Show background image that repeats on y axis? - html

Question

This is a relatively small project that I've been working on however it's driving me insane...
I'm trying to port my original website (which was done completely in Dreamweaver, HTML) to a Visual Studio 2013 ASP.NET project where I can add databases, login's etc. for an assignment I have.
The main problem I have is the fact that my CSS code does not want to do what I tell it to do in terms of the layout.
I've tried completely remaking the website entirely step by step, making sure each aspect works correctly before moving on to the next.
This is what my original website looks like:
http://i.stack.imgur.com/sxfeg.png
(Original HTML + CSS) https://gist.github.com/anonymous/7ed94218f9374d41918e
Now, I used a template a long time back in order to get this design and I've experimented to see which CSS code affects the layout and found that the tag main_container (line 13 of the HTML gist) controls the white background of the website.
So if I remove the tag, this will happen: http://i.stack.imgur.com/BFNLE.png
^ This is important in my problem.
When porting over my website, I copied across all the code correctly and adapted it to ASP. (See Gist: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/9c09befeb8950f4c1416)
However, in doing so, I encountered a problem where the CSS code for the main_container was not being used correctly.
#main_container{
width:977px;
background:url(center_bg_repeat.gif) repeat-y center;
The image was not being repeated on the y axis like on the original website and here's the result: http://i.stack.imgur.com/E4TZU.png
Have I got the syntax wrong? Or what is wrong with my code?
I've placed all the images in the same folder as the CSS file for
convenience.
Is this a problem with Visual Studio 2013 or am I doing something
fundamentally wrong?
Is there perhaps another way to port this same design without
causing so many problems?

Answer 1

I'm not entirely clear on what you want to achieve but if it is the same layout as your original site, then it is better to replicate the html and css exactly first to get it working then look at restructuring or refactoring the code. For example, check that all element sizing is the same so that content displays as you expect.
There are a couple of key differences between your original and new code that could affect the behaviour in the new version of your site. In your original css you don't have a repeat style for center_bg_repeat.gif. Also, it looks like #main_container isn't referenced in your original code.
Repeating a background image won't cause content to repeat across the page. You are already including your content in your new html so you just need to use positioning (e.g. floats vs relative/absolute positioning) to get the tiles to layout in the way you want (see code snippet for an example).
html, body, .container
{
height: 100%;
min-height: 100%;
}
.tile {
float: left;
width: 20%;
height: 30%;
margin: 10px;
padding: 20px;
background-color: #ccc;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="tile">first</div>
<div class="tile">third</div>
<div class="tile">second</div>
<div class="tile">fourth</div>
<div class="tile">last</div>
</div>
In your case, if you want #main_container to scale to fit the content then set its style to min-height: 100%;