Expand multiple flexbox items to fit container width - css

Question

I have a layout where I want to make the breadcrumb trail use up all of the available space in the row. In the same row I also have a div (.tools) which needs to be of a dynamic width as it's contents may vary.
At the moment I have to set the breadcrumb trail to a % width to get it to work roughly correctly, but this isn't ideal... I'd like it to just expand to fill the available space.
Any ideas?
header {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: space-between;
padding: 16px 20px;
background-color: lightgreen;
width: 100%;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
.breadcrumb {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: flex-start;
white-space: nowrap;
width: 55%;
background-color: lightblue;
}
.breadcrumbItem {
display: flex;
flex: 0 10 auto;
min-width: 45px;
align-items: center;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}
.breadcrumbItem button {
border: 0;
background: none;
padding: 0 5px;
flex: 0 1 auto;
white-space: nowrap;
width: 100%;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}
.tools {
display: flex;
justify-content: flex-end;
background-color: lightyellow;
}
.tools span, .tools button {
white-space: nowrap;
}
<header>
<div class="breadcrumb">
<div class="breadcrumbItem">
<button>Really long breadcrumb item here</button>
<span>
<span>></span>
</span>
</div>
<div class="breadcrumbItem">
<button>Another really long item that should ellipse when it gets too long, oidsf jsodifj dsoifj sdoifj sdoifj sdoifj sdoifj sdoifj sdoifj dsoifj sdoifj sd</button>
</div>
</div>
<div class="tools">
<span>0 photos selected</span>
<button>Button</button>
</div>
</header>
https://codepen.io/anon/pen/NYaQyV

Answer 1

You can use flex-grow: 1; or the shorthand flex: 1; along with min-width or overflow.
.breadcrumb {
...
flex: 1;
min-width: 0;
}
Or
.breadcrumb {
...
flex: 1;
overflow: hidden;
}
CodePen

Answer 2

you can achieve what you want with by adding flex: auto to the .breadcrumb selctor block. a lot of your css declarations are redundant. you need to look into them and group selectors having much declarations in common
header {
-webkit-display: flex;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: space-between;
padding: 16px 20px;
background-color: lightgreen;
width: 100%;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
.breadcrumb {
flex: auto; //note this line .you can change it to auto as well
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: flex-start;
white-space: nowrap;
background-color: lightblue;
}
.breadcrumbItem {
flex: auto;
min-width: 45px;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

Answer 3

There's a lot of redundancy in your code. Here's a simplified version that may achieve your goals.
header {
display: flex;
padding: 16px 20px;
background-color: lightgreen;
}
.breadcrumb {
flex-grow: 1;
display: flex;
overflow: hidden;
background-color: lightblue;
}
.breadcrumbItem {
display: flex;
}
button {
border: 0;
background: none;
padding: 0 5px;
}
.breadcrumbItem:last-child {
overflow: hidden;
}
.breadcrumbItem:last-child button { /* ellipsis on second button only */
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}
.tools {
margin-left: auto;
background-color: lightyellow;
}
* {
box-sizing: border-box;
white-space: nowrap;
}
<header>
<div class="breadcrumb">
<div class="breadcrumbItem">
<button>Really long breadcrumb item here</button>
<span>
<span>></span>
</span>
</div>
<div class="breadcrumbItem">
<button>Another really long item that should ellipse when it gets too long, oidsf jsodifj dsoifj sdoifj sdoifj sdoifj sdoifj sdoifj sdoifj dsoifj sdoifj sd</button>
</div>
</div>
<div class="tools">
<span>0 photos selected</span>
<button>Button</button>
</div>
</header>
revised codepen