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HTML Pages with CSS and JavaScript

Centering Form on HTML page

Ranch Hand

Posts: 71

posted 4 years ago

I have a Spring MVC project using Thymeleaf. I have a submission given by the following file:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      xmlns:th="http://www.thymeleaf.org">
  <head>
    <title>Spitter</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" 
          th:href="@{/resources/style.css}"></link>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="header" th:include="page :: header"></div>

<div id="content">
      <h1>Register</h1>
  
      <form method="POST" th:object="${spitter}">
        <div class="errors" th:if="${#fields.hasErrors('*')}">
                <h3>Please fix the following error(s)</h3>
          <ul>
            <li class="errmsgs" th:each="err : ${#fields.errors('*')}" 
                th:text="${err}">Input is incorrect</li>
          </ul>
        </div>
        
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('firstName')}? 'error'">First Name</label>:<br/>
        <input type="text" th:field="*{firstName}"  
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('firstName')}? 'error'" /><br/>
   
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('lastName')}? 'error'">Last Name</label>:<br/>
        <input type="text" th:field="*{lastName}"
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('lastName')}? 'error'" /><br/>
    
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('email')}? 'error'">Email</label>:<br/>
        <input type="text" th:field="*{email}"
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('email')}? 'error'" /><br/>
   
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('username')}? 'error'">Username</label>:<br/>
        <input type="text" th:field="*{username}"
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('username')}? 'error'" /><br/>
       
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('password')}? 'error'">Password</label>:<br/>
        <input type="password" th:field="*{password}"  
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('password')}? 'error'" /><br/>
   
        <label>Confirm Password</label>:<br/>
        <input type="password" th:field="*{confirmPassword}" /><br/>

The css file is

I want to align the <label>s and <input>s and center them, so I modified the form to be a CSS table. I changed the
HTML file to enclose the <label>s and <input>s with <p></p> as follows:

<h1>Register</h1>
  
      <form method="POST" th:object="${spitter}">
        <div class="errors" th:if="${#fields.hasErrors('*')}">
                <h3>Please fix the following error(s)</h3>
          <ul>
            <li class="errmsgs" th:each="err : ${#fields.errors('*')}" 
                th:text="${err}">Input is incorrect</li>
          </ul>
        </div>
     
        <p>
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('firstName')}? 'error'">First Name</label>:
        <input type="text" th:field="*{firstName}"  
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('firstName')}? 'error'" />
        </p>
        <p>
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('lastName')}? 'error'">Last Name</label>:
        <input type="text" th:field="*{lastName}"
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('lastName')}? 'error'" />
        </p>
        <p>
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('email')}? 'error'">Email</label>:
        <input type="text" th:field="*{email}"
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('email')}? 'error'" />
        </p>
        <p>
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('username')}? 'error'">Username</label>:
        <input type="text" th:field="*{username}"
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('username')}? 'error'" />
        </p>
        <p>
        <label th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('password')}? 'error'">Password</label>:
        <input type="password" th:field="*{password}"  
                 th:class="${#fields.hasErrors('password')}? 'error'" />
        </p>
        <p>
        <label>Confirm Password</label>:
        <input type="password" th:field="*{confirmPassword}" />
        </p>
        <p>
        <input type="submit" value="Register" />
        </p>
      
      </form>
    
    <div id="footer" th:include="page :: copy"></div>
  </body>
</html>

Then I added the following to my CSS file:

This aligned the <label>s and <input>s, but does not center them. The before and after shots look like:

spittr.png

spittrleft.png

Bear Bibeault

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Posts: 67420

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posted 4 years ago

So what's your question?

Also, it's best to show the client-side markup in this forum, rather than the server-side source.

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Mike Tabak

Ranch Hand

Posts: 71

posted 4 years ago

Bear Bibeault wrote:So what's your question?

Also, it's best to show the client-side markup in this forum, rather than the server-side source.

My question is I was able to align the <input>s and <labels>s, but now the form shifted to left justification. I want
to keep the form centered as in the first image.

Bear Bibeault

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Posts: 67420

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posted 4 years ago

OK, to be honest, I'd backtrack quite a bit -- there'a lot of unnecessary complexity both in your markup, and in your CSS.

Then, to center the form itself:

Make sure the form is a block element (it is by default, but if there's anything making it otherwise, you need to make sure it's a block element)

Give the form a width; it can be a percentage if you want.

Make the left and right margin auto.

That's it. That will center the form block on the page.

Remove all the excess styling you have now.

You can then style the interior as you see fit.

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Bear Bibeault

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Posts: 67420

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posted 4 years ago

I'd also avoid using the <p> tag here -- forms are not text paragraphs. You should strive to keep your HTML as semantic as possible.'

Also, at this stage, all new pages should be HTML5; XHTML is long dead and buried.

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