absolute position child div max-width not working properly - html

Question

I am facing a typical situation. I am trying to practice dropdown menu in CSS. Here, the child div .dropdown (grey colored) appears whenever the parent div .content-small (green colored) is hovered upon. Please note, that I have used the .max-width property for all div's because I want all the div's to scale down/up whenever the browser window is scaled.
Now, what I want to do is that I want to increase the max-width of the child div dropdown. But whenever I try to enter a value above 50px, nothing happens. The width DOES NOT increases.
I know that this can be resolved by replacing max-width with only width in the .dropdown class. But if I do that, then the child div dropdown will not scale with the browser window. So in any case, I have to use .max-width property for all divs.
I also don't want to use media queries at this stage. In totality, this is what I am looking for:
I want to increase the width of the dropdown child div .dropdown, I also want it to be scaled along with the browser windows like all other div's (max-width)
I don't want to use media queries at this stage, since I am trying to practice with plain CSS
I don't mind if the .dropdown div DOES NOT remain the child of the parent .content-small (if a possible solution needs it that way)
Would appreciate a solution for this.
* {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
a {
color: rgba(0,0,0,1);
text-decoration: none;
}
a:hover {
color: rgba(0,0,255,1);
}
html, body {
margin: 0px;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
left: 0px;
top: 0px;
background-color: rgba(0,0,0,1);
padding: 0px;
}
.wrapper {
height: 600px;
max-width: 960px;
margin-left: auto;
left: 0px;
top: 0px;
background-color: rgba(204,204,204,1);
margin-right: auto;
position: relative;
padding: 0px;
margin-top: 0px;
}
.content {
position: relative;
box-sizing: border-box;
height: 100%;
max-height: 200px;
max-width: 600px;
background-color: #FFF;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
margin-top: 0px;
left: 0px;
right: 0px;
font-size: 32px;
text-align: center;
border: 3px solid rgba(0,0,0,1);
border-radius: 15px 15px 0px 0px;
width: 100%;
}
.content-small {
max-width: 100px;
height: 100%;
max-height: 50px;
background-color: rgba(0,255,204,1);
position: relative;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
border: 3px solid rgba(0,0,0,1);
top: 5px;
}
.content-small:hover .dropdown{
visibility: visible;
}
.dropdown {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100%;
max-width: 250px;
height: 50px;
background-color: rgba(214,214,214,1);
position: absolute;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
border: 3px solid rgba(255,0,0,1);
top: 47px;
left: -3px;
visibility: visible;
}
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="content">
<div class="content-small">
Home
<div class="dropdown"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Answer 1

Hopefully this does not interfere with what you are trying to accomplish, but what about restructuring your code a little bit:
HTML
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="content">
<div class="content-small">Home</div>
<div class="container" style="height:60px;padding-top:10px;">
<div class="dropdown"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
CSS
*{
box-sizing:border-box;
}
a {
color: rgba(0,0,0,1);
text-decoration: none;
}
a:hover {
color: rgba(0,0,255,1);
}
html,body {
margin: 0px;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
left: 0px;
top: 0px;
background-color: rgba(0,0,0,1);
padding: 0px;
}
.wrapper {
height: 600px;
max-width: 960px;
margin-left: auto;
left: 0px;
top: 0px;
background-color: rgba(204,204,204,1);
margin-right: auto;
position: relative;
padding: 0px;
margin-top: 0px;
}
.content {
position: relative;
box-sizing: border-box;
height: 100%;
max-height: 200px;
max-width: 600px;
background-color: #FFF;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
margin-top: 0px;
left: 0px;
right: 0px;
font-size: 32px;
text-align: center;
border: 3px solid rgba(0,0,0,1);
border-radius: 15px 15px 0px 0px;
width: 100%;
}
.content-small {
max-width: 100px;
height: 100%;
max-height: 50px;
background-color: rgba(0,255,204,1);
position: relative;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
border: 3px solid rgba(0,0,0,1);
top: 5px;
margin-top:10px;
}
.content-small:hover + .container, .container:hover{
visibility: visible;
}
.container{visibility:hidden;display: inline-block;
max-width: 100px;
width: 100%;}
.dropdown {
background-color: rgba(214,214,214,1);
border: 3px solid rgba(255,0,0,1);
max-width: 100px;
height: 100%;
max-height: 50px;
position: relative;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
top: 5px;
}
And here is:
UPDATED JS FIDDLE
[EDIT]
The + in the css select is saying to look for elements after the first criteria. So, in this case, the css is saying, when you hover over .content-small, it then targets the element AFTER .content-small with .dropdown and applies the css to it. Although it is not the most clear, here is a link of some documentation on css selectors
[SECOND EDIT]
I changed the code above to wrap the dropdown in a container and then set it so on container:hover it alters the visibility of .dropdown the same way, making it persist as visible if you are hovering over either. The reason I had to introduce a container is to give it that spacing between .dropdown and .content-small - which you can see I did with padding-top: and not margin-top: because margin would not have worked with the :hover

Answer 2

when you tell: width:100%; to an absolute child, it takes innerwidth and won't mind the borders,why should it overflow :) ?
You may size it with coordonates like you did for left, use right as well and drop the width:100%;
max-width will still be efficient and you may use margin:auto as well if you wish.
* {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
a {
color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);
text-decoration: none;
}
a:hover {
color: rgba(0, 0, 255, 1);
}
html,
body {
margin: 0px;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
left: 0px;
top: 0px;
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);
padding: 0px;
}
.wrapper {
height: 220px;
/*demo purpose */
max-width: 960px;
margin-left: auto;
left: 0px;
top: 0px;
background-color: rgba(204, 204, 204, 1);
margin-right: auto;
position: relative;
padding: 0px;
margin-top: 0px;
}
.content {
position: relative;
box-sizing: border-box;
height: 100%;
max-height: 200px;
max-width: 600px;
background-color: #FFF;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
margin-top: 0px;
left: 0px;
right: 0px;
font-size: 32px;
text-align: center;
border: 3px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);
border-radius: 15px 15px 0px 0px;
width: 100%;
}
.content-small {
max-width: 100px;
height: 100%;
max-height: 50px;
background-color: rgba(0, 255, 204, 1);
position: relative;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
border: 3px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);
top: 5px;
}
.content-small:hover .dropdown {
visibility: visible;
}
.dropdown {
box-sizing: border-box;
max-width: 250px;
height: 50px;
background-color: rgba(214, 214, 214, 1);
position: absolute;
border: 3px solid rgba(255, 0, 0, 1);
top: 47px;
left: -3px;
right: -3px;
margin: auto;
visibility: visible;
}
.wrapper + .wrapper .dropdown {
max-width: 50px;
font-size:0.75em;
}
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="content">
<div class="content-small">
Home
<div class="dropdown">100% + border
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="content">
<div class="content-small">
Home
<div class="dropdown">tiny
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>