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mdl-ext

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Readme

mdl-ext

Material Design Lite Ext (MDLEXT). Components built with the Google Material Design Lite framework.

Introduction

The MDLEXT component library is built with responsiveness in mind. The pre built CSS provided in the lib directory therefore comes in two versions; one based on media queries and one based on element queries, using eq.js. If you build the CSS from SASS, just import the correct sass file, mdl-ext.scss or mdl-ext-eqjs.scss.

Responsive breakpoints

A common metod in responsive design is to use media queries to apply styles based on device characteristics. The problem with media queries is that they relates to the viewport - so every time you write a media query for max-width or min-width, you’re connecting the appearance of your module to the width of the entire canvas, not the part of the canvas the component occupies.

Media queries are a hack

Some developers claim that media queries are a hack, and I totally agree! Imagine a design with a sidebar and a content area. In a responsive, fluent design both the sidebar and the content has "unknown" widths. Trying to add e.g. a responsive grid into the content area which relies on media queries, where you have no knowledge of how much space your content occupies, is in my opinion almost an impossible task.

Element queries to the rescue

An element query is similar to a media query in that, if a condition is met, some CSS will be applied. Element query conditions (such as min-width, max-width, min-height and max-height) are based on elements, instead of the browser viewport. Unfortunately, CSS doesn’t yet support element queries, but there are a couple of JavaScript-based polyfrills involving various syntaxes. They are not standard - but that should not stop us from using them. Element-first design is the spirit of the Atomic design principle, but looks very different in practice than how most people implement Atomic design using their mobile-first mindset. Instead of writing styles on advance for every conceivable situation a widget may find itself in, we are able to allow individual parts of the layout to adapt responsively when those elements require it.

Some of the polyfrills available are:

These are all good libraries, and they serve the purpose. After some evaluation I decided to go for eq.js. It is a small library with support for width based breakpoints. It works without requiring a server to run (no Ajax stuff). It does not break the existing CSS standard. I can use SASS for styling, and it works well in a Webpack workflow.

Install

If you haven't done so already, install Material Design Lite.

$ npm install --save material-design-lite

Install mdl-ext

$ npm install --save mdl-ext

Install eq.js if you choose to use the element query CSS/SASS version.

$ npm install --save eq.js

Getting started

Use it in your (static) page

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>Material Design Lite Extensions</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:regular,bold,italic,thin,light,bolditalic,black,medium&amp;lang=en">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/icon?family=Material+Icons">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="node_modules/material-design-lite/material.css" />
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="node_modules/mdl-ext/lib/mdl-ext.min.css" />
</head>
<body>
<div class="mdl-layout mdl-js-layout mdl-layout--fixed-drawer">
  <main class="mdl-layout__content">
  </main
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="node_modules/material-design-lite/material.min.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="node_modules/mdl-ext/lib/index.min.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</body>
</html>

Use it with element queries in your (static) page

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>Material Design Lite Extensions</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:regular,bold,italic,thin,light,bolditalic,black,medium&amp;lang=en">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/icon?family=Material+Icons">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="node_modules/material-design-lite/material.css" />
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="node_modules/mdl-ext/lib/mdl-ext-eqjs.min.css" />
</head>
<body>
<div class="mdl-layout mdl-js-layout mdl-layout--fixed-drawer">
  <main class="mdl-layout__content">
  </main
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="node_modules/material-design-lite/material.min.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="node_modules/mdl-ext/lib/index.min.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="node_modules/eq.js/dist/eq.min.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</body>
</html>

Note: Always import mdl-ext css after material css. Adjust path to node_modules (libraries) according to where your HTML file is located.

Use it in your (Webpack) build

Import SASS files

@charset "UTF-8";

// 1. Import MDL
@import '../node_modules/material-design-icons/iconfont/material-icons.css';
@import '../node_modules/roboto-fontface/css/roboto-fontface.css';
@import '../node_modules/material-design-lite/src/material-design-lite';

// 2. Import MDLEXT 
@import '../node_modules/mdl-ext/src/mdl-ext';

// 2. ... or import mdl-ext-eqjs
//@import '../node_modules/mdl-ext/src/mdl-ext-eqjs';

// 3. Your stuff
@import 'stylesheets/variables';
@import 'stylesheets/app/whatever';

Imports above assumes that your main SASS file is located in the ./src folder. Adjust path to node_modules according to where your SASS file is located.

Import material-design-lite and mdl-ext scripts in your "main" js file

import 'material-design-lite/material';
import 'mdl-ext';

... or require material-design-lite and mdl-ext

require('material-design-lite/material');
require('mdl-ext');

If you choose to use element queries, require eq.js in your "main" js file

const eqjs = require('eq.js');

Components

Accordion

A WAI-ARIA friendly accordion component with vertcial or horizontal layout.

Bordered fields

The Material Design Lite Ext (MDLEXT) bordered fields component demonstrates how you can create your own theme of MDL text fields.

Grid

A responsive grid based on element queries in favour of media queries.

Lightboard

A lightboard is a translucent surface illuminated from behind, used for situations where a shape laid upon the surface needs to be seen with high contrast. In the "old days" of photography photograpers used a lightboard to get a quick view of, sorting and organizing their slides.

Selectfield

The Material Design Lite Ext (MDLEXT) select field component is an enhanced version of the standard [HTML <select>] (https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/HTML/Element/select) element.

Notes

To see the MDLEXT components in action, after download/clone/install, open the demo/index.html in a browser.

You can also download or clone a demo project from here: https://github.com/leifoolsen/mdl-webpack. The demo project demonstrates how you can set up MDL with Babel(6) and Webpack, and how to self host Font Roboto and Material Icons in your web application.

Licence

This software is built with the Google Material Design Lite framework, which is licenced under an Apache-2 licence.