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Object Oriented CSS for rapid, scalable and maintainable development
The document discusses Object Oriented CSS (OOCSS), emphasizing the separation of layout and theme to promote reusable styles for efficient web development. It highlights the importance of clean and semantic markup, the benefits of using a grid system, and touches upon the use of CSS preprocessors like Sass and Less. OOCSS is presented as a mindset aimed at reducing code bloat and enhancing maintainability, particularly in the context of Drupal theming.
Object Oriented CSS for rapid, scalable and maintainable development
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- 2. Graeme Blackwood Creative Lead,Deeson Online deeson-online.co.uk @graemeblackwood
- 3. Props • Nicole Sullivan,http://www.stubbornella.org • Jonathan Snook (SMACSS), http://smacss.com • Everyone at http://thesassway.com • Chris Eppstein, http://compass-style.org • Kevin Poulton http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinpoulton • And loads more!
- 4. Before we getgoing
- 5. OO CSS != OOProgramming But an OOP mindset can be applied to CSS
- 6. OOCSS does not requireany newer technologies It works in IE6 – no need for CSS3, HTML5 etc
- 7. Semantic markup is veryhelpful, but usually not essential Semantic is better though!
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- 9. Style output as needed Eachitem / page individually...
- 10. Target styles by drillingdown through nested elements
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- 12. Coding takes a lotlonger
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- 14. It is difficultto read and hard to reuse
- 15. Traditional CSS is toughto maintain
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- 17. Object Oriented CSS Anew way of thinking
- 18. Separate layout fromtheme (Use a grid system!)
- 19. Separate the container fromthe content
- 20. Look for sharedstyles You will see them everywhere
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- 30. Using a gridsystem? You are already on the right track!
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- 32. Set good basestyles To minimise later overrides * {box-sizing: border-box} is pretty handy
- 33. Set good basestyles Build HTML prototypes To minimise later overrides with Drupal in mind...
- 34. Clean up whatDrupal throws at you Don’t just style, theme!
- 35. Lose unnecessary markup ifit affects you Some divs are totally pointless!
- 36. Don’t be tooobsessed with perfect markup Just enough is ok
- 37. “Now, this isjust a simulation of what the blocks will look like once they’re assembled”
- 38. Let’s look atsome real world applications...
- 39. .block = inheritedbase styles only .grid-4 = grid class .theme-a = theme class, H3 and p inherit colour .padded is a class I add to the grid framework for situations like this
- 40. <div class=”grid-4 theme-ablock”> <h3>Block title</h3> <p>Hello world!</p> </div> .grid-4 comes from your grid framework .theme-a { background-color: #580174; border-radius: 6px; color: #fff; //H3 and p inherit this }
- 41. Carousel nav tabs Objectis a Drupal menu – UL with a class of .sidebar-menu. Custom jQuery targets the ID.
- 42. Also used ona listing And it flexes to the container
- 43. 99% of thestyles are reused, targeted through .right .sidebar-menu only to flip the active item
- 44. Carousel items With aclass of .product-box
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- 46. Same layout asproduct listings and carousel, flexed to image size
- 47. What about SASS andLESS? Why bother with presentational classes in markup anymore?
- 48. Not everyone wantsto use a CSS preprocessor And the mindset of reduce, reuse & recycle is just as important even with one
- 49. Use SASS wisely– it’s another layer to debug
- 50. Be particularly careful withnested selectors http://thesassway.com/beginner/the-inception-rule http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3003-css-taking-control-of- the-cascade
- 52. Disregarding the other principlesof OOCSS may create pain later You could end up with generated CSS bloated even more than if you had hand-coded it
- 53. Summary • OOCSS isas much a mindset as a technique • The principles are to reduce, reuse and recycle code • This is done through separating layout from theme • and the container from the content • It relies primarily on reused classes and markup • We are working on Drupal 8 to make it much easier to change markup. In the meantime, try Display Suite or Skinr for node theming
- 54. Summary • CSS preprocessorslike SASS and LESS are great • But they create another layer to debug • And the code they generate can be very bloated • Preprocessors are not an excuse to be lazy • They still need to be used with an OO mindset
- 55. Thanks for listening! Questions? @graemeblackwood Mostof the fantastic lego images were by Kevin Poulton http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinpoulton