Unlock the Power of Flexbox: A Comprehensive Guide
What is Flexbox?
Flexbox, or the CSS Flexible Box Module, revolutionized the way developers design and build responsive web pages and applications. Introduced in 2009, it has become the go-to layout system for modern web development. With flexbox, you can easily arrange web components and elements without affecting the underlying markup.
Designing a UI with Flexbox
Let’s create a simple calculator interface using flexbox. We’ll start by creating an HTML file, calc.html, and adding basic HTML tags. We’ll set the title of the page to “Calculator (Flexbox)” and specify the viewport width to take the width size of the device it’s loaded on.
Adding a Flex Container
Next, we’ll add a container that will stretch the width of the body and place its items in the center. We’ll set the container to be a flex container, inherit the size from its parent, and specify the flex direction and justification.
Adding Content to a Flex Container
Now, let’s add a wrapper div inside the container. This wrapper will hold the calculator elements. We’ll set the width to 500px and divide the calculator into columns, each containing flex items laid out in a row.
Laying Out the Screens
We’ll add two screens: the input screen and the result screen. Each screen will be rendered in a separate column. We’ll style the screens by setting the background color, width, height, font size, and border styles.
Adding Elements to a Flexbox Layout
Next, we’ll add buttons to our flexbox layout. We’ll set the buttons as follows:
- 1, 2, and 3 in one column
- 4, 5, 6, and + in another column
- 7, 8, 9, and * in yet another column
- CLR, 0, =, and / in another column
Styling Elements in Flexbox
Let’s add some styling to our button elements. We’ll set the bottom, top, and right thickness values, width, font weight, font size, border styles, and text alignment.
Making a Flexbox Layout Responsive
Finally, we’ll make our calculator UI responsive using the @media query CSS code. We’ll set the query to activate when the device width is 500px wide and adjust the wrapper, container, and column widths accordingly.
The Finished Product
Our calculator UI is now complete and responsive! We’ve successfully used flexbox to design a simple yet functional calculator interface. With flexbox, we can easily create complex layouts without writing extensive CSS code.
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