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Posted on • Edited on • Originally published at karthikdevarticles.com

Creating a Kanban Board with HTML, CSS & JavaScript

#javascript #css #ux #react

In this article, we are building a Kanban Board with plain HTML, CSS & JavaScript. This article aims to show, how modern UX designs and functionality can also be achieved with much simpler elements of HTML, CSS & JavaScript. This is where it all started right!

What is Kanban Board? Why use it?

eden-constantino-OXmym9cuaEY-unsplash.jpg
Kanban is a project management tool, used by many software development teams, working with agile processes.

It was designed to help visualize work, reduce work in progress tasks, and maximize the efficiency of teams.

Kanban uses visual cards, columns, and continuous improvement ideology to help teams achieve goals.

"Kanban" is the Japanese word for "visual signal." If you work in services or technology, your work is oftentimes invisible and intangible. A kanban board helps make your work visible so you can show it to others and keep everyone on the same page.

Let's Start

Kanban Board, which we are going to build, should eventually look like this
image.png

And we must be able to move tasks like this
task-move-action.gif

Initial Folder Structure
image.png

HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the most basic building block of the Web. It defines the meaning and structure of web content.

Iteration 1

Initial HTML Boilerplate & Skeleton for kanban.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Kanban Board</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="kanban-heading">
            <strong class="kanban-heading-text">Kanban Board</strong>
        </div>
        <div class="kanban-board">
            <div id="todo">To Do</div>
            <div id="inprogress">In Progress</div>
            <div id="done">Done</div>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
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Output
image.png

Iteration 2

Adding properties to HTML for working better with CSS later. This means CSS can identify HTML better with these properties.

kanban.html

<body>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="kanban-heading">
            <strong class="kanban-heading-text">Kanban Board</strong>
        </div>
        <div class="kanban-board">
            <div class="kanban-block" id="todo">
                <strong>To Do</strong>
            </div>
            <div class="kanban-block" id="inprogress">
                <strong>In Progress</strong>
            </div>
            <div class="kanban-block" id="done">
                <strong>Done</strong>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
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Output
image.png

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets is used to format & style, the layout of a page

Iteration 3

Link CSS to kanban.html

<head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="./kanban.css">
    <title>Kanban Board</title>
</head>
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Iteration 4

Adding CSS to kanban.css

Container & Head 

.container {
  width: 70%;
  min-width: 50%;
  margin: auto;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
}

.kanban-heading {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row;
  justify-content: center;
  font-family: sans-serif;
}

.kanban-heading-text {
  font-size: 1.8rem;
  background-color: tomato;
  padding: 0.8rem 1.7rem;
  border-radius: 0.5rem;
  margin: 1rem;
}
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Output
image.png

Board sections 

.kanban-board {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row;
  justify-content: space-between;
  font-family: sans-serif;
}

.kanban-block {
  padding: 0.6rem;
  width: 30.5%;
  min-width: 14rem;
  min-height: 4.5rem;
  border-radius: 0.3rem;
}

#todo {
  background-color: #fec6d1;
}

#inprogress {
  background-color: #ffaf00;
}

#done {
  background-color: #018b01;
}
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Output
image.png

Body 

body {
  background-color: black;
}
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Output
image.png

As we see now, the output is much better after adding the magic of CSS to it.

Let's now complete the remaining part of adding sample tasks and it's styling to the Kanban Board

HTML

Iteration 5

Adding sample tasks to "To Do" section
kanban.html

<div class="kanban-block" id="todo">
    <strong>To Do</strong>
    <div class="task-button-block">
        <button id="task-button">Create new task</span>
    </div>
    <div class="task" id="task1">
        <span>Task 1</span>
    </div>
    <div class="task" id="task2">
        <span>Task 2</span>
    </div>
    <div class="task" id="task3">
        <span>Task 3</span>
    </div>
    <div class="task" id="task4">
        <span>Task 4</span>
    </div>
    <div class="task" id="task5">
        <span>Task 5</span>
    </div>
    <div class="task" id="task6">
        <span>Task 6</span>
    </div>
</div>
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Iteration 6

Adding styles for sample tasks to kanban.css

.task {
  background-color: white;
  margin: 0.2rem 0rem 0.3rem 0rem;
  border: 0.1rem solid black;
  border-radius: 0.2rem;
  padding: 0.5rem 0.2rem 0.5rem 2rem;
}

#task-button {
  margin: 0.2rem 0rem 0.1rem 0rem;
  background-color: white;
  border-radius: 0.2rem;
  width: 100%;
  border: 0.25rem solid black;
  padding: 0.5rem 2.7rem;
  border-radius: 0.3rem;
  font-size: 1rem;
}
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Output
image.png

As we can see, with a structured HTML & CSS it only gets better

Javascript

JavaScript is a scripting or programming language that allows you to implement complex features on web pages

Time for some actions.

In our Kanban Board, I want to drag and drop my tasks from "To Do" to "In Progress" and "In Progress" to "Done" Status.

For this, I am going to use the HTML Drag & Drop API,

HTML Drag and Drop interfaces enable applications to use drag-and-drop features in browsers. The user may select draggable elements with a mouse, drag those elements to a droppable element, and drop them by releasing the mouse button.

Let me show you all code & deduce it step by step.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="./kanban.css">
    <title>Kanban Board</title>
    <script>
        function drag(ev) {
            ev.dataTransfer.setData("text", ev.target.id);
        }

        function allowDrop(ev) {
            ev.preventDefault();
        }

        function drop(ev) {
            ev.preventDefault();
            var data = ev.dataTransfer.getData("text");
            ev.target.appendChild(document.getElementById(data));
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="kanban-heading">
            <strong class="kanban-heading-text">Kanban Board</strong>
        </div>
        <div class="kanban-board">
            <div class="kanban-block" id="todo" ondrop="drop(event)" ondragover="allowDrop(event)">
                <strong>To Do</strong>
                <div class="task-button-block">
                    <button id="task-button">Create new task</span>
                </div>
                <div class="task" id="task1" draggable="true" ondragstart="drag(event)">
                    <span>Task 1</span>
                </div>
                <div class="task" id="task2" draggable="true" ondragstart="drag(event)">
                    <span>Task 2</span>
                </div>
                <div class="task" id="task3" draggable="true" ondragstart="drag(event)">
                    <span>Task 3</span>
                </div>
                <div class="task" id="task4" draggable="true" ondragstart="drag(event)">
                    <span>Task 4</span>
                </div>
                <div class="task" id="task5" draggable="true" ondragstart="drag(event)">
                    <span>Task 5</span>
                </div>
                <div class="task" id="task6" draggable="true" ondragstart="drag(event)">
                    <span>Task 6</span>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="kanban-block" id="inprogress" ondrop="drop(event)" ondragover="allowDrop(event)">
                <strong>In Progress</strong>
            </div>
            <div class="kanban-block" id="done" ondrop="drop(event)" ondragover="allowDrop(event)">
                <strong>Done</strong>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
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  1. Using draggable="true" property, we are identifying, what is a draggable element
  2. Using ondragstart="drag(event)", we are mentioning what method to use when the element is dragged.
  3. With the following function call, we are defining what data needs to be dragged, in our case, it's the HTML element. 
function drag(ev) {
        ev.dataTransfer.setData("text", ev.target.id);
}
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  1. ondrop="drop(event)" specifies when data is dropped, a drop event occurs and we call the drop method
  2. This function sets data to the target element 
function drop(ev) {
        ev.preventDefault();
        var data = ev.dataTransfer.getData("text");
        ev.target.appendChild(document.getElementById(data));
}
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Output
task-move-action.gif

Additional Features added

  • Creating a new Task

additional features fast.gif

Features Todo

  1. Adding State to store information
  2. Editing existing task information
  3. Create tasks to other states(In Progress, Done)
  4. Many more...

Track further changes of code here - Kanban Board

Well, is this solution perfect?

No, it isn't

I am getting some side effects like this Haha!

But definitely, worth learning as a starter.

side-effects.gif

Let me know, how this issue can be resolved.

Thanks for reading through this starter. This completes my first article.

If you would like to support my work:

Buy Me A Coffee
and Follow my Blog(https://karthikdevarticles.com/)

Top comments (5)

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teamradhq profile image
teamradhq • • Edited

It's not a side effect. It's expected behaviour.

This happens because the element is appended to the drop Event.target . The target is the element that dispatched the event... So if you're moused over the previously dropped task, then the dropped task will be appended to the previous task element.

So if you keep dropping on the previous task element, this happens:
Dropping with event target

If you want to ensure that the drop event is always applied to the element that handles the event, use Event.currentTarget instead. It always refers to the element the event was attached to.

Append to the element where the event occurred (current behaviour):

ev.target.appendChild(document.getElementById(data));
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Append to the element that handles the event (fixes the isssue):

ev.currentTarget.appendChild(document.getElementById(data));
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Hope this helps :)

Further reading:

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karthikdevarticles profile image
karthikdevarticles •

Yeah, that solves it. Thank you.

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ibnsamy96 profile image
Mahmoud Ibn Samy •

We can say it's a feature not a side effect. Now each task can contain smaller tasks 😂

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karthikdevarticles profile image
karthikdevarticles •

Haha true that.

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sensorario profile image
Simone Gentili •

I've solved using .closest('.skanban-block'). Another rice feature should be to move a card between two others.

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