form-inline causing overlap of individual form-group components - html

Question

as I learn more about bootstrap, I am making good progress but I am once again faced with a basic challenge. This is about inline-forms.
Please see attached screenshot. As you can see, I have two problems. The first and easily identifiable is that in the 'experience' section - this is an inline form nested within a form-group and the problem is overlapping fields. Ideally they should all be next to each other with a 10px buffer between them. The code for this section is below
<div class="form-group row-top-buffer">
<label for="experience" class="col-md-3 control-label">Experience</label>
<div class="col-md-9 form-inline" role="form">
<div class="form-group col-md-3">
<label class="sr-only" for="jobMinExperience">Min Experience</label>
<input type="text" class="form-control" id="jobMinExperience" placeholder="0" />
</div>
<div class="form-group col-md-3">
<label class="sr-only" for="jobMaxExperience">Max Experience</label>
<input type="text" class="form-control" id="jobMaxExperience" placeholder="0" />
</div>
<div class="form-group col-md-3">
<label class="sr-only" for="jobExperienceDropDown">Experience</label>
<div class="dropdown">
<button class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="jobExperienceDropDown" data-toggle="dropdown">
Dropdown
<span class="caret"></span>
</button>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu" aria-labelledby="jobExperienceDropDown">
<li role="presentation">
<a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">years</a>
</li>
<li role="presentation">
<a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">months</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
The second problem which is not so apparent, is the one in the 'Location' row. I have two rows of components. the first is a simple full-width text input. The second row however is an inline form comprising of multiple components. Here I would like the final text box, for zip code, to stretch until the end of the 1st row - but it abruptly stops short. Code for this secion is provided below
<div class="form-group row-top-buffer">
<label for="jobLocation" class="col-md-3 control-label">Location</label>
<div class="col-md-9">
<input type="text" class="form-control" id="jobStreet" name="jobStreet" placeholder="Street" />
<div class="form-inline" role="form" style="padding-top: 9px;">
<div class="form-group col-md-5">
<label class="sr-only" for="jobCity">City</label>
<input type="text" class="form-control" id="jobCity" name="jobCity" placeholder="City" />
</div>
<div class="form-group col-md-2 margin-0">
<label class="sr-only" for="jobState">State</label>
<?
include_once 'stateDropDown.php';
?>
</div>
<div class="form-group col-md-3 margin-0">
<label class="sr-only" for="jobZip">City</label>
<input type="text" class="form-control" id="jobZip" name="jobZip" placeholder="00000" />
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Answer 1

Form layout has a lot to do with the class on the form itself, such as form-horizontal, which is the type of form your screen shot reflects. However, your html was mixing inline form classes and combining col classes on the form-group, which is like adding a column class to a row --it's not done. Anyway, this is not your exact form, but it is commented enough to get what you want once you learn it. I put in your dropdowns just for this, but unless you're using some addon that makes selects into dropdowns (there is one) you would use a select menu in a form.
DEMO: http://jsbin.com/fecib/2/edit
<form class="form-horizontal my-form" role="form">
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-sm-3 control-label">Location</label>
<div class="col-sm-9">
<input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="location">
</div><!-- /col-sm-9 -->
</div><!-- /form-group -->
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-sm-offset-3 col-sm-9">
<div class="form-group"> <!-- nested form-group acting like row -->
<div class="col-sm-6">
<input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="City">
</div><!-- /col-sm-6 -->
<div class="col-sm-4">
<input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="State">
</div><!-- /col-sm-4 -->
<div class="col-sm-2">
<input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="Zip">
</div><!-- /col-sm-2 -->
</div> <!-- /nested form-group acting like row -->
</div><!-- /col-sm-offset-3 col-sm-9 -->
</div><!-- /form-group -->
<div class="form-group">
<label for="location" class="col-sm-3 control-label">Priority</label>
<div class="col-sm-9">
<div class="dropdown">
<button class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="jobExperienceDropDown" data-toggle="dropdown"> Dropdown <span class="caret"></span> </button>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu" aria-labelledby="jobExperienceDropDown">
<li role="presentation"> <a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">years</a> </li>
<li role="presentation"> <a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">months</a> </li>
</ul>
</div><!-- /dropdown -->
</div><!-- /col-sm-9-->
</div><!-- /form-group -->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-sm-3 control-label">Experience</label>
<div class="col-sm-9">
<div class="form-group"><!-- nested form-group acting like row -->
<div class="col-sm-4">
<input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="0">
</div><!-- /.col-sm-4 -->
<div class="col-sm-4">
<input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="0">
</div><!-- /.col-sm-4 -->
<div class="col-sm-4">
<div class="dropdown">
<button class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="jobExperienceDropDown" data-toggle="dropdown"> Dropdown <span class="caret"></span> </button>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu" aria-labelledby="jobExperienceDropDown">
<li role="presentation"> <a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">years</a> </li>
<li role="presentation"> <a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">months</a> </li>
</ul>
</div><!-- /dropdown -->
</div><!-- /.col-sm-4 -->
</div><!-- /nested form-group acting like row -->
</div><!-- /.col-sm-9 -->
</div><!-- /.form-group -->
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-sm-offset-3 col-sm-9">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default">Sign in</button>
</div>
</div>
</form>
CSS:
/* ----------- adjusted nested columns grid ----------- */
.my-form .form-group [class*="col-"] .form-group [class*="col-"] {
padding-left: .5%;
padding-right: .5%;
}
.my-form .form-group [class*="col-"] .form-group {
margin-left: -.5%;
margin-right: -.5%;
}
.my-form .form-group [class*="col-"] .form-group [class*="col-"]:not(:last-child) {
margin-bottom: 10px
}
#media (min-width:768px) {
.my-form .form-group [class*="col-"] .form-group [class*="col-"]:not(:last-child) {
margin-bottom: 0
}
}
.my-form .form-group [class*="col-"] .form-group {
margin-bottom: 0
}