Question

I found this neat tip on how to equally space divs within a container:
Fluid width with equally spaced DIVs

I tried it out using static HTML and it works just fine:

<div class="category_area">
<div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside"><h2><a href="#">Test</a></h2></div></div>
<div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside">B</div></div>
<div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside">C</div></div>
<div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside">D</div></div>
<span class="stretch"></span></div>

And then I did this programatically with PHP:

<?php
echo "<div class='category_area'>";
for ($i=0;$i<4;$i++) {
    echo "<div class='news_box shadow'><div class='inside'><h2><a href='#'>Test</a></h2></div></div>";
}
echo "<span class='stretch'></span></div>";

However, the PHP version does not work although when I view the source through the browser the resulting HTML is identical. I am thinking this is because of the way PHP is rendered.

Here’s my CSS:

.category_area {
    text-align:justify;
    -ms-text-justify:distribute-all-lines;
    text-justify:distribute-all-lines;
}

.category_area .news_box {
    width:200px;
    height:250px;
    vertical-align:top;
    display:inline-block;
    *display:inline;
    zoom:1;
    background:#fff;
    padding:10px;
}

.category_area .news_box .inside {
    display:block;
}

.stretch {
    width:100%;
    display:inline-block;
    font-size:0;
    line-height:0;
}

.shadow {
    -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 4px #999;
   -webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 4px #999;
    box-shadow: 3px 3px 4px #999;
    /* For IE 8 */
    -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color='#999999')";
    /* For IE 5.5 - 7 */
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color='#999999');
}

Here’s how it looks when the source is viewed through the browser (static one):

<div class="category_area">
<div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside"><h2><a href="#">Test</a></h2></div></div>
<div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside">B</div></div>
<div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside">C</div></div>
<div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside">D</div></div>
<span class="stretch"></span></div>

PHP version:

<div class='category_area'><div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside"><h2><a href="#">Test</a></h2></div></div><div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside"><h2><a href="#">Test</a></h2></div></div><div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside"><h2><a href="#">Test</a></h2></div></div><div class="news_box shadow"><div class="inside"><h2><a href="#">Test</a></h2></div></div><span class="stretch"></span></div>

Any tips on how to make this work?

Answer 1

You are missing whitespace (line breaks in your html sample) – which is one of the reasons I personally try to avoid any such inline-block workarounds.

Adding a line break or a space would fix it for you:

for ($i=0;$i<4;$i++) {
    echo "\r\n<div class='news_box shadow'><div class='inside'><h2><a href='#'>Test</a></h2></div></div>";
}

Or, for somewhat more readable (imo) markup:

for ($i=0;$i<4;$i++) { ?>
  <div class="news_box shadow">
    <div class="inside">
      <h2><a href="#">Test</a></h2>
    </div>
  </div>
<?php }