(Stretch your CSS layout options with Flexbox. Flickr photo by Duncan Hull.)

Flexbox is a totally new set of CSS properties that allows designers to create flexible layouts. This is great news for responsive design because it dramatically reduces the complexity of fluid grids. Browser support for flexbox is finally here, so if you haven’t learned about flexbox yet, then it’s time to get started.

Flexbox is Ready

The web was originally conceived as a mechanism for exchanging scientific documents. Web technology has evolved a great deal since then, but we still rely on CSS properties that have their roots in digital publishing. Indeed, CSS layout and positioning are some of the most difficult concepts for web designers, regardless of experience. Designers rely on the use of CSS properties like float and clear, or CSS declarations like display: block; and display: inline; to control their designs. With display: flexbox; designers are now in control of the direction, alignment, and spacing of page elements.

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Flexbox is a remarkably intelligent solution to a long-standing convoluted problem. For the last few years, designers have been patiently waiting for browser support to catch up to the CSS Flexible Box Layout Module specification. Finally, the latest versions of all major browsers include flexbox support. (For more detailed information, see the browser support section below.)

Flexbox Example and Syntax

Flexbox and media queries make for a powerful combination. In the following example, I’ve recreated a simplified version of the Treehouse homepage header using a mobile-first flexbox approach. Open this pen in a new browser window and resize the window to see the header in action.

See the Pen Treehouse Flexbox Example by Nick Pettit (@nickpettit) on CodePen.

At first glance, it may not appear very special. However, if you look at the code, you’ll notice that this layout uses no position or float properties. It also doesn’t use any block or inline values for display.

I’ve separated the example CSS into the flexbox styles and then all the less relevant code that just makes it look nice. Here’s how each part of the flexbox styling is working in this example.

display: flex

The declaration display: flex; defines a “flex container” and its direct children automatically become “flex items.” A flex container has a main axis, which is the primary direction in which flex items are laid out. The cross axis is perpendicular to the main axis. Both the main axis and the cross axis have a set of properties that can control how flex items are placed in relation to one another.

This diagram from the W3C specification for flexbox describes how the main axis and cross axis relate to one another.

You can also nest flex containers inside one another, which I’ve done in the example code, since the display property is not automatically inherited. Both the .header and .nav classes have the display: flex; declaration applied. This is similar to how rows and columns in a CSS framework like Foundation can be nested.

flex-direction

One thing to note is that the main axis is the primary direction, and not necessarily the horizontal direction. The direction of a flex container can be changed with the flex-direction property. At mobile sizes, the navigation in the example becomes a 1-column list rather than horizontal links. This is accomplished in the example with the flex-direction: column; declaration.

Then, at larger sizes, the declaration flex-direction: row; is used to make the navigation horizontal again. The default value for flex-direction is row, so even if the flex-direction property wasn’t used at all, then the list elements would still appear horizontal.

flex

The flex property is applied to flex items. It’s a shorthand property that combines the flex-grow, flex-shrink, and flex-basis properties into one declaration. The flex-grow and flex-shrink properties both take a unitless value that defines how much space each element should take up in proportion to one another. By default, flex-grow is 0 and flex-shrink is 1, meaning that all the elements will be in proportion to one another. The flex-basis property defines the size of elements before extra space is distributed and its default value is auto.

The latter two properties are optional, so if we simply apply the declaration flex: 1; to the .nav class, it changes the flex-grow value to 1. The other flex item in the same flex container is the h1 element with the class .logo, and since flex-grow is 0 by default, the .nav will always take up more space than the .logo.

justify-content

If there’s space left over inside a flex container, either because the flex items have reached their maximum size or because they’re inflexible, then the justify-content property can define how the space should be used. In the example, the .header has the declaration justify-content: space-between; which means the first flex item will be at the start of the line, the last item will touch the end of the line, and anything between will be evenly distributed. On the nested .nav flex container, the declaration justify-content: space-around; is used to distribute the remaining space evenly around each navigation link.

See this diagram from the W3C to see how each of the justify-content properties behave.

This image from the W3C demonstrates how the various values for the justify-content property will behave.

And more…

This is just a small sample of the new flexbox properties. For more comprehensive information, see the resources section below.

Browser Support

In general, if you only need to support the latest browsers (such as a blog for web designers) then you’re safe to use flexbox. However, there are a few caveats that need to be addressed for slightly older browsers. For example, as of Safari 7.0 and mobile Safari 7.0, the -webkit- prefix is still required.

More importantly, there are multiple implementations of the flexbox syntax. Prior to the introduction of the modern syntax in the W3C spec, an unofficial syntax was supported by several legacy browsers. In addition, there’s an even older display: box syntax. There are also a few bugs to watch out for (even in modern browsers) that may or may not be minor, depending on the context of a project.

For specific information about browser support, see the Can I Use support table for flexbox. You may also want to read about how to support flexbox in legacy browsers.

One more note: It’s probably not a good idea to use flexbox for overall page layouts. Rendering content with flexbox causes horizontal misalignment and shifting as the page is loading, due to the way sizes need to be calculated. This can actually make the page load a bit slower in most instances. However, the grid layout module aims to further address page layout and browser support should arrive in the future.

Flexbox Resources

This article is only meant to spread awareness and excitement about the arrival of flexbox, and there’s a lot more to learn. If you’re thinking about using flexbox, here’s some essential reading:

• CSS Layout Techniques: In this Treehouse course, Guil Hernandez covers common layout and positioning methods, including flexbox.
• A Complete Guide to Flexbox | CSS-Tricks: If you want to know more about each element and property in the flexbox module, I recommend this guide from Chris Coyier.
• Flexbox in the real world: A fantastic blog post from Sean Fioritto about how to use flexbox responsibly to accommodate various browser traffic scenarios, including detailed code to help support legacy browsers if necessary.
• The Ultimate Flexbox Cheat Sheet: An excellent “cheat sheet” page (also from Sean Fioritto) about how to use various flexbox properties and values.
• CSS Flexible Box Layout Module | W3C: For extremely detailed technical information, read the W3C flexbox specification.
• Flexplorer: Amazing tool by Bennett Feely that allows you to quickly experiment with the various flexbox properties and values.

The post Flexbox: The Next Generation of CSS Layout Has Arrived appeared first on Treehouse Blog.

Let's say you're using an RSS-to-Email service. They're pretty useful. Plenty of people like subscribing to content via email. You have a CMS that generates RSS from the content you create. An RSS-to-Email service can watch for new entries, format those new entries into an email, and send them out to a list of subscribers. MailChimp and Campaign Monitor both offer this service and I'm sure they aren't the only ones.

But how do you handle images within those email-generating entries? It can be a little tricky actually, because the HTML for images that works on the website might not be so great in email.

Here's an example. You write a blog post, and the content of that blog post spits out like this:

<p>Blah blah blah. Blog post about ponies. Here's a cool and hip pony:</p>
    
    <img src="http://cdn.ponies.what/pony.jpg" width="1200" height="800">
    
    <p>Isn't that the best pony of all?</p>

Notice the width and height attributes. That's not entirely uncommon. WordPress automatically adds them by default if you use the Media Uploader thingy.

Even if you remove them, that pony.jpg file is still 1200x800px big, and will render that way. That's no big deal, layout-wise, on the web, because we have CSS there. We can do the classic

article img {
      max-width: 100%;
      height: auto;
    }

to ensure the image doesn't break the bounds of the container it is in, or stretch it wider than appropriate. The fact that the image is that size is reasonable. That would be a @2x version of a content image in a 600px wide column, which is what is needed sometimes to make a raster image look nice and sharp.

We might even employ a responsive images technique, utilizing both JavaScript and CSS. Also a smart and reasonable thing you might want to do.

But we don't have either CSS or JavaScript available to us in emails. So that 1200x800px image is going to render at 1200x800px in an email layout. That's bad. Even on desktop, that's obnoxiously wide and hurts the ability to comfortably read the email as it can cause horizontal scrolling.

I used to use FeedBurner to provide email subscriptions on this site, and this is the kind of thing people would get.

It's not a problem isolated to FeedBurner. I switched to MailChimp for this service more recently. It's not their "fault", but huge images break their email layouts as well. Here's a classic example where you click "Display images below" in Gmail to reveal images and by doing so you kinda break the layout:

So we're going to need to fix this at the HTML level.

Altering the HTML

We're going to need to:

1. If the <img> has width/height attributes, remove them
2. Add a new width attribute with a friendly value

So these:

<img src="image.jpg" width="1200" height="800">
    
    <img src="image.png" alt="image">

Become:

<img src="image.jpg" width="320">
    
    <img src="image.png" width="320" alt="image">

Simple enough of a plan, but how do you actually do it?

One way is to put Email-friendly with attributes on the <img> in the content to begin with, and allow the image to be bigger with CSS on your site if needed.

Another way is to create a special feed that parses the content and alters the attributes on the <img>s as needed. I'm a fan of this way, because then it gives you a place to make other special alterations intended for email-only.

Solving in WordPress

Russell Heimlich helped me with this in this forum thread. Thanks Russell!

You'll need a create a new RSS feed in WordPress just for this. Fortunately WordPress makes this easy with add_feed(). For your functions.php file, or a custom plugin:

function css_tricks_custom_feeds() {
      add_feed('email', 'get_me_the_email_feed_template');
    }
    add_action('init', 'css_tricks_custom_feeds');

The email string creates a new feed with the slug email, so there is now a new feed URL at:

http://css-tricks.com/feed/email/

The get_me_the_email_feed_template string references a callback function:

function get_me_the_email_feed_template() {
      add_filter('the_content_feed', 'css_tricks_super_awesome_feed_image_magic');
      include(ABSPATH . '/wp-includes/feed-rss2.php' );
    }

Which references a filter function. This filter function does the magic of altering the HTML in a post.

function css_tricks_super_awesome_feed_image_magic($content) {
      // Weirdness we need to add to strip the doctype with later.
      $content = '<div>' . $content . '</div>';
      $doc = new DOMDocument();
      $doc->LoadHTML($content);
      $images = $doc->getElementsByTagName('img');
      foreach ($images as $image) {
        $image->removeAttribute('height');
        $image->setAttribute('width', '320');
      }
      // Strip weird DOCTYPE that DOMDocument() adds in
      $content = substr($doc->saveXML($doc->getElementsByTagName('div')->item(0)), 5, -6);
      return $content;
    }

This really did feel magical to me. I had no idea PHP had the native ability to query a chunk of HTML like it was the DOM and adjust attributes and stuff, like JavaScript can. But it does. Shows what I know.

Note that if the image you are inserting into the RSS entry is via something like the_post_thumbnail (the "featured image") feature in WordPress, you're already doing something special to get that into the feed, so you'd use the_post_thumbnail('medium'); instead of the_post_thumbnail('large'); or whatever.

Use the new feed

Now that this new feed exists, you can point the RSS-to-email service at it. For CSS-Tricks, I'm using MailChimp and it slurps in that feed:

MailChimp also does it's best, via media queries in the email, to make the template small screen friendly:

And it works!

I should say, it works in mobile email clients that support media queries. Which does not support GMail apps on iOS or Android, which is unfortunate.

Mobile first?

Given how often email is read on small screen devices, it's tempting to make the email template a good width for small screens, and only stretch it for large screens. If you go with a wide fixed width, even if you adjust with a media query, non supporting browsers will have a bad time:

I spoke a bit with Fabio Carneiro, the master of emails for MailChimp, who has some ideas about mobile-first emails that will work with apps that don't support media queries.

I'll update this when we can get that going. I'd also like to try setting width="100%" on images so that they just fit the container rather than the width="320" thing I'm doing now. I was just kinda afraid the 100% would still stretch the container where 320 for sure won't. Needs more testing.

I've had some luck with a <table> based design where there is no fixed width, but only max and min...

<!-- main content-wrapping table -->
    <table style="min-width: 320px; max-width: 600px;">
    
    </table>

But I can't 100% vouch for that yet.

Dealing with Content Images in Email is a post from CSS-Tricks

by Shawntay Stocks

Let us take a look at and discuss the often aesthetic bane of the blog design, sidebars. Sidebars have been with us for years, and it is sometimes hard to think of a blog design out there on the web without one. But they do exist. And they exist in style. Some may think that usability must be in some way compromised, or worse, sacrificed on these sites that have gone sidebar-free, but I assure you that’s not the case.

These sites remain user-friendly, fully functional, and still keep all the information on hand that users need and/or expect; they’ve just creatively relocated it so as to not clog up the side of their site. Because while it is true that you can fit a lot of info into the sidebar, they take up valuable space on your page and run right along side the content that the viewer is currently reading, acting as something of a detractor to the content itself.

Once we get readers engaged with our content, why would we want to divert their attention elsewhere?

Chances are they aren’t going to stop reading to click on one of the links in your sidebar, nor should you want them to; but visually, that is the competition for focus we have created with this setup. Generally speaking, the goal of any blog is to get people to come by and read through the content on offer. Typically it’s promoting the brand, persons, or project behind the blog. Once we get readers engaged with our content, why would we want to divert their attention elsewhere?

This post stands to make the case to remove the sidebar altogether from the common blog design for a more aesthetically pleasing, directly focused design. Thereby allowing us to widen our main content area giving more room for large, readable type and big, clear images to engage our readers. As for the content that would normally be in the sidebar? We can easily place all of these things in a more relevant and useful place for the reader than directly competing with our content for their focus.

Search box

A search box is generally the first item you see in a side bar since, and with good reason. People tend to want it front and center. Giving users the ability to search your site for exactly what it is they’re looking for is a must and an expected element of usability that no site should be without. But that doesn’t mean that we have to load it into the sidebar.

Why not slyly slide the search box into the header of the site, or coupled with the main navigation? These approaches would make much more sense, after all what’s more front and center than that? And including it alongside the navigation fits ideally with allowing users to freely and easily surf and search your blog. Yet, we rarely see examples of this on the web. Instead, we keep the searches often pushed off to the side.

Featured posts

Presenting the reader with more relevant posts on your site is a great idea for keeping them engaged and on your site for longer periods of time. This is an idea that not many would argue against. But once again, why would we want to begin pitching our readers other featured posts while they are in the middle of one? Do we not trust in the power of our content to hold their attention throughout the post? And if we do trust in that power, why would we put anything alongside it to be ignored?

Do we not trust in the power of our content to hold their attention throughout the post?

But speaking specifically of featured posts, why not present them to the reader below the post? So they come to it in natural progression when they have made it to the end? Doesn’t this make the most sense? Simply offering a list of similar posts at the bottom of each article would go a long way with regards to building engagement. And if you still feel the need to showcase other featured posts, such as the most popular posts on your blog, place that list in your footer. It just seems there are ways around this that make more sense than putting this information in a sidebar.

Subscribe buttons

The call to action where you are trying to get users to subscribe to your content are far too important to get lost in a sidebar that many never even look at (especially as we mentioned if your content is doing its job). Perhaps placing these subscribe buttons in two separate places on the blog would actually serve the blog much better. Perhaps it would even give these calls a slightly higher success rate than if they were buried in a sidebar (or even than when included in a stylish floating box that inadvertently ends up in the reader’s way).

In this case, we could easily place one subscribe button in the header where the reader will see it right away, and one at the end of each post where they can subscribe if they have enjoyed the content. These are still unobtrusive, non-competitive placings with regards to the content. This also gives them a reminder as they finish the post, to compliment the encouraging call they got upon their arrival.

Archives

Much of your sidebar space might be taken up with various types of archives. Specifically archives by date, categories and tag lists. This is a popular approach, because we figure that this information has to be included somewhere on the site. But is there not somewhere that makes more sense than in competition with our content? The answer is, yes. There are two ways to effectively deal with these sections.

You can create an archive page which you link to in your main navigation, condensing all of these areas into one centralized, useful location. Or, you can present metadata within each post putting it where the user would find it most useful. Here it is not a distraction from the content, but a tool to further the impact of the content as users can easily click and open this in a new tab to explore at their convenience.

We can link the author’s name to their author page, list the category (or categories) and tags of the current post and link the date to your archives by date. All of these options are implementable and keep your links presented completely relevant to the topic that brought the reader to your site.

Advertising

Not every blog has to worry about finding space for advertising, but some are very concerned with this monetization element. If you can find ways to monetize a blog without advertising, it’s highly recommended (by this author in any case) to do so; mainly for all of the reasons we have already discussed of content competition throughout the post. However, if ad space is a must, perhaps getting a bit more creative with it is the key.

Just as advertising detracts from content, content detracts from advertising.

There are many other places to include advertising other than alongside your content, that could prove just as effective, if not moreso, because there is less competition with the content users came for. Just as advertising detracts from content, content detracts from advertising. Try placing adverts between blog posts on your home page, beneath the post title on individual posts, or at the bottom of individual posts. These are all examples we have seen on the web (for those surfing ad-block free). Footer ads would most likely be the least desirable, but are still a good unobtrusive place of natural progression to offer; it is often where the reader ends up anyway.

Wrap up

Of course the final option is to go completely minimal and omit all of these extraneous things altogether, but as we know from experience, that is not always an option. The key thing to remember is that anything we place in a sidebar conflicts with the focus we want for the reader. Instead, including these elements in places where the reader is more naturally directed should always be our first instinct and choice location for placement. That is generally never in a sidebar.

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Career Services is currently accepting applications for Career Peer Advisors.

Career Peer Advisors assist the Career Services Center in extending career services and information to the UMBC student body.  Students must be able to commit at least one academic year to the following duties and responsibilities: take walk-in appointments, review resumes and cover letters; facilitate workshops/seminars; help market CSC services and programs to UMBC student body; design and present group information meetings upon request to student organizations, residence halls, and other groups; provide general office reception duties; conduct outreach to student organizations and one of three colleges (Engineering and Information Technology, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Natural and Mathematical Sciences); work closely with  CSC staff on special projects as needed.  Training will be provided.

Hours:  10-12 per week.

Note: All majors encouraged to apply.

Qualifications

• Continuing undergraduate or graduate student with at least a 2.75 GPA;
• strong interest in helping others and working with students, staff, employers, and faculty;
• in good academic standing;
• excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
• experience with public speaking helpful;
• ability to use tact and diplomacy in working with others both face to face and on the phone;
• previous or current involvement in campus organizations or activities helpful;
• computer literacy and comfort with PowerPoint presentation technology;
• detail oriented, dependable and reliable;
• initiative and enthusiasm.
• All majors invited to apply.

Excellent opportunity for undergraduate Social Work, Sociology and Psychology majors considering application to graduate school in the counseling and health professions.

To Apply:  Log into your UMBCworks account (http://careers.umbc.edu/students/umbcworks.pdf) and enter job# 9265552 in the keyword box.

 Open until filled.  For best consideration, please apply by: Tuesday, May 13, 2014.

• Login to myUMBC

• Select “Topics”

• Select “Advising and Student Support”

• Select “My Advisors”

UMBC Mechanical Engineering researchers Sal Nimer and Prof. Marc Zupan, in collaboration with Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division scientist Dr. Jennifer Wolk, are studying the effects of friction stir welding on the local mechanical properties of a Ti alloy. The research is characterizing and developing the next generation structural materials for Naval vehicle systems. Their recent work was has been featured on the cover of the journal Advanced Engineering Materials.

Micro-tensile samples were utilized as shown in the figure extracted from a friction stir welded (FSW) plate of Ti-5111 and mechanically tested to failure in order to measure local material properties. The experimentally determined mechanical properties are linked down to the micro-structural regions that develop during the FSW process as described by Marc Zupan and co-workers

The abstract from the manuscript is below:

Location and Orientation Specific Material Property

Evaluation of Friction Stir Welded Ti-5111:

A Microsample Approach**

By Salahudin Nimer, Jennifer Wolk* and Marc Zupan*

This work presents microsample measured mechanical properties of a friction stir welded (FSW) plate of Ti-5111. Property measurements and fractographic deformation observations were made as a function of discrete locations within the weld [stir zone (SZ), boundaries, base metal (BM)]. Properties in the longitudinal direction are compared to transverse measurements made at the same locations. Compared to the BM the longitudinal direction shows strength and ductility increases throughout the weld. The outer SZ showed mechanical properties in the longitudinal direction to be similar to the SZ properties in the transverse direction. These observations and measured properties serve to link the local material properties to the complex flow, heat, and deformation imparted to the material during the FSW process.