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Creating a Flex Container
4:50Now that you know the basic concepts and terminology, you're ready to learn the first step in creating a flexbox layout: defining the flex container.
Now that you know the basic concepts and
terminology, you're ready to learn
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the first step in creating a flex box
layout, defining the flex container.
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To follow along using Workspaces,
launch the Workspace on this page.
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You can also download the files to
follow along with your own text editor,
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if you prefer.
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In the Workspaces, in the index.html file
you'll see a div with the class container.
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Nested inside the container div are six
divs that share the class item.
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In the CSS folder you'll see
the files flexbox.css and page.css.
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In page.css I've added some
base styles for the page.
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You can see the base styles once you
preview the Workspace in the browser.
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As you can see, the container has
a white background color, and
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the item divs inside have
a light blue background color.
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There's also a five pixel
margin around the item divs.
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We're going to write our Flexbox
layout styles here inside flexbox.css.
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Currently, the item divs are in
the normal document flow.
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They display as stacked
block level elements
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in the order they appear in the mark up.
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When you apply Flexbox layout to
these items, you can place them
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anywhere in the container, for example,
if you make them appear side by side, and
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make the last item appear first,
or even second, third or fourth.
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Before you can use any Flexbox property,
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you need to define a flex
container in your layout.
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So, I'm going to make the parent
container div, the flex container.
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Flexbox gives you a whole new way
of using the CSS display property.
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You create a flex container by setting
the display property of an element
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to one of the Flexbox layout styles.
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So inside flexbox.css I'm
going to create a new rule
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that targets the class container.
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I'll give it a display property and
set the value to flex.
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Now I've established a flex formatting
context inside the container div.
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So every item div inside the container
div automatically becomes a flex item.
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So let's take a look at how the value
flex changed the container's layout.
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I'll save my style sheet, and
once I refresh the browser,
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we're now seeing the default
behavior of Flexbox layout.
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So the flex items are laid out
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horizontally on the main
axis from left to right.
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And they're also laid out on the cross
axis from the top start side
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to the bottom inside
of the flex container.
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So that means that the flex items expand
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to fill the full height
of the flex container.
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So let's what happens when I increase
the height of the container.
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Back inside flexbox.css
I'll give the container
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rule a height property and
set the value to 300 pixels.
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As you can see, the flex items stretch
to fill the flex container height.
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They're stretched from top to bottom.
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So from the start of the cross axis
to the end side of the cross axis.
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So now we have a Flexbox layout.
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Pretty simple so far, right?
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By default, display flex creates
a block level flex container.
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The flex container takes up a full line,
but
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it doesn't have to take up a full
line if you don't want it to.
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The display value inline-flex creates an inline level flex container.
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As you can see, there is no difference
in the effect on flex items.
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The flex container now behaves
like an inline element and
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takes up as much space as its content.
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So it can lay out beside other inline
content, but I'll go ahead and
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change the display value back to flex.
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Remember in Flexbox any element outside
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a flex container is not
affected by the Flexbox layout.
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Only children of a flex container
automatically become flex items.
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So that means if I add a new div
outside of the container div,
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it will not be affected
by flex box properties
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unless I also set its display
value to flex or inline-flex.
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We're just getting started.
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In the next section of the course,
you'll start to see why Flexbox is one of
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the most intelligent and efficient layout
solutions in web design and development.
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You're gonna learn advanced
Flexbox properties for
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layout direction, order,
alignment, sizing, and more.
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And after that,
you'll build a responsive webpage layout
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using your new Flexbox skills.
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