/NYTimes-Clone

A frontend CSS clone of the New York Times homepage

Primary LanguageRuby

App Academy Times

Often when working as a front-end developer you'll be collaborating with a designer. Most likely they will provide you with a sequence of screenshots and specifications for you to convert into neat, maintainable HTML and CSS. Like so:

aa-times

Download the skeleton to get started on making an App Academy clone of The New York Times homepage!

Phase 0: Setup

  • Navigate to the root directory and bundle install.
  • Run rails s in one tab.
  • In another tab, run bundle exec guard -P livereload.

The guard -P livereload implements an easy-to-setup workflow using "style injection." Style injection is the ability to see styling changes immediately after authoring them without having to manually refresh your browser. Here is a blog post explaining the setup and how it works.

Stylesheets File Structure

Begin by familiarizing yourself with the stylesheets file structure, which will house all of our CSS code for this project.

/app/assets/stylesheets
+-- base
|   +-- colors.scss
|   +-- fonts.scss
|   +-- grid.scss
|   +-- layout.scss
|   +-- reset.scss
+-- components
|   +-- _gear_dropdown.scss
|   +-- _main_content.scss
|   +-- _main_nav.scss
|   +-- _masthead.scss
|   +-- _search_modal.scss
|   +-- _sections_nav.scss
|   +-- _sections_sidebar.scss
+-- application.scss

Next take a look at the application.scss file:

// CSS Reset
@import "base/reset.scss";

// Core
@import "base/colors.scss";
@import "base/fonts.scss";
@import "base/layout.scss";

// Grid
@import "base/grid.scss";

// Components
@import "components/*";

This file uses SASS imports to define general styles that will apply to your entire application and enforce the importing of these stylesheets in a particular order.

Check out the colors.scss and fonts.scss files. They define SASS variables for you to use throughout the project to style your app. Defining SASS variables for an app's fonts and colors make changing any of them at any point more maintainable and consistent. Use these given SASS variables when defining any fonts or color values.

N.B.: We won't dive any deeper into SASS for this project but it does provide a couple more cool features! Read about them here if you're interested.

A Few Things Before You Start...

  • The project is provided as a Rails application to give you practice working with the Rails Asset Pipeline and navigating file structure
  • Sometimes the HTML will be given and you will need to style with CSS; sometimes the styles will be given and you will need to define the HTML structure; and sometimes you will be required to code both.
  • The docs folder contains two directories: screenshots and copy. You'll use the images found in screenshots for your mockups as you are styling. copy contains the text you'll copy and paste for app's content.
  • Pro Tip: Keep each mockup open and use it for reference as your styling a component.
  • HTML is rendered using rails partials in the /app/views/static_pages/index.html.erb file, allowing for the styling of each component separately.
  • The images you will use to style your app are located in the app/assets/images folder.
  • Javascript files are provided in the app/assets/javascripts folder.
  • A script tag in the application.html.erb loads Font Awesome's icon classes. For our app's icons, we will being using ones imported from Font Awesome's list of icons and applying them to elements using classes.

Phase 1: Reset

Always begin styling an app with a clean slate by "resetting" the user agent stylesheet provided by the browser in your stylesheets/base/reset.scss file.

To speed things up, we provided some tag selectors to get you started.

  • Be wise about which properties to inherit, and which to hard-code.
  • Besides the regular, set the box-sizing property to inherit, to have all elements behave the same, which is content-box, by default.
  • Make all images block elements. Each image's widths should be equal to its parent's width (100%) and its height should grow proportionally (auto). Set img width and height properties accordingly.
  • Remove the bullets from list items.
  • Set the cursor to be the pointer hand on buttons to make it obvious for users to click.
  • Lastly, define clearfix.

Phase 2: The Layout

Study the mockup to get an idea of the app's overall design.

In order to write "cascading" style sheets, it is important that we pick out common design elements and essential layout features. We will use the layout.scss file when styling aspects common to our entire application.

Notice that all of app's content is styled in a defined blocked away from the edges of the screen. Each component is also contained within regions with clean margins. This is essential for user experience because it makes content easier to read.

In stylesheets/base/layout.scss, style the body:

  • Apply a width of 80%.
  • Center using margin: 0 auto;.
  • Set the base font to font-family: $serif.
  • Set 12px as the default font-size.

Phase 3: The Header

With our layout styling started we can now begin focusing on each component, like the header. We can break the header down further into smaller components: main_nav (with a masthead component containing our logo) and sections_nav (with a gear_dropdown component).

We will style each one of these components in its own stylesheet. N.B.: Breaking down stylesheets into each component is key to writing maintainable and modular stylesheets.

Main Nav

Main Nav Mockup

Compare the provided HTML structure in /views/shared/_main_nav.html.erb to the mockup. Notice we are missing the HTML for the right-side navigation. Let's add it right now!

In /views/shared/_main_nav.html.erb:

  • Add a <nav> with the class "right-nav". Make sure it's contained within the "main-nav" element.
  • Add a ul element to your new nav. Make the buttons and gear icon list items of this unordered list.
  • Add "Subscribe Now" and "Log In" buttons.
  • Add the gear icon.

A great use for the layout.scss stylesheet is to define styling shared by multiple for elements. For example, the styling for the "Subscribe Now" button and is identical to the styling for the "Log In" button. N.B.: Using the same styling on buttons makes it easier for users to know where to click throughout your app.

In stylesheets/base/layout.scss:

  • Style the buttons to look like the buttons in the mockup.
  • each css property has been provided as a comment

Now it is time to style in the components/_main_nav.scss stylesheet. We have provided the selectors for you. Here are some guidelines:

  • Add display: flex the "main-nav" and use justify-content for horizontal spacing.
  • Add padding for vertical spacing.
  • Flex the unordered lists to keep their children horizontally aligned and use the align-items property vertically align them.
  • Apply font and sizing properties to the list elements themselves.
  • Use the $lightest-gray hover for the list elements without buttons.
  • Style the necessary margin spacing between the texts and the icons.
  • Use font-size to make the gear icon bigger.

Masthead

Masthead Mockup

Open up views/shared_masthead.html.erb. Pull up the provided components/_masthead.scss stylesheet next to it using split screen.

Copy and paste all of the text content from docs/copy/masthead.txt into the html file. We will build the HTML structure around the content. Here are some guidelines:

  • Notice that the .masthead is a flex-parent which means it will be used as an html container element and all of its immediate child elements will be flex-children.
  • Use align-items property to center the flex-children horizontally.
  • The Rails Asset Pipeline takes care of precompiling our assets, so the correct file path for images in the assets/images folder is assets/example_image.jpg
  • Only list elements should be present within unordered lists, but list elements may contain other elements such as anchor tags or buttons.

After some HTML structuring you will notice some problems with the styling. Refer to the masthead mock up and edit the stylesheet to fix the following things:

  • Correct the positioning of the .language-nav.
  • Remove the last border-right from .masthead-links.
  • Make the first link in the .language-nav bold.
  • Add application styling for anchor tags using the layout.scss file.

Sections Nav

Sections Nav Mockup

Follow the patterns and coding patterns described above to style the Sections Nav component. Define its styles in stylesheets/components/_sections_nav.scss and HTML in views/shared/_sections_nav.html.erb file. Copy and paste the text content from docs/copy/sections_nav.txt. Once you have fully completed the Sections Nav bar call over a TA to code review your Header!

Gear Dropdown

Gear Dropdown Mockup

Take a look at the app/assets/javascripts/components/dropdown.js file. Read the comments to get an understanding how the script works.

  • Add the necessary id attribute to the gear icon in the defined in _main_nav.html.erb
  • Add the corresponding .hidden selector in layout.scss.

Open the _gear_dropdown.html.erb file where we have defined the HTML structure for the dropdown. Notice the classes used to divide the different unordered lists and the span elements for the subtitles.

  • Render the partial as a child of the list element with the gear icon using <%= render partial: 'shared/gear_dropdown' %>
  • Click the gear icon to test the toggling of the hidden class.

Style the dropdown in _gear_dropdown.scss according to the mockup:

  • Style its position:
    • Position the icon relatively.
    • Position the dropdown absolutely and use top and right to adjust.
  • Give the dropdown some background, padding, and a border.
  • Using a defined px width for a dropdown is perfectly acceptable.
  • Set the z-index. Remember the z-index property is used on positioned elements to place them in front of or behind other elements with the largest z-index being in front.
  • Style the remaining fonts and margins being sure to use proper selectors.

For a final touch apply some box-shadow styling to the dropdown to give it a bit more dimension. Box shadows are highly customizable with values for the x-offset, y-offset, blur-radius, spread-radius and color. Here is an example using rgba colors where the Alpha value makes the color super transparent.

box-shadow: -1px 4px 6px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.09);

Phase 4: The Main Content

For the next phase we will add the latest App Academy Times news using a flexible grid system. The docs/copy folder contains the content for each section, which we will copy and paste. We will building the HTML structure around the content, like we did for the Masthead. But first let's make sure we have a flexible application by implementing a custom grid system.

Custom Flexible Grid

Grids are much less complicated than they sound and are commonly used throughout the web. Popular style frameworks like bootstrap by Twitter and material by Google all use flexible grid systems. For App Academy Times, hand-roll a simple grid just like you did in the CSS Homework.

Define your grid's CSS in the grid.scss stylesheet. Make sure to include the media query with a nice break point that maintains your design like 1000px. So that it behaves like so:

custom-grid

N.B.: Please don't just copy and paste any code. Writing out and debugging CSS/HTML is the best way to learn!

News Content

News Content Mockup

Copy and paste all the content from docs/copy/main_content.txt to views/shared/_main_content.html.erb. Start by using your newly defined grid classes with section elements to structure the content into flexible columns.

Use the following code snippet to embed the video content from YouTube:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ARe9FupzuOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Once you have all of your content defined in flexible columns, follow the mockup style. Add additional HTML elements if necessary. Here are some guidelines:

  • Headers like "Opinion Pages" and "Cat Academy" are bold.
  • .hr-top and .hr-bottom defined in layout.scss can be used to get the double lines that separate different content.
  • We used a pseudo content :after and content = '' to create the blue square next to the comments link.
  • Using flex: 1 on the input element will force it to grow or shrink to take up all the space next to it's flex sibling Sign Up button
  • Place the new_office.jpg image inside of a div with a class like thumbnail. This way you can reuse this thumbnail class with a styled height in px and then make all images width: 100% & height: 100%. Use object-fit: cover on all images inside thumbnail to assure the images cover the containing div correctly.
  • Try to put as many of the application-wide selectors into the layout.scss file as possible. Selectors such as h1, h2, img, small, hr, .thumbnail etc. make more sense in the layout file because we will likely reuse them.

Get A TA to Review your page before continuing

Phase 5: The Sections Sidebar

Now try resizing the window. Notice that our flexible website breaks a bit because we don't have flexible fonts. We will leave this discussion for another time and instead use media queries to complete our responsive design. Notice how the amount of links in the Sections Nav is too big for smaller screen sizes (ie. mobile screens). Let's adjust for mobile!

Mobile Mockup

  • Write a media query similar to the one used in the grid.scss to hide the sections nav at the same viewport width that the columns convert to 100%.
  • Write a similar media query to hide the Language Nav.
  • Finally hide the "Subscribe" button, "Login" button and take the margin off the .left-nav in the main_nav styles. We added a bit of padding as well.

N.B. With just these few media queries and a flexible grid system we have a completely responsive website!

Now let's code a Sections Sidebar so that mobile users still have a way of navigating all of the different App Academy Times sections. Style it according to the mockup.

Sections Sidebar Mockup

  • Copy and paste the HTML from the sections_nav.html.erb file into the sections_sidebar.html.erb file to use as a skeleton and guide.
  • Take a look at the app/assets/javascripts/components/sidebar.js to see how the Sidebar functions.
  • Add the <%= render partial: 'shared/sections_sidebar' %> to the _main_nav.html.erb as a child of the corresponding list element with id="sections-sidebar-btn".
  • In _sections_sidebar.scss, start with a selector to style the opacity: 0 normally and opacity: 1 when it has the additional .expand class.

N.B. We use opacity here instead of display because it is transition-able.

This is the effect we are going for:

sidebar example

  • Copy and paste the content from docs/copy/sidebar_submenus.txt.
  • Add the remaining HTML to the sections_sidebar by nesting ul elements within the li elements that require an additional dropdown.

Create pure css dropdowns with the following example code:

<section class="dropdown">
    <ul>
        <li>lorem ipsum</li>
        <li>Lorem ipsum dolor</li>
    </ul>
</section>
.dropdown {
    position: relative;
}
.dropdown > ul {
    display: none;
    position: absolute;
    /* use top, left, right, bottom to position */
}
.dropdown:hover > ul {
    display: block;
}

Use pseudo element css triangles on top of triangles to create the arrows for the menu items as well as the submenu dropdown triangles. This code could apply right arrows to the list items in the dropdown HTML from above:

.dropdown li {
    position: relative;
}
.dropdown li:after,
.dropdown li:before {
    content: "";
    position: absolute;
    right: 0;
    top: 25%;
    border-left: 5px solid gray;
    border-top: 5px solid transparent;
    border-bottom: 5px solid transparent;
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
}
.dropdown li:after {
    right: 2px;
    border-left: 5px solid white;
    z-index: 1;
}

Phase 6: Search Modal

Search Modal Mockup

Modals are distinct from dropdowns because they appear to float independently over the application. A common characteristic of a modal is also that the app beneath becomes more opaque and clicking away from the modal will close it.

Take a look at the search-modal.png screenshot to get a better idea of what this is supposed to look like. Use the search-modal.js file to get the id necesary for the search button, modal and overlay.

Create the HTML in the _search_modal.html.erb file and style in _search_modal.scss. We created a <section id="overlay" class="overlay hidden"></section> at the bottom of the main_content section.

Here is a trick to making content take up the full width of the viewport even when inside of a smaller container by using viewport units (vw = viewport width, vh = viewport height).

  position: absolute;
  width: 100vw;
  left: calc(-50vw + 50%);
  • We used this trick both to make the full width search modal and overlay
  • height: 100% is not transitionable...use max-height instead
  • Inset box shadows with box-shadow: inset 2px 3px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.07);

Before continuing Call over a TA for review.

Bonus: A Fixed Header

Use what you have learned to create a Fixed Header. When scrolling past the sections_nav a fixed_sections_nav should appear. Use the NYTimes as an example.