter ‘m’
 ex
height of the letter ‘x’
 px
pixels (usually 72 per inch, but depends on monitor)
 %
percent of inherited size
These are also used to specify sizes, but don’t really make sense unless
you know the screen resolution:
 in
inches
 cm
centimeters
 mm
millimeters
 pt
points (72pt = 1in)
 pc
picas (1pc = 12pt)
Note: you can use decimal fractions, such as 1.5cm
4
Boxes

The invisible box containing a styled XML element has
three special areas:
The element
padding (invisible)
border (can be colored)
margins (invisible)
5
Padding


Padding is the extra space around an element, but inside
the border
To set the padding, use any or all of:







padding-top: size
padding-bottom: size
padding-left: size
padding-right: size
padding: size to set all four sides at once
size is given in the units described earlier
Example: sidebar {padding: 1em; padding-bottom: 5mm}
6
Borders


You can set border attributes with any or all of: border-top:,
border-bottom:, border-left:, border-right:, and border:
(all at once)
The attributes are:





The thickness of the border: thin, medium (default), thick, or a specific
size (like 3px)
The style of the border: none, dotted, dashed, solid, double, groove,
ridge, inset, or outset
The color of the border: one of the 16 predefined color names, or a hex
value with #rrggbb or rgb(r, g, b) or rgb(r%, g%, b%)
Example: section {border-top: thin solid blue;}
Note: the special styles (such as groove) are not as cool as they
sound
7
Margins



Margins are the extra space outside the border
Setting margins is analogous to setting padding
To set the margins, use any or all of:





margin-top: size
margin-bottom: size
margin-left: size
margin-right: size
margin: size to set all four sides at once
8
Box and display interactions



With display:none, contents are invisible and margin,
border, and padding settings have no effect
With display:block, margin, border, and padding settings
work about as you would expect
With display:inline (which is the default if you don’t
specify otherwise):


Margin, border, and padding settings for left and right work about
as you would expect
Margin, border, and padding settings for top and bottom do not
add extra space above and below the line containing the element

This means that
inline boxes will overlap
other text
9
Sizing elements


Every element has a size and a natural position in
which it would be displayed
You can set the height and width of display:block
elements with:




height: size
width: size
You cannot set the height and width of inline
elements (but you can set left and right margins)
In HTML, you can set the height and width of
images and tables (img and table tags)
10
position:absolute; left: 0in; top: 0in
position:absolute; right: 0in; top: 0in
Setting absolute position

To move an element to an absolute position on the page




position: absolute (this is required!) and also one or more of
left: size or right: size
top: size or bottom: size
Confusing stuff:







size can be positive or negative
top: size puts an element’s top size units from the page top
bottom: size puts an element’s bottom size units from the page bottom
left: size puts an element’s left side size units from the left edge of the page
right: size puts an element’s right side size units from the right edge of the
page
Changing an element’s absolute position removes it from the natural flow, so
other elements fill in the gap
You need to be careful not to overlap other elements
position:absolute; left: 0in; bottom: 0in
position:absolute; right: 0in; bottom: 0in
11
Setting relative position

To move an element relative to its natural position, use




position: relative (this is required!) and also one or more of
left: size or right: size
top: size or bottom: size
Confusing stuff:






size can be positive or negative
to move left, make left negative or right positive
to move right, make right negative or left positive
to move up, make top negative or bottom positive
to move down, make bottom negative or top positive
Setting an element’s position does not affect the position of other
elements, so


There will be a gap in the element’s original, natural position
Unless you are very careful, your element will overlap other elements
12
Pseudo-elements


Pseudo-elements describe “elements” that are not
actually between tags in the XML document
Syntax: element:pseudo-class {...}



first-letter the first character in a block-level element
first-line the first line in a block-level element (depends on the
browser’s current window size)
Especially useful for XML (but not implemented in
Internet Explorer):

before adds material before an element


Example: author:before {content: "by "}
after adds material after an element
13
External style sheets

In HTML, within the <head> element:
<link REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css"
HREF="Style Sheet URL">

As a PI in the prologue of an XML document:
<?xml-stylesheet href="Style Sheet URL" type="text/css"?>

Note: "text/css" is the MIME type
14
Namespace selectors

Namespace selectors (XML only) choose tags from the
given namespace
namespace|element {...} chooses the element if and only if it
is from the given namespace
*|element {...} chooses the element regardless of the
namespace
|element {...} chooses the element if it has no declared
namespace
 Namespace selectors are currently supported only by
Netscape 6
15
Some border styles and values


You can put borders around elements
Borders have width, style, and color




These can be set individually:
 border-left-style:, border-bottom-color:, etc.
Or a border at a time:
 border-top:, border-right:, etc.
Or all borders at once: border:
Available values are:



border-width: thin | medium | thick | length
border-style: none | hidden | dotted | dashed | solid | double |
groove | ridge | inset | outset
border-color: color
16
The End
17