React Blocks

A higher-level react component to manage complex layouts using flexbox. Everything is just another block. Heavily inspired by Polymer layout.html, LayoutJS and the CSSinJS pattern.

Just pure layout, No more, No less.

About

React blocks uses a declarative approach to build complex layouts on top of CSS Flexbox. Flexbox properties are exposed as attributes on a higher-level react component. Supports media-queries via predefined mobile-first queries. Further custom media queries can be specified in a styles object.

Please note, it does NOT handle missing browser features. Please use Modernizr with Polyfills to achieve that.

Usage

NPM and Webpack/Browserify

Install via npm. Use --save to include it in your package.json.

npm install react-blocks

Start by importing/requiring react-blocks within your react code.

// using an ES6 transpiler
import Block from 'react-blocks';

// not using an ES6 transpiler
var Block = require('react-blocks');

There's also a umd version available at lib/umd. The component is available on window.ReactBlocks.

Layout (Horizontal, Vertical, Reverse, Wrap)

A block is just a block level div element by default. You can make it a flex container by adding a layout attribute. Further to specify a direction, add horizontal or vertical attributes for row or column respectively. However the default direction would be set to vertical if nothing is specified. The horizontal attribute is optional though, a block container has its flexDirection set to horizontal by default.

let App = React.createClass({
  render() {
    return (
      <Block layout>
        <div>Alpha</div>
        <div>Beta</div>
      </Block>
    );
  }
});

The direction of a block layout can be reversed by adding a reverse attribute. Also to make a flex-item stretch its width use the flex attribute on a flex-item. Also all flex-items of a block container are wrapped by default.

let Reverse = React.createClass({
  render() {
    let styles = {
      app: {
        width: 200
      }
    };

    return (
      <Block layout vertical reverse style={styles.app}>
        <div>Alpha</div>
        <div flex>Beta</div>
      </Block>
    );
  }
});

Align, Self-Align & Justify

By default flex-items stretch to fit the cross-axis and are start justified. The align and justify* attributes are used to align and justify flex-items. Please note align & justify attributes have to be declared on a parent container and has to be a Block element.

let AlignedJustified = React.createClass({
  render() {
    let styles = {
      app: {
        height: 200
      }
    };

    return (
      <Block layout center justifyEnd style={styles.app}>
        <Block>Alpha</Block>
        <Block>Beta</Block>
      </Block>
    );
  }
});

Further flex-items can be self aligned across the cross-axis using the self attribute on the flex-item itself.

let SelfAligned = React.createClass({
  render() {
    let styles = {
      app: {
        height: 200
      }
    };

    return (
      <Block layout center justifyEnd style={styles.app}>
        <Block self="start">Alpha</Block>
        <Block self="end">Beta</Block>
      </Block>
    );
  }
});

To center align and center justify an item within a flex-container, use the centered attribute.

let Centered = React.createClass({
  render() {
    let styles = {
      app: {
        height: 200
      }
    };

    return (
      <Block layout centered style={styles.app}>
        <div>Centered</div>
      </Block>
    );
  }
});

Nested Blocks

Blocks can further be nested. A block could contain multiple blocks as well. Use the layout attribute on a flex item to make a it a flex-container. However its not necessary that all children inside a flex-container are wrapped inside a Block.

let Nested = React.createClass({
  render() {
    return(
      <Block layout>
        <Block className="sidebar" layout vertical>
          <Block>Alpha</Block>
          <Block>Beta</Block>
        </Block>
        <Block className="content" layout reverse>
          <Block>Gamma</Block>
          <div>Delta</div>
          <a href="#">Theta</a>
        </Block>
      </Block>
    );
  }
});

General purpose attributes

Blocks come with purpose attributes for basic positioning.

Attribute	Result
`block`	Assigns `display: block`
`hidden`	Assigns `display: none`
`invisible`	Assigns `visibility: hidden`
`relative`	Assigns `position: relative`
`absolute`	Assigns `position: absolute` and sets `top:0;right:0;bottom:0;left:0`. Note: When using `absolute` attribute, there must be a container having `position: relative` layout.

Developers

Clone the repository, install the dependencies & type npm start to start a local development server. Open http://localhost:8080 to get started.

The repository comes with a set of tests, which serve also as examples. To run the tests, type npm test once you install the dependencies. All tests are written using mocha & chai.

munro/react-blocks