Member Avatar for tefflox

I've looked over the sources (attached) for the "pass" and "fail" pages. The pass page clearly shows the tabs as they are meant to appear, and they function properly. The "fail" page, for reasons unknown to me, does not bring in the right-side of either the off or on tab image. I really need help with this, can't find any idea why it's not working. Please view the images and look at the source pages. Also attached is the CSS for the tabs.

These problems come after refactoring most of the string output from the model into to view.

Thank you.

fail.png 127.74 KB pass.png 121.47 KB
pass_fail_htm_sources.zip (15.55 KB)
tabs_css.zip (1.19 KB)
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Dani AI

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As later noted the page was fixed, but the symptom and the steps below are common enough that they help others who see similar, seemingly-random tab/sprite rendering problems. The checklist focuses on quick, reproducible checks and a few small process changes that prevent the same regression from coming back.

  • Use the browser inspector to confirm the element that should show the tab actually has the sprite assigned in the computed styles (background-image, background-position, size).
  • Check the Network panel to ensure the sprite file loaded (200) and the URL is the one you expect.
  • Inspect the box model (width, display, padding, overflow); a clipped width or overflow: hidden will hide the right edge of a sprite.
  • Temporarily apply a bright background color to the element to see the actual box being laid out; that exposes unexpected margins, floats, or inline/inline-block behavior.
  • Diff the DOM/CSS between the working and broken pages — copy outerHTML or use the inspector to spot missing or mis-nested elements or class differences.
  • Run the markup through the W3C validator to catch stray or unclosed tags that alter layout.

Longer-term: prefer modular, predictable CSS (BEM or scoped classes), use SVG icons or icon systems instead of brittle pixel-offset sprites where practical, and add a visual-regression step to CI so small layout regressions get flagged before they reach users.

Further reading and tools: , CSS background properties — MDN, and the W3C Markup Validation Service. These resources explain the underlying mechanics that usually cause the kinds of problems seen in this thread.

Member Avatar for tefflox

I had forgotten to put <a> elements inside the <li> tab elements. Phew :-)

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