PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
Making CSS and Firebug
Your New Friends
Chrissy Wainwright

What is CSS?
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
* Cascading Style Sheets
* Controls colors, fonts, sizes, positioning, etc

What is CSS?
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
The cascade determines the order in which the
CSS is prioritized.
Factors include:
* order of importation
(Plone CSS Registry)
* specificity of selectors
* !important
flickr/Cayusa

How to insert CSS
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
External:
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”
href=”public.css”>
Embedded:
<style type=”text/css”>
body { background-color: #f1f1f1; }
</style>
Inline:
<p style=”color: #333333;”>

Syntax
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
h1,
.documentFirstHeading {
color: #333333;
font-size: 24px;
border-bottom: 1px solid #333333;
}

Selectors
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Tags:
h1, p, span, div
IDs:
#visual-portal-wrapper, #portal-logo
Classes:
.section-news, .visualClear

Selector Specificity
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h1.documentFirstHeading { ... }
- an h1 with the class documentFirstHeading
.section-news #content { ... }
- styles for #content when inside .section-news
#region-content.documentContent { ... }
- an element with both the id region-content
and class documentContent

A Matter of !Importance
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
h1 { color: #ff0000 !important; }
will override
.section-news #content h1 { color: #333333; }
even though the second is more specific.
Use !important sparingly!

Pseudo Selectors
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Most popularly used on anchors for applying
styles to their different states:
a:hover
a:active
a:visited
flickr/Plbmak

Shorthand Properties
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background: #fff url(bg.jpg) repeat-x top right;
background-color: #ffffff;
background-image: url(bg.jpg);
background-repeat: repeat-x;
background-position: top right;
border: 1px solid #333333;
border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: #333333;

Shorthand Properties
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
border-width: 2px 2px 2px 2px;
border-width: 2px;
padding: 5px 10px 5px 10px;
padding: 5px 10px;
margin: 0 10px 20px 10px;
margin: 0 10px 20px;

Block vs Inline
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
li { display: block; }
Block level elements start on a
new line and fill the space of
their parent. (p, div)
Inline items appear in line with
the text. (span, em, img) flickr/lobo235

Display Options
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
one
block two
three
four
inline one two three four
one
two < for bullet display on li
list-item three
four
none < similar to visibility: hidden,
but doesn’t leave a space

Display Options
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
* Block items should not be put inside inline items
* Inline items can be made “block” for applying
width and height
* Also, there is inline-block!

Box Model
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flickr/cmdshiftdesign

Box Model
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Floats & Clears
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img { float: right; }
Floats will push an element to one side and allow
content to wrap around it

Floats & Clears
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1. Containers don’t expand
for the floating content
2. You may not want the
next element to wrap
around the float.
You can use Plone’s .visualClear on a div, or :after

Floats & Clears
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
With a clear: both; at the
end of the purple div.
overflow: auto; would also
do this
With a clear before the
next paragraph

Positioning
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#container {
width: 350px;
position: relative;
}
#container div {
float: left;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
margin: 0 10px 10px 0;
position: static;
}

Positioning
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
.box5 {
position: relative;
top: 30px;
left: 30px;
}
.box5 {
position: absolute;
top: 30px;
left: 30px;
}

Positioning
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
* space is removed
* positioned within parent that
has position: relative;
(body, if none)
* position: fixed is similar, but
will stay in place when scrolling
* z-index can be applied for determining
top to bottom order

New CSS3 Properties
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
* Opacity, RGB alpha
* Multiple backgrounds
* Rounded corners
* Shadows
* + more
flickr/cdw9

Colors, Opacity
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
.box1 {
background-color: #123456;
}
.box2 {
background-color: rgb(18,52,86);
opacity: 0.7;
}
.box3 {
background-color: rgba(18,52,86,0.7);
}

Multiple Backgrounds
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.box {
background:
url(‘base.jpg’) repeat-x bottom left,
url(‘top.jpg’) repeat-x top left,
url(‘middle.jpg’) repeat-y top center;
}
* separate with comma
* order from front to back
* only last can have a background color

Rounded Corners
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
.box {
border: 1px solid #ffffff;
border-radius: 0 30px 30px 30px;
}
* clockwise from top left
* can make circles

Shadows
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h1 {
text-shadow: 3px 3px #ff0000;
}
.box {
box-shadow: 5px 5px 10px 10px #333333;
}
inset/outset, x, y,
blur, spread, color

Browser Stats
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
X CSS3
~ CSS3
X CSS3
X CSS3

Firebug
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
* Firefox web development tool
* Live Source Code (with JS applied)
* Styles
* Code is editable on the fly for
display in the browser. Changes
are not saved, and will reset on
refresh.

Firebug Inspector
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* Right click an element, select “Inspect Element”
* Or with Firebug open, click the Inspector, then
click an element
This will highlight the element in the HTML tab

Firebug Inspector
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With an element highlighted in the HTML tab,
you can see the styles applied to it.

Firebug Styles
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The style tab shows how the styles are cascading
in descending order

Firebug Styles
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In the Style tab, styles can
be adjusted, and new
properties can be added.
The browser will display
the changes. Values can
be typed or adjusted with
arrow keys

Firebug Styles
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The Layout tab shows box model styles. Values
can be adjusted here, and will only apply to the
selected element.

Firebug Styles
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To disable a style, hover over it, then click the
icon that will appear to the left

Add-ons For Your Add-on
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
Firebug Extensions:
* Pixel Perfect
* FireDiff
Other Firefox Extensions:
* MeasureIt
* ColorZilla
* Web Developer Toolkit

Further Reading & Resources
PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
http://procssor.com
http://css-tricks.com/6386-efficiently-rendering-css
http://css-tricks.com/795-all-about-floats/
http://css3.info
http://css3please.com
http://gs.statcounter.com
http://getfirebug.com
http://caniuse.com

PLONE CONFERENCE 2011
eck out
Ch
.com/ demos
six feetup