I am listing a bunch of articles on a page by title, date, etc. via bullets. I am using this div to show a standard bullet icon .article { background: url("images/icon_folder.gif") no-repeat; margin: 6px 0 10px; padding-left: 18px; min-height: 16px } == What I want to do is to: - Show a unqiue thumbnail/icon that is sitting in the database to go along with each article when browsing the bullets. Can I do this without setting up a table and all in css?
Your "images/icon_folder.gif" should not be a static file, but a script that takes your image data from the database and serves it out. It does not need to have .gif extension. It may be something like "show_thumbnail.php?id=123". So basically write a script that set content "Content Type" to image/gif grabs binary image from the database and prints it out. Then just include this script as a source of your image.
As HenryB said, if the image itself is not static and is stored in the DB, send it from the php - though I think that is NOT what you are actually asking. This situation is one of the few times I advocate inlining CSS - so long as your icons are all the same size, you're css would be: .article { background-position:0 0; background-repeat:no-repeat; margin: 6px 0 10px; padding-left: 18px; min-height: 16px; } In your CSS, instead of inlining it as a image tag, just assign it as a background to your .article DIV <div class="article" style="background-image:url(show_thumbnail.php?id=123);"> This is one of the few times I would ever inline presentation like that.