Responsive web page layout by display size
Between Small and Large
A desktop browser accessing the website displays both the navigation bar and the block with the text on top of each other, as shown in Figure 6. However, if the user scales the browser window down to a width of less than 640 pixels, the browser switches to mobile mode because of the adaptive CSS layout, drops the navigation element and only displays the text block (Figure 7).

The 640 pixel-wide screen of, for example, an iPhone 5 also shows the mobile version without navigation aids because of the media query (Figure 8).
The second media query in Listing 2, line 25, queries yet another display attribute. Using (orientation:landscape)
, it determines whether the display is in landscape mode.
If this is the case, the code from the sidebyside.css.tt
file in Listing 4 is used; this shows the navigation and text elements next to one another, assigning 70 percent of space to the content and only 30 percent to navigation.
Listing 4
sidebyside.css.tt
The value for the display
variable of the navigation element is set to block
in Listing 5. This overwrites the value of none
, which possibly occurred in the previous media query, and restores the block
value initially defined in the static CSS statement block.
The browser works its way through a list of media queries from the top down and overwrites the assigned values if the specified conditions are met. As a result, both blocks appear side by side, as shown in Figure 9.
Although the first media query only allows the text block without the navigation block, the landscape query overwrites all previous settings and lines up the blocks side by side at a 70:30 ratio.
Modular System
The tpage script, courtesy of the CPAN module Template::Toolkit, builds the page from the template items,
tpage --include_path templates templates/\ test.html.tt >test.html
thus allowing a developer-friendly modular layout with full performance on the client and server sides; no assembly of page parts at run time is required because it already happens at page creation time.
Alternatively, you could instruct the browser to load only certain external CSS pages when a given media query returns a true value. However, each loading action costs precious time – the precompiled website is more efficient at run time.
If you want to test this quickly with a web server running locally, you can do it with a short script that uses the CPAN Mojolicious::Lite module, as shown in Listing 5. The script launches a fully functional web server on port 4080 of your localhost. Browsers accessing this will display the page differently depending on whether the browser window is wide, narrow, or in landscape format. To communicate with the Template Toolkit, the script requires the Mojolicious::Plugin::TtRenderer CPAN module.
Listing 5
mojo
If you want to delve deeper into this subject, I recommend the book Responsive Web Design with HTML 5 and CSS 3 [6]. It presents a number of practical application examples and explains techniques for dynamic page layout and adjusting image sizes for various mobile and desktop devices.
Mike Schilli
Mike Schilli works as a software engineer with Yahoo! in Sunnyvale, California. He can be contacted at mailto:mschilli@perlmeister.com. Mike's homepage can be found at http://perlmeister.com.
Infos
- GitHub repository with the contents of USArundbrief.com: https://github.com/mschilli/usarundbrief
- Apple Thunderbolt display: http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/
- "Responsive Web Design" by Ethan Marcotte, 2010: http://alistapart.com/article/responsive-web-design/
- Listings for this article: ftp://ftp.linux-magazin.com/pub/listings/magazine/166
- Device pixel density tests: http://bjango.com/articles/min-device-pixel-ratio/
- Frain, Ben. Responsive Web Design with HTML 5 and CSS 3. Packt Publishing, 2012
« Previous 1 2
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
Escuelas Linux 8.0 is Now Available
Just in time for its 25th anniversary, the developers of Escuelas Linux have released the latest version.
-
LibreOffice 7.5 has Arrived Loaded with New Features and Improvements
The favorite office suite of the Linux community has a new release that includes some visual refreshing and new features across all modules.
-
The Next Major Release of Elementary OS Has Arrived
It's been over a year since the developers of elementary OS released version 6.1 (Jólnir) but they've finally made their latest release (Horus) available with a renewed focus on the user.
-
KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta Is Ready for Testing
The latest beta iteration of the KDE Plasma desktop is now available and includes some important additions and fixes.
-
Netrunner OS 23 Is Now Available
The latest version of this Linux distribution is now based on Debian Bullseye and is ready for installation and finally hits the KDE 5.20 branch of the desktop.
-
New Linux Distribution Built for Gamers
With a Gnome desktop that offers different layouts and a custom kernel, PikaOS is a great option for gamers of all types.
-
System76 Beefs Up Popular Pangolin Laptop
The darling of open-source-powered laptops and desktops will soon drop a new AMD Ryzen 7-powered version of their popular Pangolin laptop.
-
Nobara Project Is a Modified Version of Fedora with User-Friendly Fixes
If you're looking for a version of Fedora that includes third-party and proprietary packages, look no further than the Nobara Project.
-
Gnome 44 Now Has a Release Date
Gnome 44 will be officially released on March 22, 2023.
-
Nitrux 2.6 Available with Kernel 6.1 and a Major Change
The developers of Nitrux have officially released version 2.6 of their Linux distribution with plenty of new features to excite users.