Just when I thought I was really competent with floats, grids, clearing and all the html5 layout stuff, I started last week to look at altering and adapting a free template and I quickly made a right mess. Reason being that there was a lot of flexbox in the css which I had failed to understand.

 

So is flexbox about to catch on and take off? Do I have to set aside an afternoon to learn all the declarations and their subtelties? Are there good teach-yourself resources around?

 

One of the alarming things I found when messing with the template (it was this one) was that by altering css for a specific area of the page (like the behaviour of a background in the header section of the content box) I could quite easily break the layout of the whole page. I didn't seem very robust. is that a problem with flexbox? or just that template? or dare I say it just me?

 

Tim W

I think the most useful feature of flexbox is that it gives you the option to reorder content, and have content flow dynamically over multiple collumns. This alone should be reason enough to learn it. Having said that I have not done any real projects with flexbox yet.

I don't think it's a question of whether it'll 'catch on'. It has, and it is somewhat widely used. It solves many, many headaches developers have (including equal heights, re-ordering content, masonry grids, etc).

 

The problem comes down to support. A quick look at support for Flexbox (see below) shows pretty good coverage, except for IE. In the case of Flexbox, it's generally up to you to make up your own mind as to whether you should roll with it.

 

 

There was a fallback for the original Flexbox specification, but seeing as it has changed dramatically, it no longer works. There's another in the works, but I wouldn't have a clue when that'll materialise.

 

Best thing to do is to consider your target audience and whether they'll likely be using a browser that does support Flexbox. Go with the majority.

Edited February 1, 201610 yr by jakdothtml