Flex Box Layout in CSS

The FlexBox layout is initiated with the display: flex; property and you can control how the children of the element are laid-out inside the parent on the webpage.

The flexbox layout plays probably plays a very important role in planning a responsive web layout.

(CSS)
.parent {
    display: flex;
    ... other properties
}

For the display property, the flex value can be along with inline (display: inline flex or display: inline-flex) to define inline flex containers and with block (display: block flex or display: block-flex) to define block flex containers. flex used by itself defines a block level container

(HTML)
<div class='parent'>
    <div class='child1'>
        ...content of child 1
    </div>
    <div class='child2'>
        ...content of child 2
    </div>
    ....
</div>

Each item inside a flexbox is called flex item and the flexbox itself is referred to as the flex container.

The layout of flex items can be in either horizontal or vertical direction.

Main Axis and Cross Axis

The direction in the items are laid out is known as the main axis and the direction perpendicular to the main axis is known as the cross axis.

By default, row is the main axis, this can be changed by specifying the desired flex-direction.

The size of a flex item along the main axis is identified as the main size, where as its size along the cross axis is the cross size

Properties for the flexbox

Flexbox has properties some applicable at the parent and while others at the child levels that can be used to create innovative layouts.

At parent (or container) level...

Here are the properties that must be specified for the container element to control the flow of flex items in it.

• flex-direction

  determines the direction in which the successive items is to placed in the flex container.

  When the direction is row or row-reverse the main axis is in the horizontal direction.

  

  Similarly, when the direction is column or column-reverse the main axis is in the vertical direction.

  

  Note

  When flex-direction: row, then default width of container is 100%, and

  When flex-direction: column, the default height is the height required to render the content.

• flex-wrap

  determines whether are items will be laid out on one line or may flow onto multiple lines.

• flex-flow

  This is the shorthand property for...

  • flex-direction
  • flex-wrap

• justify-content

  justifies the overall content along the main axis.

• justify-items

  sets the justification of the individual elements along the main axis within the dimensions designated to it after justify-content is processed.

  This setting applies to each of the elements in the flexbox, unless a justify-self is specified at the child level.

• align-content

  Aligns the overall content along the cross axis.

• align-items

  Aligns the individual elements along the cross axis within the dimensions designated to it after align-content is processed.

  This alignment is applied to each of element in the flexbox, unless a align-self is specified at the child level.

• place-content

  This is a shorthand property for

  • align-content, and
  • justify-content.

  If one value is provided, that value applied to both align-content and justify-content.

  If two values are provided, the first will be for align-content and the second will be for justify-content.

• place-items

  This is a shorthand property for

  • align-items and
  • justify-items.

  If one value is provided, that value applied to both align-items and justify-items.

  If two values are provided, the first will be for align-items and the second will be for justify-items.

• column-gap

  Determines the gap between columns in the flex box. Also works for grid and multi-column container.

• row-gap

  Determines the gap between rows in the flex and grid containers

• gap

  This is the shorthand property for...

  • column-gap
  • row-gap

At child level...

Below are the properties that may be specified to control the rendering of the flex items.

• flex

  This is shorthand property for...

  • flex-grow
  • flex-shrink
  • flex-basis

• flex-grow

  This determines how the positive free space in the flex container is assigned to the main-size of the item i.e. it specifies the grow factor for an item.

• flex-shrink

  This determines how the negative free space in the flex container is assigned to the main-size of the item i.e. it specifies the shrink factor for an item.

• flex-basis

  This specifies the initial main size for the flex item. The final computed main size will depend when the flex-grow and flex-shrink values are applied to this.

• justify-self

  This property overrides the justify-items property defined for the flex container.

• align-self

  This property overrides the align-items property defined for the flex container.

• place-self

  This property overrides the place-items property values provided for the flex container.

• order

  The order property defines the sequence in which each flex item is rendered.