Background image is not displayed in Firefox

Question

An image set as the background of a DIV is displayed in IE, but not in Firefox.

CSS example:

div.something {
background:transparent url(../images/table_column.jpg) repeat scroll 0 0;
}

(The issue is described in many places but haven't seen any conclusive explanation or fix.)

Answer 1

Sorry this got huge, but it covers two possibilities that consistently happen to me.

Possibility 1

You may find the path to the CSS file isn't correct. For example:

Say I have the following file structure:

public/
    css/
        global.css
    images/
        background.jpg
    something/
        index.html
    index.html

On public/index.html the following paths will include the CSS file:

#1:  <link href="./css/global.css"
#2:  <link href="/css/global.css"
#3:  <link href="css/global.css"

However on public/something/index.html number 1 and 3 will fail. If you are using a directory structure like this (or an MVC structure e.g.: http://localhost/controller/action/params) use the second href type.

Firebug's Net monitor tab will tell you if the CSS file can't be included.

On the subject of paths remember that images are relative to the path of the CSS file. So:

url('./images/background.jpg') /* won't work */
url('../images/background.jpg') /* works: ../ == up one level */

Hover over the url() part of the background attribute in Firebug's CSS tab to check if the file's being loaded.

Possibility 2

It could be that the div has no content and thus has a 0 height. Make sure the div has at least a line of something in (e.g.: lorem ipsum delors secorum) or:

div.something {
    display: block; /* for verification */
    min-height: 50px;
    min-width: 50px;
}

Check Firebug's layout tab (of the HTML tab) to check the div has a height/width.

Answer 2

Strangely enough, after smashing my head on the keyboard for hours, I added display:table; to the DIV's style and the background image magically appeared in FF.