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Cover image for 2. Basic HTML/CSS.
Rustam Apay
Rustam Apay

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2. Basic HTML/CSS.

#webdev #javascript #beginners #tutorial

In this section we will code simple layout for 3 rows of 5 keys each, to understand: what parameters we should include into HTML 1 and CSS 2 to achieve a realistic view. We will use this small test layout as a draft to design a data model and component templates. Then we'll scale it to the whole app (6 rows, 80 keys).

Layout

Let's take a close look at the physical keyboard to understand its layout.

random keyboard photo from the internet

  1. rows have different height (1st is smaller)
  2. keys
    • are black rounded rectangles
    • have 0-2 text slots (1! or Q)
    • have different width (some of them)
    • have the same height inside a row

index.html

Make a folder for the project keyboard-trainer, open it with VS Code 3.

Create a file index.html.

In code editor type ! and press Tab, you will see a blueprint with an empty HTML5 4 document 5.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
    <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8" />
        <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
        <title>Document</title>
    </head>
    <body></body>
</html>
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Write inside the <body> tag something like: “Hello world.”, save the file (Ctrl + s). And run the app with the Live server (click by mouse right button on index.html —> Open with Live Server).

VS Code and Browser opened beside each other

Place VS Code on the left side of the screen, and the running app -- on the right side, so you can see immediately how code updates affect the app.

Key

Remove "Hello world." and write HTML code 6 for a single key instead:

<div class="key">
    <div class="main">1</div>
    <div class="shifted">!</div>
</div>
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And repeat it for a next four keys:

<div class="key">
    <div class="main">`</div>
    <div class="shifted">~</div>
</div>
<div class="key">
    <div class="main">1</div>
    <div class="shifted">!</div>
</div>
<div class="key">
    <div class="main">2</div>
    <div class="shifted">@</div>
</div>
<div class="key">
    <div class="main">3</div>
    <div class="shifted">#</div>
</div>
<div class="key">
    <div class="main">4</div>
    <div class="shifted">$</div>
</div>
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Result is a column with a plain text: (Look at it in the browser on the right part of your laptop screen)

`
1
!
2
@
3
#
4
$
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It’s time to add some styling.

styles.css

Create a file styles.css next to index.html.

Write a style for our keys in it:

.key {
    min-height: 3.4375rem; /*3.4375*16 = 55px*/
    /* 
    rem is a value relative to the default font size of the teg <body> 
    1rem is 16px in our case 
    */
    background-color: black;
    color: white;
    padding: 0.5rem; /*spacing inside the button*/
    margin: 0.2rem; /*spacing outside the button*/
    border-radius: 0.2rem; /*rounded corners*/
    font-size: 1.5rem;
    cursor: pointer;
}
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In index.html, in the end of <head> tag type “link” and press tab. There will appear code snippet to CSS import. Then press ctrl+space and choose in the menu styles.css. Or, if you don’t like using shortcuts, just type this code:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
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Save all changed files ctrl+k s (or Menu --> File --> Save All, or with other shortcuts, or save files separately by ctrl+s) and you should see the result:

five keys without styling placed vertically (in columnt) and takes whole screen width

Row

Wrap all keys in index.html with

<div class="row">...here is keys code...</div>
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Add to styles.css:

.row {
    display: flex;
    /* 
    flex-direction: row; - default value
    that's why or divs arranged in a row. 

    Flex is a style for containers to align/justify elements inside them in different ways.
    */
}
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Save both files. And you will see the result:

keys in row but too narrow

Keys have a minimal width. If we want them to take all available space in the row, we should add to styles.css:

.key {
  ...
  flex: 1;
  /*
    1 is proportion relative to other elements in a flex container (row).
    If we set 2 for one of the keys, it will be 2 times wider than other
    */
}
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Now the keys look more realistic:

Keys placed horizontally and have the same with. Looks good

Row with extra wide key

Let's add a second row with first 5 keys: Tab, Q, W, E, R. Copy all previous code from opening <div class="row"> to </div> and paste it below. Then change text inside each <div class="key">

styles.css

...
<div class="row">
    <div class="key">
        <div class="main">Tab</div>
        <div class="shifted"></div>
    </div>
    <div class="key">
        <div class="main">Q</div>
        <div class="shifted"></div>
    </div>
    <div class="key">
        <div class="main">W</div>
        <div class="shifted"></div>
    </div>
    <div class="key">
        <div class="main">E</div>
        <div class="shifted"></div>
    </div>
    <div class="key">
        <div class="main">R</div>
        <div class="shifted"></div>
    </div>
</div>
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These keys don’t have “shifted” values, just as on the real keyboard.

Two rows of keys

Tab key should have extra width compared to other keys in a row. We need to specify it somehow in html and css.

index.html

<div class="key Tab">...</div>
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styles.css

.key.Tab {
    flex: 1.3;
}
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Now Tab has 2 classes: key and Tab. It allows us to add particular style only for it, in addition to common style key.

Result

Three rows of keys. Tab is wider that others

You see that Tab became wider than other keys in the row.

Row with smaller keys

Copy the first row with all code inside it, and paste it above the first row. Then rewrite content of keys to: Esc, F1, F2, F3, F4, F5.

1st row should have smaller keys than other rows. It means that we need to specify row number in every <div class="row">

index.html:

<body>
    <div class="row row-1">
        <div class="key">
            <div class="main">Esc</div>
            <div class="shifted"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="key">
            <div class="main">F1</div>
            <div class="shifted"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="key">
            <div class="main">F2</div>
            <div class="shifted"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="key">
            <div class="main">F3</div>
            <div class="shifted"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="key">
            <div class="main">F4</div>
            <div class="shifted"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="key">
            <div class="main">F5</div>
            <div class="shifted"></div>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row row-2">...</div>
    <div class="row row-3">...</div>
</body>
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Result

Make 1st row keys smaller with:

styles.css

.row-1 .key {
    min-height: 1rem;
    font-size: 0.7rem;
}
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Result

Three rows of keys. First row buttons: Esc, F1, F2 etc are smaller than buttons in other rows

Keys of the first row became smaller.

Active key

One of the keys can be active. Add to any key an additional class "active" and write style to it.

index.html

<div class="key active">
    <div class="main">1</div>
    <div class="shifted">!</div>
</div>
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styles.css

.key.active {
    background-color: red;
}
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Result

Part of keyboard as before, but one of keys are red, because it is active

Language switcher

It will be 3 circles with language codes. One of them is active and has red background.

index.html

<div class="langSwitcher">
    <div class="lang active">en</div>
    <div class="lang">ru</div>
    <div class="lang">ar</div>
</div>
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We can make circle from a div with equal width and height (square), and half square width/height border-radius.

A user will feel that elements are clickable, when on hover over them, cursor turns to a hand (pointer), and opacity changes.

styles.css

.lang {
    width: 2rem;
    height: 2rem;
    border-radius: 1rem;
    cursor: pointer;
}

.lang:hover {
    opacity: 0.7;
}

.langSwitcher .active {
    background-color: red;
    color: white;
}
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language codes without flex styling, placed in column and active lang has red background and wrong alignment

Non-active circles haven't background color. That's why we don't see them. And it is ok.

Add styles to justify code vertically and horizontally in the round center:

.lang {
  ...
  display: flex;
  /* flex-direction: row; -- by default */

  justify-content: center; /* position of element related to main flex-direction (row) -- horizontal alignment */

  align-items: center; /* position of element related to additional flex-direction (column) -- vertical alignment */
}
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language codes with flex centered text inside

Add styles to display language switcher in a row and center it on the page:

.langSwitcher {
    display: flex;
    justify-content: center; /* center horizontally  */
    margin-bottom: 1rem;
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Result

Language Switcher with placed in a row lang codes, and with the part of keyboard below

Congratulations. We have made almost the whole html/css layout for our app.

Conclusion

For now, we have only 3 rows and 16 buttons, and it is already a 90 line HTML file. If we add all 6 rows and 80 buttons, it will be a 500 line HTML file. Our code will become messy and unclear. And this is only for 1 language keyboard, but we want to add another languages too.

In order to make code clear, modular, and maintainable, we should split it into data and view.

What we have now is an unorganized view and data mixed together.

While we were doing stuff of this chapter we understood, that we need to specify in the class attribute:

  • row index row row-1 for each row, to make all keys inside smaller
  • key name key Tab for some keys, to make their width larger
  • active key key active for one of the keys
  • active language lang active for the language switcher

These are the most important facts about the app view and its possible states.

Entire code after the chapter 2

  1. HTML is a format of web pages -- a markup language and file extension. Any page on the internet is an *.html file. ↩

  2. CSS is a style system for web pages. If html markups parts of a screen, CSS adds to them size, position, color etc. ↩

  3. By default, VS Code opens with a file browser (on the left) and a code editor (on the right). All manipulations on files and folders should be done in the file browser. And all code changes should be done in the code editor. ↩

  4. HTML5 is a relatively new version of HTML, that allows us to play audio on web pages and to do other useful things. ↩

  5. If you are interested in such shortcuts, google Emmet shortcuts. Some of them are built in VS Code. Also, you can install extensions with additional shortcuts. ↩

  6. We read/pronounce such a code: A div tag 7 with a class key wraps two divs: 1) with a class main and content 1, and with a class shifted and content !. class is an attribute 8 of a div tag. Or: two divs are nested to one div. ↩

  7. Code parts like <div>content</div> or <body>content</body> is called an html tags, opening (<div>) and closing (</div>), and some content inside the tag. Tags split an HTML document into logical parts. We will use only in the whole app only 1 tag -- <div>. It is most universal and means division -- some place on the screen. ↩

  8. class="key" - is an attribute of the tag <div>. The class attribute allows us to attach styles to the particular <div>. Inside the class attribute can be listed multiple class names. ↩

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