Gain insights into designing mobile-responsive web layouts using Flexbox. Delve into Box Model basics, Flexbox containers, and item alignment, and apply your knowledge to create stunning, mobile-first websites.

CBCA - CSS with Flexbox (Intermediate)-01.jpg

In this course, you will get hands-on experience in designing mobile-responsive web layouts using Flexbox. You will start with the basics like the Box Model and the process of layouting.

You will then move on to advanced concepts such as Flexbox containers, and aligning individual Flexbox items. Near the end of the course, you will put everything you just learned into practice. You will work on a project that focuses on developing a mobile-first website where you’ll experiment with page layout, headers, footers, and a lot more.

By the end of this course, you will be able to use Flexbox in your own projects to create beautiful layouts.

Designing Web Layouts with CSS and Flexbox

# Handling orphan item wrapping

The `flex-wrap: wrap;` rule of Flexboxes work well when Flex items occupy the whole width of their container.

However, when there is an orphan Flex item at the bottom, the layout containing these items may become unconventional.

For instance, let's add a seventh Flex item to the container of blog posts: 

<html>
 <head>
 </head>
 <body id="home">
    <header>
      <h2 class="header-title">Flexbox Blog</h2>
      <nav class="header-navigation">
        <a href="#home" class="nav-link">Home</a>
        <a href="#posts" class="nav-link">Blog</a> 
        <a href="#contact" class="nav-link">Contact</a>
      </nav>
    </header>
    <main>
      <section class="main-banner">
        <h2 class="main-title">Flexblog Gems<h3>
        <p class="main-tagline">Learn everything about Flexbox</p>
      </section>
      <section class="blogposts" id="posts">
        <div class="blogpost">
          <img
            src="/udata/WPVy7kaW8e6/720x480.png" 
            alt="placeholder image"
            class="blogpost-thumbnail" />
          <h3 class="blogpost-title">First post</h3>
          <p class="blogpost-preview">This is an example post.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="blogpost">
          <img
            src="/udata/WPVy7kaW8e6/720x480.png" 
            alt="placeholder image"
            class="blogpost-thumbnail" />
          <h3 class="blogpost-title">Second post</h3>
          <p class="blogpost-preview">This is an example post.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="blogpost highlighted">
          <img
            src="/udata/WPVy7kaW8e6/720x480.png" 
            alt="placeholder image"
            class="blogpost-thumbnail" />
          <h3 class="blogpost-title">Third post</h3>
          <p class="blogpost-preview">This is an example post.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="blogpost d-none d-sm-block">
          <img
            src="/udata/WPVy7kaW8e6/720x480.png" 
            alt="placeholder image"
            class="blogpost-thumbnail" />
          <h3 class="blogpost-title">Fourth post</h3>
          <p class="blogpost-preview">This is an example post.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="blogpost d-none d-sm-block">
          <img
            src="/udata/WPVy7kaW8e6/720x480.png" 
            alt="placeholder image"
            class="blogpost-thumbnail" />
          <h3 class="blogpost-title">Fifth post</h3>
          <p class="blogpost-preview">This is an example post.</p>
        </div> 
        <div class="blogpost d-none d-sm-block">
          <img
            src="/udata/WPVy7kaW8e6/720x480.png" 
            alt="placeholder image"
            class="blogpost-thumbnail" />
          <h3 class="blogpost-title">Sixth post</h3>
          <p class="blogpost-preview">This is an example post.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="blogpost d-none d-sm-block">
          <img
            src="/udata/WPVy7kaW8e6/720x480.png" 
            alt="placeholder image"
            class="blogpost-thumbnail" />
          <h3 class="blogpost-title">Seventh post</h3>
          <p class="blogpost-preview">This is an example post.</p>
        </div>        
      </section>
      <section class="contact-form" id="contact">
        Contact form
      </section>      
    </main>
    <footer class="footer">
      <a href="#home" class="footer-link">Home</a>
      <a href="#posts" class="footer-link">Blog</a> 
      <a href="#contact" class="footer-link">Contact</a>
    </footer>
 </body>
</html>

* {
  margin: 0; 
  padding: 0; 
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

header, footer {
  background-color: lightgreen;
  min-height: 100px;
  border: 1px solid black;
}

header {
  padding-top: 20px;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between;
}

.header-title {
  margin-left: 20px;
}

.header-navigation {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: flex-end;
}

.nav-link {
  margin-right: 20px;
}

.main-banner {
  background-color: lightsalmon;
  min-height: 100px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 20px 0;
  text-align: center;
}

.blogposts {
  background-color: lightblue;
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
}

.blogpost {
  min-height: 100px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 20px;
}

.blogpost-thumbnail {
  width: 100%;
}

.blogpost-title, .blogpost-preview {
  margin: 10px 0;
}

.contact-form {
  background-color: lightyellow;
  min-height: 100px;
  border: 1px solid black;
}

.footer {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  height: 100px;
}

.footer-link {
  font-size: 10px;
  margin: 15px;
}

.d-none {
  display: none;
}

.blogpost.highlighted {
    order: -1;
    background-color: lightskyblue;
}

@media only screen and (min-width: 600px) {
    body {
      width: 600px;
      margin: 0 auto;
    }

    .d-sm-block {
      display: block;
    }

    .blogpost {
      width: 50%;
    }
}

@media only screen and (min-width: 800px) {
  body {
    width: 700px;
  }

  .blogpost {
    width: 33.33%;
  }
}

codemirror

In this example, we did not encounter any problems, because the `justify-content` property of the blog post container was not set. This implies the default value `flex-start` was applied on the seven blog posts, positioning the last post to the left.

However, if you check out the styling of the `.blogposts` container in the above editor, you can easily add a `justify-content` rule to override the default behavior. For instance, adding `space-around` will result in the following styles: 

```css
.blogposts {
  background-color: lightblue;
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  justify-content: space-around;
}
``` 


## Conclusion

While `flex-end` rarely occurs in western layouts, a `flex-end` value would position the seventh blog post just below the sixth blog post on the right. We will not deal with this problem, but we do highlight problems with the other four values of `justify-content`.

Both `center`, `space-around`, `space-between`, or `space-evenly` can be feasible settings for a gallery or for blogposts, whenever we use Flexbox to create gaps between adjacent Flex items. All these four settings result in a layout, where the seventh blog post is placed at the center of the page. This solution is often undesirable.

If your task is to create a gallery, you may be better off exactly determining the dimensions of all Flex items inside your Flexbox so that you don't have to deal with left aligning the last Flex items.


In this lesson, we will add a seventh blog post and position it using Flexbox.

Getting Started

Using Flexbox Containers

Aligning Individual Flexbox Items

Designing a Mobile-first Website Using Flexbox

Flexbox Conclusion and Next Steps

Flexbox Wrapping in Incomplete Rows

Handling orphan item wrapping