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CSS

Posted by Jerrrell Tan
Jerrrell Tan
5,607 Points

How did the ::after pseudo element appear on top the actual element?

(from Pseudo-Elements Challenge in the CSS Selectors course)

The progress indicator was made using the ::after pseudo element. How was the ::after pseudo element made to appear on top the <div> element?

here's the code from the challenge:

index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Selectors</title>
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="page.css">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
    <div class="progbar"></div> 
    <a href="http://teamtreehouse.com">Check out the URL: </a>
</body>
</html>
style.css 
.progbar::after {
  content: "";
  display: block;
  width: 50%;
  height: 100%;
  border-radius: inherit;
    background-color: #5ece7f;
}

.progbar::before {
  content: "";
    display: block;
    width: 24px;
    height: 24px;
    border-radius: 50%;
    position: absolute;
    left: 49%;
    top: -9px;
    background-color: #7dd898; 
}

.progbar {
  height: 6px;
  border-radius: 3px;
  background: #d6d7d9;
  position: relative;
  margin-bottom: 3.875em; 
}

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

The <div> element has no content initially, just a background color. So the ::after pseudo-element becomes content and is displayed on top.

You could get the same effect if you added content directly to the html:

    <div class="progbar">
      <div class="inside"></div>
    </div>

And then change the ".progbar::after" rule to select ".inside" instead.

Jerrrell Tan
Jerrrell Tan
5,607 Points

oohh right. I didn't realize that. I kept visualizing them as separate element/pseudo-elements instead of the ::after actually being contained in the <div>. Thank you!!