position elements within <div>

Question

I would like to place all the child pictures within the defined gray (#999) div element. I specified relative top and left elements but the pics get placed all the way down in my document rather than relative within my div only- why is that? How do I get this going correctly?

<div style="height:400px;width:600px; background-color:#999999">
<?php

// Hiding notices:
error_reporting(E_ALL^E_NOTICE);

?>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="demo.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet"     href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/themes/ui-darkness/jquery-ui.css" type="text/css" media="all" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="fancybox/jquery.fancybox-1.2.6.css" />


<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.7.2/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="gallery/fancybox/jquery.fancybox-1.2.6.pack.js">        </script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="gallery/script.js"></script>

<div id="main">
<div id="gallery">

<?php

/* Configuration Start */

$thumb_directory = 'gallery/img/thumbs';
$orig_directory = 'gallery/img/original';

$stage_width=400;   // How big is the area the images are scattered on
$stage_height=300;

/* Configuration end */

$allowed_types=array('jpg','jpeg','gif','png');
$file_parts=array();
$ext='';
$title='';
$i=0;

/* Opening the thumbnail directory and looping through all the thumbs: */

$dir_handle = @opendir($thumb_directory) or die("There is an error with your image     directory!");

$i=1;
while ($file = readdir($dir_handle)) 
{
/* Skipping the system files: */
if($file=='.' || $file == '..') continue;

$file_parts = explode('.',$file);
$ext = strtolower(array_pop($file_parts));

/* Using the file name (withouth the extension) as a image title: */
$title = implode('.',$file_parts);
$title = htmlspecialchars($title);

/* If the file extension is allowed: */ 
if(in_array($ext,$allowed_types))
{
    /* Generating random values for the position and rotation: */
    $left=rand(0,$stage_width);
    $top=rand(0,$stage_height);
    $rot = rand(-45,45);

    if($top>$stage_height-130 && $left > $stage_width-230)
    {
        /* Prevent the images from hiding the drop box */
        $top-=120+130;
        $left-=230;
    }

    /* Outputting each image: */

    echo '
    <div id="pic-'.($i++).'" class="pic" style="height:100px; width:138px; top:'.$top.'px;left:'.$left.'px;background:url('.$thumb_directory.'/'.$file.') no-repeat; -moz-transform:rotate('.$rot.'deg); -webkit-transform:rotate('.$rot.'deg); position: relative;">
    <a class="fancybox" rel="fncbx" href="/dev/'.$orig_directory.'/'.$file.'" target="_blank">'.$title.'</a>
    </div>';
}
}

/* Closing the directory */
closedir($dir_handle);

?>
</div>
</div>
</div>

link: http://inetgate.ca/dev/portfolio

Answer 1

If you want to use the top and left properties, set position: absolute; on the divs, and position: relative; on their parent (#gallery).

You can use these two css rules:

#gallery {
  position: relative;
}

.pic {
  position: absolute;
}

Answer 2

Make the divs containing the images

position: absolute;

Here

echo '
<div id="pic-'.($i++).'" class="pic" style="height:100px; width:138px; top:'.$top.'px;left:'.$left.'px;background:url('.$thumb_directory.'/'.$file.') no-repeat; -moz-transform:rotate('.$rot.'deg); -webkit-transform:rotate('.$rot.'deg); position: absolute;">
<a class="fancybox" rel="fncbx" href="/dev/'.$orig_directory.'/'.$file.'" target="_blank">'.$title.'</a>
</div>';