CSS Flexbox: The Ultimate Guide to Creating Responsive Web Layouts
Tags: flexbox, webdev
Published: 2023-07-01 19:20:37

In Web Development, it has become vital to create responsive layouts that adapt to various screen sizes and devices. To achieve responsive design, CSS Flexbox is an amazing and invaluable resource. 

CSS Flexbox (also known as Flexbox Layout) provides a flexible way to distribute and align elements within a container. Flexbox Layout simplifies the process of building complex layouts and achieving responsive designs. 

In this article, I will provide a comprehensive overview of CSS Flexbox, offer in-depth exploration of CSS Flexbox core principles and demonstrate how it can be utilized to achieve flexible and responsive web layouts.

**CONCEPT OF CSS FLEXBOX**
The introduction of CSS Flexbox has revolutionized the way web layouts are designed and developed. It has simplified the process of creating adaptive and responsive designs, cutting off the need for complex adjustments and calculations. It provides a way to arrange elements on a web page, so they can change their size and position to fit different sizes.
It is essential to grasp the concepts of the Flex Container and Flex Items, which are the key components in utilizing CSS Flexbox effectively.
 
**FLEX CONTAINER**
The Flex container (also known as Flexbox container) is like a box that holds other elements. It allows flexible arrangement and alignment of elements within a container.  To make a flex container, you can add this line of code to the container element: 


```CSS
.container {
display: flex;
}
```
When you apply display: flex to an element, the element becomes a flex container. This means that the container element becomes a parent to the child elements which are referred to as flex items, enabling them to participate in the flex layout.
You might have figured it out now, The Flex Item is void without the Flex Container. A simpler way to look at it, the child cannot exist without the Parent, hence the Flex Item cannot exist without the Flex Container.
 
**FLEX ITEM**
As earlier mentioned, the Flex Item is the child to the parent element Flex Container. By default, they are aligned horizontally in a row but can be modified to be vertically aligned.
To understand Flex Item better, let’s take a look at this example:

``` HTML
<div class="container">
<div class = "item" > Flex Item A </div>
<div class = "item" > Flex Item B </div>
<div class = "item" > Flex Item C </div>
</div>
```

In the code above, we have a div element with the class name “container.” This element acts as the Flex Container, it contains the Flex Items which are represented by the div elements inside it. Each of the div elements have the class name “item”


**ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS AND PROPERTIES**
CSS Flexbox has a wide range of user-friendly concepts and properties to mold the layout and appearance of Flex Containers and Flex items. Here are some of the friendly properties offered by CSS Flexbox along with corresponding code snippets to demonstrate their usage:

* **Flex Direction:**
Flex-direction determines the alignment and direction of Flex Items. It controls whether the Flex Items are arranged horizontally in a row or vertically in a column. Values can be ‘row’, ‘row-reverse’, ‘column’, or ‘column-reverse’

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/jOQmZXr %}

By setting ‘flex-direction’ to ‘row’, the flex items will be positioned side by side horizontally, forming a row-like layout. This is the default value for ‘flex-direction’, so if no other value is set, the flex item will be laid out in a row.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/BaGRYba %}

Setting the value of the ‘flex-direction’ property to “column” enables the creation of vertical layouts, where Flex items are arranged in a column-like manner. This is especially valuable when designing layouts like vertical navigation menus or stacked content sections.
``` CSS
.container {
flex-direction: row-reverse;
}
```

By modifying the ‘flex-direction’ property and setting it to ‘row-reverse’, you can create horizontal layouts where flex items flow in a reversed order. This can be useful when you want to present content or elements in right-to-left orientation, such as for language that are read from right to left.

``` CSS

.container {
flex-direction: column-reverse;
}

```
 
By modifying the ‘flex-direction’ property and setting it to ‘column-reverse’, you can create vertical layouts where flex items flow in a reversed order. This can be useful when you want to present content or elements in bottom-to-top orientation, for example, in scenarios where the most recent or important items are placed at the top.

  * **Justify-Content**:
The ‘justify-content’ property in CSS Flexbox allows you to control how Flex Items are positioned and aligned along the horizontal axis within a Flex Container. It determines how the space is distributed among the Flex Items, influencing their arrangement and spacing within the container. By adjusting this property, you can control how flex items are visually positioned, whether they are aligned to the start, end, center of the container or distributed with space between or around them. Values include ‘flex-start’, ‘flex-end’, ‘center’, ‘space-between’, ‘space-around’ and more.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/WNYjMqw %}

By setting the ‘justify-content’ property to “flex-start”, the Flex Items will be aligned to the start of the container along the main axis. This means that the item s will be positioned at the beginning of the container, with any remaining space appearing at the end of the container.

In simpler terms, the ‘justify-content: flex-start;’ declaration ensures that the Flex Items are pushed to the left side of the container if the main axis is horizontal (row direction) or to the top of the container if the main axis is vertical (column direction).

This is the default value for ‘justify-content’, meaning if no other value is set, the flex items will naturally align to the start of the container.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/oNQWmVP %}

By setting it to ‘flex-end’, the Flex Items will be aligned to the end of the container along the main axis. This means that the items will be positioned at the right side of the container if the main axis is horizontal (row direction) or at the bottom of the container if the main axis is vertical (column direction)

In simpler terms, the ‘justify-content: flex-end;’ declaration ensures that the flex items are pushed to the right side of the container if the main axis is horizontal or to the bottom of the container if the main axis is vertical.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/GRwmxKV %}

When the ‘justify-content’ property is set to “center”, it will horizontally center the Flex Items within the container. This means, that the items will be evenly distributed with equal space on both sides, pushing them towards the center of the container.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/MWzmVYv %}

When ‘justify-content’ is set to “space-between”, it means that the content within the container will be distributed evenly along the horizontal axis, with equal spaces placed between each item. The first item will be align to the start of the container, the last item will align to the end of the container and any remaining items will be spaced out equally between them.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/poQPLjP %}

When ‘justify-content’ is set to “space-around”, it distributes the Flex Items with equal space around them along the main axis. This means that the available space between the Flex Items is divided equally and placed both before the first item and after the last item. The space is also evenly distributed between each pair of adjacent items.

* **Align Items**
The ‘align-items’ property allows you to control how flex items are aligned vertically within their container. By default, flex items are aligned to the start of the container. However, using the ‘align-items’ property, you can modify the layout to achieve the desired alignment. Let's explore the various values that the `align-items` property can take:

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/poQPLyw %}

flex-start aligns the flex items to the start of the container, stacking them from the top.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/KKrmoMm %}

with flex-end, flex items are aligned to the end of the container, stacking them from the bottom.

{% codepen https://codepen.io/joanayebola/pen/ExOmrXm %}

The center property centers the flex items vertically within the container.

``` CSS
.container {
  align-items: baseline;
}
```

The `baseline` value aligns the flex items such that their baselines are aligned. This is particularly useful when dealing with text elements of different sizes.

```CSS
.container {
  align-items: stretch;
}
```
When using the `stretch` value, the flex items will stretch vertically to fill the container's height. This is the default behavior.

**Conclusion**
In conclusion, CSS Flexbox is an essential tool for creating responsive web layouts and adapting them to various screen sizes and devices. By understanding the core concepts of Flex Containers and Flex Items, web designers and developers can harness the power of Flexbox to simplify the process of building complex layouts.

Thank you for reading. Connect with me on <a href="https://twitter.com/codesbyjojo">twitter</a>