Specifying css style file for class - html

I am trying to make an existing website responsive using Bootstrap. The issue is that some classnames in the existing css files there are classes defined that have the same name as in the Bootstrap css files.
I was curious, if there is a way to define the stylesheet to be used as a source for the class styles?
Imagine that there is container class defined in the original CSS files and the container class defined in the Bootstrap CSS. Is it possible to somehow distinguish between them? Or only renaming will do the trick?

Think on it well before dealing with this.
You can link one or another css on the declaration, but obviously it will work only the linked one on this view. (recommended if you don't need both)
If you link both (not recommended), the load of each can be different that you expect, creating visual glitches or loosing usabillity.
You can deal with load times expecting it to load as it's supposed (the first linked before the second one) that it's a bad idea because it depends on many things to work as it's supposed, or using javascript to make some stylesheet load after (not recommended).
Use !important statement (highly not recommended)
Why it's not recommended?
You will be overriding properties and values, making it unstable and increasing your load time, specially if you use javascript.
You'll loose the control over which property the browser is applying to an object and which not. Specially because Bootstrap will take preference over some properties even if the other css loads after (due to well accurated selectors).
!important, ironically is less important than a well accurated selector, so it only work sometimes dealing with Bootstrap. By the other part, it will make difficult each time you need to override a property value (try not to override if possible, but if needed, it's recommendable to use better selectors or different classnames or IDs to get a clean maintainable code).
What you can do?
you've different options.
The first one (the best one) is split this custom css into different css stylesheets depending on the view are needed, to avoid loading styles when there's no reference to them. The second step is to clean those css files, changing classnames to not interfere with bootstrap, and deleting possible duplicate or override of properties that bootstrap already has. You'll have a clean, fast and pretty css.
The second one is to change classnames on your css and cleaning it of possible override of properties that interfere with bootstrap.
The fastest one, if you hate a little the web owner, is simply changing classnames on your custom css, and the references to them on your HTML plus bootstrap classes:
< div class="customContainer container"> ...
And start praying for the overrides to don't cause glitches on some version of some browser.
EDIT:
You've another option, that is editing bootstrap framework classnames, which is not recommended because you'll need to produce documentation and will be less maintainable (loads of programers/designers know bootstrap but not your modified bootstrap), and you'll have to waste loads of time doing it well.

Just add a custom class like "custom-container" and add style to this class.

Rename the classes is the option for existing css. Same name is not option.

Change your initial class names as the default bootstrap classes are needed to make your site responsive, or better still do an edit of the bootstrap bundle

Step 1:
Load your custom css file after you load your bootstrap.
<link href="css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="css/custom.css" rel="stylesheet">
If that is still not working just add it as important. But avoid using this trick as it can override styling from base.
Eg:
p {
color: red !important;
}
Step 2:(better one)
You can use IDs for styling.
#custom_id p{
color: red;
}
<body id="custom_id">

I will recommend you to use ID, because id is unique and use for specific styles. its always good to use rather than using !important on class properties later. Another option is rename classes.

First add bootstrap css and then add your css. The style in your class will override the bootstrap class styles(some styles in bootstrap are made important so that classes you should make important in your style).

Related

How to debug CSS specificity problems?

I've developing an app with Vue, and a third-party template, and dynamic plugins, and all kinds of trickery. I'm have a really hard time with the CSS.
Often I need to style particular element on the page, an <input> for example, and I can't figure out how to write a selector that actually works. The input may have been created dynamically by some Javascript and may have had CSS applied programmatically.
So I go to Firefox Web Developer, click on the element, and see a bunch of CSS classes. I create a rule:
.myCustomClass {
color: red;
}
put myCustomClass in the class="" tag in the <input>, and... nothing.
I'm thinking I need to prefix it like this:
.someOuterClass .someInnerClass .myCustomClass {
color: red;
}
but that rarely works. Sometimes I give up and add !important. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn't.
So my question is, can I examine the classes that I can see in Web Developer and somehow derive a rule that is specific enough that it will always work?
I've read about specificity, but it's not helping.
Specificity is a PITA sometimes, especially when other 3rd party libraries are adding stuff to the mix.
Here are a few things you can try:
Make sure to add your styles to the END of the CSS. Theoretically, you can affect the order Webpack includes CSS (I've never tried it)
Add an ID not a class to a wrapper outside the elements you want to change. Then reference this ID in the CSS chain eg: #myAppID .className .subClassName {} Basically ID's are stronger than classes in CSS specificity. I would try to do this at a page/view level to make life easier.
If elements are already getting classes (as you see them in the inspector) try to reuse those classes with your "override" CSS. If the classes are modularized (Have a random suffix like someClass__34xft5) you shouldn't use those exact classes since they can change if the source is recompiled. In that case, use a "matching" selector [class^=”someClass__”] to match any selector with that prefix.
Not sure how deep you want to go, but here's an article about overriding Amplify-Vue prebuilt styling.
One caveat, if the CSS is being added inline via javascript somewhere, it's going to be very hard to override. You may want to use !important in conjunction with the above.
"...can I examine the classes that I can see in Web Developer and somehow derive a rule that is specific enough that it will always work?"
Probably, but why bother? You're already adding class attributes to elements. Why not add inline style attributes instead? Adding a bunch of classes or ids just to create a specificity chain to touch up styles is pretty messy...inline styles are barely if at all worse and are clearer to understand.
Inline attributes are the most specific CSS instructions you can give.

CSS width utility classes vs width in style attribute

For situations where I need to set special-case widths of elements, I've been using some utility classes like width--8em. I considered at first that this would be more maintainable but now I'm starting to wonder because I end up with so many one-off classes. Is there a performance advantage regarding reflow one way or the other? Any other maintainability advice welcome.
class
<div class="width--5rem">example</div>
with CSS like
.width--5rem {
width: 5rem;
}
style
<div style="width: 5rem">example</div>
Functionally, there is no difference. It is more commonplace (and better practice) to use classes and place all CSS in external files and link them with:
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="pathToCSSFile"/>
I agree with acarroz5 where I prefer to put all of my element styling in css files. If you have dozens or hundreds of html files that use the inline style of 5em but then decide you want to change them all to 10em, you'd have to do a "find in files" to see where they all are and then potentially have to change each file manually. If you have a class defined in 1 css file, all you have to do is change that one value in that one file to get the desired effect. Much less time consuming and much more efficient.
I try not to use too many special-case element positioning or dimensions if I can avoid it - for me, it just seems to make things on the page look messy and seems to throw off symmetry.
If you really need to use some special case styling, maybe put all the special cases in it's own css file - that way they're easier to find and modify.

Combine all bootstrap js and css files?

I learned that combining all my js scripts and css files will make my website load faster. When I did that the colors changed and the slider stopped working. I think I may have put my css files in the wrong order, will that effect anything?
You probably overrode some of the styles in your first CSS file in your second CSS file, so the order does matter.
For example, if you wrote
#id {
color: green;
}
in your first stylesheet and
#id {
color: blue;
}
in your second, then #id will be blue, not green.
If you switched the first and second stylesheets, then #id would be green.
JavaScript is the same.
Yes, if you put the css in the wrong order, that would break the way css classes are overriding other classes and you will get unexpected behavior. You need to combine it exactly in the same order it was previously decelerated.
With javascript the order could also matter, so you should also combine it in exactly the same way it was declared originally in your html.
YES! CSS stands for cascading style sheets. The cascading part plays a big part in answering your question because order can greatly determine the computed style of your elements. If a matching rule/selector has greater or equal specificity as another above it, the property that comes last will overrule it. Part of writing good CSS is letting this work to your advantage.

Working with ngClass inside ngRepeat and Foundation framework

I've found that my ng-class is overwritten when used inside an ng-repeat by the Foundation framework that I'm using. The code is relatively simple:
<tr ng-repeat="goal in goals" ng-class="goal.difficulty">
I can see the class being applied in chrome dev tools, but it is overwritten by the tables.scss styles of
tables tr:nth-of-type(even)
I have my CSS after the foundation one, so I'm somewhat at a loss as to how this happens.
Edit:
Since people don't believe it's being overwritten here is an image (you can also check out the project from Github)
http://imgur.com/BtQjInF
https://github.com/OrganicCat/goal-tracker
Try putting !important at the end of your class style definitions so that they override foundation.
That is not a solution, but it indicates that your styling is clashing with zurb. The correct answer then would be to remove the default table styling from zurb using sass, in particular:
// These control the background color for the table and even rows
$table-bg: $white;
$table-even-row-bg: $snow;
http://foundation.zurb.com/docs/components/tables.html
I do not believe the class is not being applied to the element (unless you post up some rendered html showing otherwise).

Inline <style> tags vs. inline css properties

What is the preferred method for setting CSS properties?
Inline style properties:
<div style="width:20px;height:20px;background-color:#ffcc00;"></div>
Style properties in <style>...</style> tags:
<style>.gold{width:20px;height:20px;background-color:#ffcc00;}</style><div class="gold"></div>
Style rules can be attached using:
External Files
In-page Style Tags
Inline Style Attribute
Generally, I prefer to use linked style sheets because they:
can be cached by browsers for performance; and
are a lot easier to maintain for a development perspective.
However, your question is asking specifically about the style tag versus inline styles. Prefer to use the style tag, in this case, because it:
provides a clear separation of markup from styling;
produces cleaner HTML markup; and
is more efficient with selectors to apply rules to multiple elements on a page improving management as well as making your page size smaller.
Inline elements only affect their respective element.
An important difference between the style tag and the inline attribute is specificity. Specificity determines when one style overrides another. Generally, inline styles have a higher specificity.
Read CSS: Specificity Wars for an entertaining look at this subject.
Here's one aspect that could rule the difference:
If you change an element's style in JavaScript, you are affecting the inline style. If there's already a style there, you overwrite it permanently. But, if the style were defined in an external sheet or in a <style> tag, then setting the inline one to "" restores the style from that source.
It depends.
The main point is to avoid repeated code.
If the same code need to be re-used 2 times or more, and should be in sync when change, use external style sheet.
If you only use it once, I think inline is ok.
To answer your direct question: neither of these is the preferred method. Use a separate file.
Inline styles should only be used as a last resort, or set by Javascript code. Inline styles have the highest level of specificity, so override your actual stylesheets. This can make them hard to control (you should avoid !important as well for the same reason).
An embedded <style> block is not recommended, because you lose the browser's ability to cache the stylesheet across multiple pages on your site.
So in short, wherever possible, you should put your styles into a separate CSS file.
From a maintainability standpoint, it's much simpler to manage one item in one file, than it is to manage multiple items in possibly multiple files.
Separating your styling will help make your life much easier, especially when job duties are distributed amongst different individuals. Reusability and portability will save you plenty of time down the road.
When using an inline style, that will override any external properties that are set.
I agree with the majority view that external stylesheets are the prefered method.
However, here are some practical exceptions:
Dynamic background images. CSS stylesheets are static files so you need to use an inline style to add a dynamic (from a database, CMS etc...) background-image style.
If an element needs to be hidden when the page loads, using an external stylesheet for this is not practical, since there will always be some delay before the stylesheet is processed and the element will be visible until that happens. style="display: none;" is the best way to achieve this.
If an application is going to give the user fine control over a particular CSS value, e.g. text color, then it may be necessary to add this to inline style elements or in-page <style></style> blocks. E.g. style="color:#{{ page.color }}", or <style> p.themed { color: #{{ page.color }}; }</style>
Whenever is possible is preferable to use class .myclass{} and identifier #myclass{}, so use a dedicated css file or tag <style></style> within an html.
Inline style is good to change css option dynamically with javascript.
There can be different reasons for choosing one way over the other.
If you need to specify css to elements that are generated programmatically (for example modifying css for images of different sizes), it can be more maintainable to use inline css.
If some css is valid only for the current page, you should rather use the script tag than a separate .css file. It is good if the browser doesn't have to do too many http requests.
Otherwise, as stated, it is better to use a separate css file.
You can set CSS using three different ways as mentioned below :-
1.External style sheet
2.Internal style sheet
3.Inline style
Preferred / ideal way of setting the css style is using as external style sheets when the style is applied to many pages.
With an external style sheet, you can change the look of an entire Web site by changing one file.
sample usage can be :-
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="your_css_file_name.css">
</head>
If you want to apply a unique style to a single document then you can use Internal style sheet.
Don't use inline style sheet,as it mixes content with presentation and looses many advantages.
Inline CSS have more precedence than CSS within tag.
There are three ways to add CSS.
Read this article on w3school, very informative.