What does $fix-mqs do in Jake Archibald's IE Sass mixins? - css

I'm confused about the purpose of the $fix-mqs in http://jakearchibald.github.com/sass-ie/
I can see how the rest of the mixin works but can't figure this part out. I have used this pattern it in a project and everything seems to work if I ignore it and put a fixed width in an old-ie include on the body or generic wrapper element, for example:
.l-wrapper {
#include old-ie {
width: 960px;
}
}
So my question is what is $fix-mqs for and what does it do?

The idea is that respond-min() mixin will act as a media query for you when you set $fix-mqs (fix media queries) to a specific width. You'll end up with a document that only contains styles that are applicable to the defined width and no media queries.
For instance, if $fix-mqs: 700px (roughly desktop sized) and you called respond-min(400px), then it wouldn't emit those styles because they're too small. It would generate the styles when you invoke respond-min(800px).
It's not just for IE, though. Some very old mobile devices don't understand media queries either. While most people recommend going "mobile first" with your media queries, there are some very destructive stylings (which are typically a pain to undo) that I'll apply only when it's a narrow device (such reformatting a wide table to appear vertically).

$fix-mqs is only used by respond-min and respond-max in the IE stylesheet.
You set $fix-mqs to be the width your desktop styles kick in, but probably before your "massive" desktop styles kick in (if you have any).
Eg, if I set $fix-mqs: 900px, the IE stylesheet picks up all styles the normal stylesheet would if the viewport width were 900px.
In practice, when you call respond-min(400px) { /* styles */ } the normal stylesheet get a media query, whereas the IE stylesheet gets the styles if 400px is less than or equal to $fix-mqs, otherwise it gets nothing.
Similarly, when you call respond-max(400px) { /* styles */ } the IE stylesheet gets the styles if 400px is greater than $fix-mqs, otherwise it gets nothing.

Related

Dealing with responsive media queries when printing

The issue: https://output.jsbin.com/donapohuci
This is a two column layout on desktop. Using a CSS media query, I have set it to be one column when the viewport is 800px or less:
div {
float: left;
width: 50%;
}
#media (max-width:800px) {
div {
width: 100%
}
}
The issue is that when you go to print this (at the moment, using Chrome) it decides that a letter sized piece of paper is smaller than 800px so prints using the media query styles.
We're using Bootstrap where it uses media queries like this. One solution is to modify the CSS so that it adds the 'screen' modifier:
#media screen and (max-width:800px)
Alas, this is a giant enterprise project with multiple teams all contributing so we'd really rather not mess with any of the foundational CSS at this time (as that usually causes a domino effect of other issues on other teams...)
Is there a way to workaround this short of writing a separate print style sheet just for this one particular page we need to have printed "as you see on screen"?
I'm thinking along the lines of some way to tell the browser "pretend the paper is wider than it is and use the desktop layout when you print..."
The way I would solve this is by adding the media screen attribute in the link to the regular CSS so it doesn't apply to print, and create a separate custom print stylesheet to be called after, again, using the print media attribute:
<link href="print.css" rel="stylesheet" media="print">
It is possible that the default Bootstrap has an include to a print file, but this should be easy to remove, and ultimately if it's not possible the latter stylesheet will still overwrite those styles.

Remove important styles in CSS

Im using google places api for a place autocomplete search - the user starts typing and results pop up.
I've styled the google container using !important to override the styles. So for my desktop css through media queries I have something like:
bottom: 100px !important;
top: auto !important;
Now on my mobile css, again through media queries, I need to move the position, I need the default styles back - the styles are controlled via google in the style tag on the element. But as I have used important i cannot remove them. I have tried:
bottom: auto !important;
Which fixes the bottom position, but how can I remove the top position so that it defaults to what is in the style tag on the element. I've tried:
top: auto !important;
top: inherit !important;
But with no luck.
Using that many !important 's is messy.
A few suggestions: (based on the little code your showing)
2. Don't override an :auto with an :auto. Try to override the styles with a number that give you similar look as :auto
3. Try removing all !important s and call the unique CSS within their perspective media query resolutions, properly. eg.
#media screen and (min-width:320px) and (max-width:480){
... // Your unique styles to Mobile Here
}
4. If all else fails; though, don't know why it would. You can .toggleClass with jQuery to attach a class within a condition. And .removeClass whenever you want. A simple fiddle of .toggleClass (demo) here.
But you really should just be able to clean up your CSS and put everything in their specific media query defined resolutions.
You should be able to do this by increasing specificity on your mobile css file and adding an !important value to this new value in the mobile stylesheet.
I'm not sure of your structure without seeing your html but if you can add an additional class or id to the parent container/element that is specific to mobile css and use that to target your mobile view
for example
#mymobile .classtooverride {newstyles !important;}

Responsive CSS styles inline on the fly

I am currently working on a highly design orientated site based on wordpress CMS.
Currently I have a responsive main stylesheet linked externally for the core css. As the site relies heavily on spacing and alignments of both text and images it has become necessary to add inline css using style= HTML to sometimes override the external CSS.
The problem I have is that in most cases certain elements such as margins need to be a different percentage in the mobile view than the desktop view to balance the visual composition. Is there any way to add responsiveness to the inline CSS based on screen width as can be done in an external style sheet?
So far the only way I can think of achieving this is through jQuery amending the external CSS based on the users screen width however this would mean setting up strict rules in the JS eg: for desktop view having margins set at 70% and for mobile setting them to 90%.
If it could be possible to do this inline using html style then this would give my client stricter control and more flexibility. Luckily my client is well versed in CSS.
You could always add a block of css inline with a style element:
<style type="text/css">
#media screen and (min-width:800px) {
.inlineOverride {
/* add more styles here */
}
}
</style>
<div class="inlineOverride">
</div>
It's worth mentioning that HTML5 has introduced a scoped attribute that you can set on the style element to limit the specified style information to the style element's parent element, and that element's descendants.
It isn't widely supported yet, so shouldn't be relied on, but it could be useful in the long term to help prevent inline styles like this from "leaking" into other parts of the document.
This question/answer might be helpful for you(read it thoroughly)
use #media for adjusting your properties of css according to device width-height.
What does #media screen and (max-width: 1024px) mean in CSS?
In modern Browsers you can (kind of) archive this by using custom css properties (css variables):
#media (max-width: 1100px) {
* {
color: var(--color-sm)
}
}
<a style="--color-sm: #11f">Text</a>
(Expand Snippet or open in full page to get the other behavior)
(Color is used for simplicity of presentation, just use margin or any other css property according to your use case.)

Which background-image takes precedence.media query or css?

My question is about background-images. I was designing a home page for iPhone screen and I wanted to use a slightly different image for the mobile version. My media query was not in a separate css file, just embedded in the index.html. Problem...the main css image was overriding my query image. I checked for extra brackets etc. I thought the media queries had precedence over the main css? Would I have got my desired result if I had put the Media query in a css link file?
Here is my main css code:
#container
{
background-image:url(images/1000_framec.jpg);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
width:999px;
height:980px;
margin:0 auto;
}
and below is my media-query code:
#media only screen and max-width 320px {
#container
{
width:98%;
background:url(images/1000_frameo.jpg) no repeat left;
margin-top:80px;
-webkit-background-size:contain;
-moz-background-size:contain;
-o-background-size:contain;
background-size:contain;
}
}
Media queries and #media rules are CSS. But these are transparent to the cascade, so whether you put a style rule in a #media rule or not, or whether you place it in a linked stylesheet that has media="..." or not, doesn't affect the precedence of that rule in the cascade.
The rest of the cascading rules apply as usual: the most specific selector wins, the last of a series of equally specific selectors wins, an inline style has more precedence over an internal stylesheet, which in turn has more precedence over an external stylesheet, and so on.

Can media queries resize based on a div element instead of the screen?

I would like to use media queries to resize elements based on the size of a div element they are in. I cannot use the screen size as the div is just used like a widget within the webpage, and its size can vary.
Yes, CSS Container Queries are what you're looking for. The CSS Containment Module is the specification that details this feature.
You can read more about the decade of work, including proposals, proofs-of-concept, discussions and other contributions by the broader web developer community here! For more details on how such a feature might work and be used, check out Miriam Suzanne's extensive explainer.
Currently only Chromium 105+ supports Container queries out of the box, though Safari 16 will include support as well. Hopefully it won't be much longer before we see a robust cross-browser implementation of such a system. It's been a grueling wait, but I'm glad that it's no longer something we simply have to accept as an insurmountable limitation of CSS due to cyclic dependencies or infinite loops or what have you (these are still a potential issue in some aspects of the proposed design, but I have faith that the CSSWG will find a way).
Media queries aren't designed to work based on elements in a page. They are designed to work based on devices or media types (hence why they are called media queries). width, height, and other dimension-based media features all refer to the dimensions of either the viewport or the device's screen in screen-based media. They cannot be used to refer to a certain element on a page.
If you need to apply styles depending on the size of a certain div element on your page, you'll have to use JavaScript to observe changes in the size of that div element instead of media queries.
Alternatively, with more modern layout techniques introduced since the original publication of this answer such as flexbox and standards such as custom properties, you may not need media or element queries after all. Djave provides an example.
I've just created a javascript shim to achieve this goal. Take a look if you want, it's a proof-of-concept, but take care: it's a early version and still needs some work.
https://github.com/marcj/css-element-queries
From a layout perspective, it is possible using modern techniques.
Its made up (I believe) by Heydon Pickering. He details the process here: http://www.heydonworks.com/article/the-flexbox-holy-albatross
Chris Coyier picks it up and works through a demo of it here: https://css-tricks.com/putting-the-flexbox-albatross-to-real-use/
To restate the issue, below we see 3 of the same component, each made up of three orange divs labelled a, b and c.
The second two's blocks display vertically, because they are limited on horizontal room, while the top components 3 blocks are laid out horizontally.
It uses the flex-basis CSS property and CSS Variables to create this effect.
.panel{
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
border: 1px solid #f00;
$breakpoint: 600px;
--multiplier: calc( #{$breakpoint} - 100%);
.element{
min-width: 33%;
max-width: 100%;
flex-grow: 1;
flex-basis: calc( var(--multiplier) * 999 );
}
}
Demo
Heydon's article is 1000 words explaining it in detail, and I'd highly recommend reading it.
Update 2021/22
As mentioned in other answers, container queries are coming. There is a full spec for it, and its usage is detailed on MDN:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Container_Queries
and there is a polyfill to get browsers that don't yet support it up to speed:
https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/container-query-polyfill
There is a nice little overview video of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCNMyYr7F6w
This has now shipped to Chrome (05 September 2022)
https://caniuse.com/css-container-queries
A Media Query inside of an iframe can function as an element query. I've successfully implement this. The idea came from a recent post about Responsive Ads by Zurb. No Javascript!
This is currently not possible with CSS alone as #BoltClock wrote in the accepted answer, but you can work around that by using JavaScript.
I created a container query (aka element query) polyfill to solve this kind of issue. It works a bit different than other scripts, so you don’t have to edit the HTML code of your elements. All you have to do is include the script and use it in your CSS like so:
.element:container(width > 99px) {
/* If its container is at least 100px wide */
}
https://github.com/ausi/cq-prolyfill
I ran into the same problem a couple of years ago and funded the development of a plugin to help me in my work. I've released the plugin as open-source so others can benefit from it as well, and you can grab it on Github: https://github.com/eqcss/eqcss
There are a few ways we could apply different responsive styles based on what we can know about an element on the page. Here are a few element queries that the EQCSS plugin will let you write in CSS:
#element 'div' and (condition) {
$this {
/* Do something to the 'div' that meets the condition */
}
.other {
/* Also apply this CSS to .other when 'div' meets this condition */
}
}
So what conditions are supported for responsive styles with EQCSS?
Weight Queries
min-width in px
min-width in %
max-width in px
max-width in %
Height Queries
min-height in px
min-height in %
max-height in px
max-height in %
Count Queries
min-characters
max-characters
min-lines
max-lines
min-children
max-children
Special Selectors
Inside EQCSS element queries you can also use three special selectors that allow you to more specifically apply your styles:
$this (the element(s) matching the query)
$parent (the parent element(s) of the element(s) matching the query)
$root (the root element of the document, <html>)
Element queries allow you to compose your layout out of individually responsive design modules, each with a bit of 'self-awareness' of how they are being displayed on the page.
With EQCSS you can design one widget to look good from 150px wide all the way up to 1000px wide, then you can confidently drop that widget into any sidebar in any page using any template (on any site) and
The question is very vague. As BoltClock says, media queries only know the dimensions of the device. However, you can use media queries in combination with descender selectors to perform adjustments.
.wide_container { width: 50em }
.narrow_container { width: 20em }
.my_element { border: 1px solid }
#media (max-width: 30em) {
.wide_container .my_element {
color: blue;
}
.narrow_container .my_element {
color: red;
}
}
#media (max-width: 50em) {
.wide_container .my_element {
color: orange;
}
.narrow_container .my_element {
color: green;
}
}
The only other solution requires JS.
The only way I can think that you can accomplish what you want purely with css, is to use a fluid container for your widget. If your container's width is a percentage of the screen then you can use media queries to style depending on your container's width, as you will now know for each screen's dimensions what is your container's dimensions. For example, let's say you decide to make your container's 50% of the screen width. Then for a screen width of 1200px you know that your container is 600px
.myContainer {
width: 50%;
}
/* you know know that your container is 600px
* so you style accordingly
*/
#media (max-width: 1200px) {
/* your css for 600px container */
}
You can use the ResizeObserver API. It's still in it's early days so it's not supported by all browsers yet (but there's several polyfills that can help you with that).
This API allows you to attach an event listener when resizing a DOM element.
Demo 1 - Demo 2
I was also thinking of media queries, but then I found this:
http://www.mademyday.de/css-height-equals-width-with-pure-css.html
Maintain the aspect ratio of a div with CSS
Just create a wrapper <div> with a percentage value for padding-bottom, like this:
div {
width: 100%;
padding-bottom: 75%;
background:gold; /** <-- For the demo **/
}
<div></div>
It will result in a <div> with height equal to 75% of the width of its container (a 4:3 aspect ratio).
This technique can also be coupled with media queries and a bit of ad hoc knowledge about page layout for even more finer-grained control.
It's enough for my needs. Which might be enough for your needs too.
For mine I did it by setting the div's max width, hence for small widget won't get affected and the large widget is resized due to the max-width style.
// assuming your widget class is "widget"
.widget {
max-width: 100%;
height: auto;
}

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