Defining CSS properties twice - css

general.css
#feedback_bar
{
/*props*/
}
another.css
#feedback_bar
{
/*props*/
}
Is this allowed? Will both get inherited?

The properties defined last will override properties defined previously. Unless you use !important on the previously defined section of CSS.
.thing {
padding: 10px;
}
.thing {
padding: 12px;
}
.thing will have padding: 12px;
.thing {
padding: 15px !important;
}
.thing {
padding: 123px;
}
.thing will have padding: 15px;
This is allowed, and to more strictly answer your question, both will indeed be inherited as shown by this example:
.thing {
padding: 10px;
}
.thing {
background: red;
}
.thing will have both padding: 10px; and background: red;.
Also, please take a moment to read some of the comments on this answer as they raise good points worth further reading.

The one that is loaded last overwrites the previous declaration(s). As for being allowed, css cannot throw errors at you :P. Probably not a good idea though.

This is allowed, but if there are duplicate properties, the last one will be used.

Related

CSS override or inheritance

I have a really basic question about CSS. If there are two CSS files.
base.css contains:
.awesome-style {
height: 10px;
weight: 20px;
border: 5px;
}
child.css contains:
#import "base.css";
.awesome-style {
height: 15px;
weight: 20px;
padding: 10px;
}
When I will use the awesome-style class, what will be the applied style? My guess is that
.awesome-style {
height: 15px;
weight: 20px;
border: 5px;
padding: 10px
}
Am I right? Could somebody give me a description or good examples about how these "overrides" work? Thank you.
You are correct in what you believe will be the final* style applied to the element:
.awesome-style {
height: 15px;
weight: 20px;
border: 5px;
padding: 10px
}
When you do an #import, think of it as adding the CSS before what is in the CSS file you are adding it to. (Note: #import must be before any other styles in your CSS)
This is where it gets opinionated. If you have .awesome-style in both CSS files base.css and child.css, you might want to consider only adding the properties that are different than what is defined in base.css - since your browser will read them both and will apply whatever properties don't change or come last.
For instance, in your example, you could do:
base.css
.awesome-style {
height: 10px;
weight: 20px;
border: 5px;
}
child.css
#import base.css
.awesome-style {
height: 15px;
padding: 10px
}
This is because only the height and padding are changing. This is easier to see when you consider how the CSS file will look to the browser:
.awesome-style {
/* browser reads this, but it will get changed */
height: 10px;
/* this stays the same, but will still get 'overwritten' since it's defined again in the next rule */
weight: 20px;
/* this doesn't get defined again, so the browser will use this */
border: 5px;
}
.awesome-style {
/* height changed */
height: 15px;
/* weight stayed the same, but is still read from this rule because it comes after the previous rule */
weight: 20px;
/* padding wasn't defined prior, so it will use this rule */
padding: 10px;
}
And then this really becomes a question about CSS specificity
*final as in your current question - another rule may override what you have

SCSS/SASS - How to Specify Two Valid Parents for Nested CSS

Question: With SCSS, can we specify two different .main selectors? Say I want another one with margin-top: 50px while also inheriting all other conditions
I have inherited some SCSS from someone else. I have the following SCSS structure:
.main {
margin-top: 74px;
ul.tabs {
position: relative;
li.tab {
/*The rest of nested structure*/
}
}
}
It continues to nest (unfortunately) for many layers.
I have some other options (splitting the structure in two) which is a simple fix. Just curious if there's something better.
Thanks!
You should use a mixin:
#mixin sharedStyles{
//shared nested styles go here
}
.parentA{
margin-top:74px;
#include sharedStyles;
}
.parentB{
margin-top: 50px;
#include sharedStyles;
}
Here is a gist that illustrates the concept:
https://gist.github.com/Ryan-Haines/ba10888d0828d394851d3da6063f70bb
I recommend using sassmeister for rapid prototyping:
https://www.sassmeister.com
If you use a placeholder, as long as one selector is not inside a media query, it should group them together in the CSS. Ie
%mainStyles {
border: 1px solid black;
}
.main1 {
margin-top: 75px;
#extend %mainStyles;
}
.main2 {
margin-top: 50px;
#extend %mainStyles;
}
Should generate
.main1, .main2 {
border: 1px solid black;
}
.main1 {
margin-top: 75px;
}
.main2 {
margin-top: 50px;
}

How to organise repeated code lines from different tags in CSS?

Let's say that I wrote html file with a lot of objects in it, and this file is styles with one css file. In that css file I could have in some lines same code.
For example:
.header {
color: #fff;
margin-left: 10px;
}
.leftLayer {
margin-left: 10px;
padding: 4px;
}
So, I have margin-left: 10px; twice repeated. If .header and .leftLayer are not one bellow the other in code and on the page screen, what is the best solution? Is it to write code like this or something else?
.header, .leftLayer {
margin-left: 10px;
}
.header {
color: #fff;
}
.leftLayer {
padding: 4px;
}
This is simple example, but I need universal solution which can be applied for many div-s that have some same css values.

CSS - Extending class properties

I'm pretty new to CSS and have been finding my way around so far.
I am creating these button like links with shadows and stuff. Now there are several such buttons required on the site - everything about the buttons is same - except few properties change like width and font size.
Now instead of copying the same code - over and over for each button - is there a way of extending the button and adding just the properties that change.
Example of two buttons - css
.ask-button-display {
background: #8BAF3B;
border-radius: 4px;
display: block;
letter-spacing: 0.5px;
position: relative;
border-color: #293829;
border-width: 2px 1px;
border-style: solid;
text-align:center;
color: #FFF;
width:350px;
font-size: 20px;
font-weight: bold;
padding:10px;
}
.ask-button-submit {
background: #8BAF3B;
border-radius: 4px;
display: block;
letter-spacing: 0.5px;
position: relative;
border-color: #293829;
border-width: 2px 1px;
border-style: solid;
text-align:center;
color: #FFF;
font-weight: bold;
width:75px;
font-size: 12px;
padding: 1px;
}
And this is how I'm currently using it in my html
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So I'm wondering if there is a cleaner way to do this - like
.button {
/* PUT ALL THE COMMON PROPERTIES HERE */
}
AND THEN SOMEHOW EXTEND IT LIKE
.button #display {
/* THE DIFFERENT PROPERTIES OF Display BUTTON */
}
.button #ask {
/* THE DIFFERENT PROPERTIES OF Ask BUTTON */
}
But I'm not sure how to do this.
Thanks for your inputs
You can add multiple classes to one element, so have one .button class which covers everything, then a .button-submit class, which adds things in.
For example:
.button {
padding: 10px;
margin: 10px;
background-color: red;
}
.button-submit {
background-color: green;
}​
See a live jsFiddle here
In your case, the following should work:
.button {
background: #8BAF3B;
border-radius: 4px;
display: block;
letter-spacing: 0.5px;
position: relative;
border-color: #293829;
border-width: 2px 1px;
border-style: solid;
text-align:center;
color: #FFF;
width:350px;
font-size: 20px;
font-weight: bold;
padding:10px;
}
.button-submit {
width:75px;
font-size: 12px;
padding: 1px;
}​
See a live jsFiddle here
You might want to try this:
.button {
padding: 10px;
margin: 10px;
background-color: red;
}
.button.submit {
background-color: green;
}
.button.submit:hover {
background-color: #ffff00;
}
This way you avoid repeating the word and will able to use the classes in the elements like this:
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Submit
See the example in JSFiddle (http://goo.gl/6HwroM)
Rather than repeat the common "Add a button class to the element" answer I'm going to show you something new in the weird and whacky world of new age CSS, or better known as SCSS!
This reuse of code in stylesheets can be achieved with something called a 'Mixin'. What this allows us to do is reuse certain styles by using the '#include' attribute.
Let me give you an example.
#mixin button($button-color) {
background: #fff;
margin: 10px;
color: $color;
}
and then whenever we have a button we say
#unique-button {
#include button(#333);
...(additional styles)
}
Read more here: http://sass-lang.com/tutorial.html.
Spread the word!!!
You can do this since you can apply more than one class to an element. Create your master class and and other smaller classes and then just apply them as needed. For example:
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This would apply the button and submit classes you would create while allowing you to also apply those classes separately.
Modify your code example along the lines of:
.master_button {
/* PUT ALL THE COMMON PROPERTIES HERE */
}
AND THEN SOMEHOW EXTEND IT LIKE
.button_display {
/* THE DIFFERENT PROPERTIES OF Display BUTTON */
}
.button_ask {
/* THE DIFFERENT PROPERTIES OF Ask BUTTON */
}
And apply like:
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Submit
.ask-button-display,
.ask-button-submit {
/* COMMON RULES */
}
.ask-button-display {
}
.ask-button-submit {
}
You may want to look into Sass. With Sass you can basically create variables in your css file and then re-use them over and over. http://sass-lang.com/
The following example was taken from Sass official website:
$blue: #3bbfce;
$margin: 16px;
.content-navigation {
border-color: $blue;
color:
darken($blue, 9%);
}
.border {
padding: $margin / 2;
margin: $margin / 2;
border-color: $blue;
}
Add a button class to both links for the common parts
.button {
background: #8BAF3B;
border-radius: 4px;
display: block;
letter-spacing: 0.5px;
position: relative;
border-color: #293829;
border-width: 2px 1px;
border-style: solid;
text-align:center;
color: #FFF;
}
Keep in your other classes the rules that aren't common.
And your HTML will be
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Submit
Without changing/ adding new classes you can add styles to all elements with a class name starting with "ask-button"... (whatever the elements with the class are; button, anchor, div etc.) let's say your buttons are divs then:
div[class^="ask-button"] {
// common css properties
}
You can also list all classes that will have common properties like this:
.ask-button-display,
.ask-button-submit {
// common css properties here
}
And then you add the separate styling for each button:
.ask-button-display{
// properties only for this button
}
.ask-button-submit {
// properties only for this button
}

SASS, when to extend?

I'm currently working on a team that uses SASS. I see that we are extending styles that are very simple and to me I don't see the benefit of doing this. Am I missing something?
Here are some examples of a _Common.scss that is imported and used throughout other sass files:
.visibility-hidden{visibility: hidden;}
.display-inline { display: inline; }
.display-inline-block { display: inline-block; }
.display-block { display: block; }
.display-none { display: none; }
.display-box { display: box; }
.float-left { float: left; }
.float-right { float: right; }
.clear-both { clear: both; }
.width-percent-100 { width: 100%; }
.width-percent-65 { width: 65%; }
.width-percent-50 { width: 50%; }
.width-percent-45 { width: 45%; }
.width-percent-40 { width: 40%; }
.width-percent-33 { width: 33%; }
.width-percent-30 { width: 30%; }
.width-percent-20 { width: 20%; }
.height-percent-100 { height: 100%; }
.cursor-pointer { cursor: pointer; }
.underline { text-decoration: underline; }
.text-decoration-none { text-decoration: none; }
.bold { font-weight: bold; }
.font-weight-normal { font-weight: normal; }
.text-align-center { text-align: center; }
.text-align-left { text-align: left; }
.text-align-right { text-align: right; }
.font-10 { font-size: 10px; }
.font-11 { font-size: 11px; }
.font-12 { font-size: 12px; }
.font-13 { font-size: 13px; }
.font-14 { font-size: 14px; }
.font-15 { font-size: 15px; }
.font-16 { font-size: 16px; }
.font-17 { font-size: 17px; }
.font-18 { font-size: 18px; }
.font-percent-65 { font-size: 65%; }
.font-percent-80 { font-size: 80%; }
.font-percent-90 { font-size: 90%; }
.font-percent-100 { font-size: 100%; }
.font-percent-110 { font-size: 110%; }
.font-percent-120 { font-size: 120%; }
.font-percent-130 { font-size: 130%; }
.font-percent-140 { font-size: 140%; }
.font-percent-150 { font-size: 150%; }
.font-percent-160 { font-size: 160%; }
.font-percent-170 { font-size: 170%; }
.font-percent-180 { font-size: 180%; }
Example:
#CategoriesContainer
{
ul{
li{
&:first-child{
#extend .font-11;
}
a
{
#extend .font-11;
#extend .text-decoration-none;
}
}
}
}
You should only use extend when you have a certain attribute set that will be used multiple times. The sheer stupidy of extending a class with a class with one attribute that has the unit value worked into the name of it is incomprehensible.
A better example for a reason to extend can be found in the reference guide
Say we have 2 classes
.error {
border: 1px #f00;
background-color: #fdd;
}
.seriousError {
border-width: 3px;
}
.error is a general no interesting style but a serious error should be really clear.
.seriousError is created to thicken the line, the only problem is that now we have to use both classes in the html to combine the styles.
Because we're lazy and just want to use one class and not duplicate code that might be changed in the future we can extend .seriousError with .error
.seriousError {
#extend .error;
border-width: 3px;
}
Now we didn't duplicate the code in our sass file but did get the right styles on the page.
Check out the reference guide for more/better examples.
Just please for the sake of kittens stop extending classes with one attribute classes. And don't implicitly state the value/attributes in the selector, thats not very semantic.
You, and your team, should read this post which explains a few problems with the aproach you take here vs semantic code. Couldn't find a better tuned post this quick.
You aren't missing anything, this is just bloated code in poor form and not a great way to extend classes.
There is maybe one (bad) reason I can imagine why this would be used. If for example .font-10 needs to be .7em instead of 10px, it can be easily changed - but then you've just defeated the point of naming the class "font10". Something like small-font would even make more sense in that case (and I'm not suggesting you use that either).
I won't discuss the merits of semantic class names and the folly of presentational ones (especially as literal as these are), but I will suggest that this is a very narrow use of extending classes. With a 1:1 mapping of class name to property/value, you've practically defeated the purpose of #extend, which is supposed to make you write less CSS.
Better example of what to use #extend for:
.media {
padding:1em;
border-color:blue;
background-color:red;
clear:left;
}
.my-media {
#extend .media;
background-color:green;
}
Atomic CSS
The technique of very simple CSS rules does have a bit of precedent - at Yahoo! they call it Atomic CSS. Thierry Koblentz argues in this Smashing Magazine article for using the simple classes directly in your markup, similar to inline styling. This can be helpful on very large projects across multiple web properties, where styles are not consistent. Base styles for OOCSS components can't be reused as much in such a situation, causing you to have to write many more lines of extension classes or overrides.
The downside is, of course, as Wesley mentioned, that it is much more difficult to make changes across your entire project's styles, such as updating the text size of a specific selector.
I've been playing around with a variant of this technique recently in a fairly large project, where styles can often be one-off. In an effort to avoid the I try to avoid putting hard values directly in the selectors. For instance, the following css (example fiddle):
_colors.scss
.text-white {
color: $white;
}
.blue {
#extend .text-white;
background: $blue;
}
_effects.scss
.circle {
width: 50px;
height: 50px;
border-radius: 50%;
text-align: center;
line-height: 50px;
font-size: 40px;
}
.matted {
border: 4px solid $white;
}
.shadow {
#include box-shadow(0 1px 4px 1px rgba($black, 0.25));
}
HTML:
<div class="blue matted circle shadow">?</div>
Specificity issues
One last thing to keep in mind if you decide to use this technique - it can cause specificity problems if you're extending base-level classes that use the same CSS properties. For instance, in the following example (fiddle), how would your border-radius appear? You wanted the top to be squared off (no border-radius) but this isn't happening, because the .circle class is further down in your css and just as specific (single class) as the other effects. This is a bit of a contrived example, but if you reuse CSS properties across your atomic selectors, this can be a real problem.
_colors.scss
.text-white {
color: white;
}
.blue {
#extend .text-white;
background: royalblue;
}
_effects.scss
.squared-top {
border-top-left-radius: 0;
border-top-right-radius: 0;
}
.rounded {
border-radius: 10px;
}
.circle {
width: 50px;
height: 50px;
border-radius: 50%;
}
HTML:
<span class="circle blue rounded squared-top"></span>
If you do it that way you can also use it directly in the HTML - so it looks like they took the OOCSS path and because it's already in the CSS you can now also extend to it. Very flexible but it could also turn very messy.
Extend option is used poorly here. It should be used for extending classes with more content and in that case extend can be very helpful.You can find more about extend and its options here.

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