Practical Guide to CSS Flexbox

Flexbox is one-dimensional layout that allow the content to sit side-by-side. To understand about flexbox, consider the below structure of HTML:

<div class="flex"> <!-- parent HTML div / flex container -->
    <div class="box">1</div> <!-- child HTML div / flex items -->
    <div class="box">2</div> <!-- child HTML div / flex items -->
</div>

In the above HTML, div with the class of .flex wraps the child div with the class of .box. To make the child div layout in row/column, we can assign display: flex CSS property to the parent div.

The possible CSS property we can assign to the parent div is listed below:

Sr# CSS Properties (flex container) Description Possible Values
1. display: flex Allow the content to sit side-by-side flex, inline-flex
2. flex-direction: row Specify how flex items (child) are place in flex container (parent) row, row-reverse, column, column-reverse
3. flex-wrap: wrap Allow the flex items to wrap into multiple lines nowrap, wrap, wrap-reverse
3. justify-content: flex-start align flex items along the main axis flex-start, flex-end, center, space-between, space-around, space-evenly
3. align-items: center align flex items along the cross axis. stretch, flex-start, flex-end, baseline, auto
3. align-content: stretch aligns a flex container’s lines within the flex container flex-start, flex-end, center, space-between, space-around, stretch

The above CSS properties applies only to the parent div (flex container). We can visiualize thes CSS property for flexbox that can assign to the parent div as below:

FlexBox


We can make the flex item inside of flex container to take more avalible space using flex property. By default, each of the flex items takes the same available space.

The CSS properties that we can use for flex items (child) as mentioned below.

Sr# CSS Properties (flex items) Description Possible Values
1. flex-grow It allow the child box to fill the remaining content area 0, 1
2. flex-shrink It define the content flex shrink factor to the provided . greater or equal to zero (0)
3. flex-basis It accepts the same values as the width and height property, plus content. 0% to 100%, content, auto
3. order: -1; Arrange of the flex items in repective order. -1, 0, 1
3. align-self: baseline Align the flex item along the cross axis. auto, stretch, flex-start, flex-end, center, baseline

If you are looking for flexbox cheatsheet, you can visit this link.

FlexBox Example

To understand about FlexBox, We work on example to layout article content. Below, you can preview what we are make in this example.

Flex Example

You can view the full source code at CodePen. Link below.

https://codepen.io/taimoorsattar/pen/gOMOvex

👆👆👆

In the HTML, you can paste the below code and can customize it with images and text.

<div class="wrapper">
  <div class="flex">
    
    <!-- Feature Article (100% of space) -->
    <div class="flex-item flex-item--feature">
      <img src="https://i.picsum.photos/id/512/300/100.jpg?hmac=sc8hRQLFQFIAMBMm9e7crSQlzbtRFRbqZE4N_fMhooY" alt="cat" />
      <h2>Article #1: Your headline here.</h2>
      <p>Your Text here</p>
    </div>
    
    <!-- Previous Article (1/3 of space) -->
    <div class="flex-item">
      <img src="https://i.picsum.photos/id/1081/300/200.jpg?hmac=fbKeKxgZkfNvHihq19otFEq3XIIskrkKx0agOvAsFlI" alt="cat" />
      
      <h2>Article #2: Your headline here.</h2>
      <p>Your Text here.</p>
    </div>
    
    <!-- Previous Article (1/3 of space) -->
    <div class="flex-item">
      <img src="https://i.picsum.photos/id/1081/300/200.jpg?hmac=fbKeKxgZkfNvHihq19otFEq3XIIskrkKx0agOvAsFlI" alt="cat" />
      <h2>Article #3: Your headline here.</h2>
      <p>Your Text here</p>
    </div>
    
    <!-- Previous Article (1/3 of space) -->
    <div class="flex-item">
      <img src="https://i.picsum.photos/id/107/300/200.jpg?hmac=1ChAQunGwvU9ZitmS9YO3D5NBW_bFoYG1mg_5qWfAZ4" alt="cat" />
      
      
      <h2>Article #4: Your headline here.</h2>
      <p>Your Text here.</p>

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

The above HTML code structure as below:

.wrapper
└── .flex
|    └──.flex-item .flex-item--feature
|    |	├── <img>
|    |	└── <h2>
|    | └── <p>
|
└── .flex
|    └──.flex-item
|    |	├── <img>
|    |	└── <h2>
|    | └── <p>

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In CSS, we define the wrapper class to center the .wrapper content at the center of the page as below.

.wrapper{
  width: 960px;
  margin: auto;
}
.flex{
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row;
  flex-wrap: wrap; /*  wrap content to next line */
  gap: 15px; /* 15px space between each box */
}

/* Previous article takes 1/3 of space */
.flex-item{
  flex: 1;
  flex-basis: 25%; /* takes 1/3 of space including spacing. */
  background-color: #f9f9f9;
  border: 1px solid lightgrey;
  padding: 10px 15px;
  border-radius: 5px;
}

/* Feature article takes 100% of space */
.flex-item--feature{
  flex-basis: 100%;
}

To add some styling to the image, we use below CSS properties.

.flex-item img{
  width: 100%;
  height: auto;
  border-radius: 3px;
  box-shadow: 2px 1px 1px #ccc;
}

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