
Other tools are out there, many of which are documented here. This one is also very powerful, offering many of the same features as CodeKit. If you manage your front-end dependencies, like Bootstrap, with Bower, it provides a GUI for that, too.įor both Windows and Mac users, there’s PrePros. It also compiles various Javascript abstractions and HTML abstractions. It’s super powerful, going well beyond the scope of compiling various CSS extension languages. If you’ve got a Mac and don’t mind paying for a tool, CodeKit might be for you. Most of them will do more than just compile Sass, LESS, et al, but that feature is what we’ll focus on today. This is different than Bootstrap’s web-based GUI in that it lives on your computer and will run as you code. Option one for compiling your extension languages is using a GUI-based compiler, of which there are many. There are a couple of options here-pick whichever you’re most comfortable with or best suits your needs. It offers a number of benefits beyond reusability that we’ll get to later. Compiling Bootstrap yourselfĬompiling any CSS extension language is actually really simple, so I encourage you to try to get your feet wet with compiling yourself rather than using the Bootstrap customizer GUI. This is why compiling Bootstrap yourself, on the fly during development, is where it’s at. If you want to start building new components and using the exact values you set in the GUI, you’ll have to go look them up and write plain CSS. The resulting CSS can be loaded right into your project and you can focus on markup from there.īut once the CSS is compiled, there’s no going back to take advantage of the variables you set. This tool allows you to set all your variables via a GUI in your browser and will then compile your custom build of Bootstrap for you to download. That being said, if you’re just looking to get started seeing how Bootstrap can be customized, you might start with using the online Bootstrap customizer. If the idea of setting up a compiler sounds terrifying, this is the article for you. That means writing your styles in something more maintainable than vanilla CSS, such as LESS or Sass.
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Part one of this two-part series will focus on getting your development environment setup to effectively make use of Bootstrap. They have to be compiled into actual CSS. Extension languages speed up development and make styles consistent.īut browser’s can’t read these extension languages. These only need to be adjusted in one place to make changes to your entire stylesheet. These extension languages allow developers to declare variables and mixins, similar to functions, that carry throughout their stylesheets. Bootstrap 3 was written in LESS, with a Sass fork emerging as well. The core of Bootstrap’s usefulness is rooted in its customization, which is made possible through the use of CSS extension languages. The biggest barrier to using Bootstrap effectively for many developers is compiling it as they develop.
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To address these things, we’ll want to be able to seamlessly integrate our own code into Bootstrap’s. A lot of folks aren’t customizing it effectively for their own projects, and some are using a lot more of it than they need to.
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That being said, I run into a lot of folks who aren’t using it to its full potential. It offers a responsive grid system and is highly customizable. Bootstrap is an extremely popular CSS framework.
