Bootstrap is a front-end framework for building responsive websites. Whether it is application frameworks, blogs, or other CMS applications, Bootstrap can be a good fit, as it can be as vanilla as you like. Its combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript make it easy to build robust sites without adding a lot of code. With a default grid system, layouts come together with ease, and the styling of buttons, navs, and tables make basic markup look great from the get-go. A dozen or so JavaScript plugins catapult you into adding interactive elements to your site.
This book is mostly for people who have a good handle on HTML/CSS and JavaScript, and are curious about building responsive sites, adding the Bootstrap JavaScript plugins, or building sites faster by using this popular open source framework.
This book is not for people who get all they need out of the Bootstrap online documentation. Like a lot of people, the online docs are where I got startedâbuilding my first site with Bootstrap 1.3 and then upgrading it to Bootstrap 1.4. After that, I built a big project with Bootstrap 2.0, and so on. If you are comfortable writing semantic HTML, then jumping into Bootstrap should be easy for you.
If you have some background in writing HTML/CSS and JavaScript, this book will help you get off the ground writing some flexible code for responsive websites. In practical terms, the concepts and code syntax should come easily, as the book follows the patterns for writing semantic HTML and CSS.
This book builds a site with Bootstrap, starting at the foundation of the project and the file structure, moving up through the grid system and layout types, and into HTML elements and styling like forms, tables, and buttons. Once the walls are up, we move into the aesthetic elements like navbars, breadcrumbs, and media objects. After that, we move on to the JavaScript elements, such as dropdowns, the carousel, and modals, that provide the interaction for a site.
Iâm not a Bootstrap expert hoping to create more Bootstrap experts to get a lot of work done.
Iâm a developer and writer who encountered Bootstrap through a post on Dave Winerâs blog, and I thought it would be cool to apply it to a new site that I was working on. I feel compelled to share some of what Iâve learned. Iâm hoping that the path I followed will work for other people, probably with variations, and that a book written from a beginnerâs perspective (and vetted by experts) will help more people find and enjoy Bootstrap.
This book may not be the best way for you to learn Bootstrap. It all depends on what you want to learn and why.
If your primary interest is to get started building Bootstrap websites, the online documentation will likely suit you perfectly. The authors, Jacob Thornton and Mark Otto, have been meticulous in providing examples of the codebase, HTML code samples, and more to kickstart your project. It is top notch, and Iâve used it to gather the structure for this book.
If you want to contribute to the work of the open source project, you can submit pull requests or use the issue tracker on the GitHub project for updates, downloads, documentation, and more.
If you are looking for JavaScript plugins, or a CSS reset, Bootstrap may be overkill. If you arenât in love with some of the default interface elements, they can be overwritten easily or you can just strip out the associated tags. If you are looking for an easy way to build fast, responsive websites, Bootstrap is a great way to get going. I use it on all of my projects, and Iâm really happy with it.
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
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- Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.
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Constant width - Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, statements, and keywords.
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Constant width bold - Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.
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Constant width italic - Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context.
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The examples in this book are meant to teach basic concepts in small bites. While you may certainly borrow code and reuse it as you see fit, you wonât be able to take the code of this book and build a stupendous application instantly (unless perhaps you have an unusual fondness for bacon and cats). You should, however, be able to figure out the steps you need to take to build a great website.
You can download the code from the Examples link on the bookâs page.
This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, if this book includes code examples, you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless youâre reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from OâReilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your productâs documentation does require permission.
We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: "Bootstrap, by Jake Spurlock (OâReilly). Copyright 2013 Jake Spurlock, 978-1-4493-4391-0.â
If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above, feel free to contact us at permissions@oreilly.com.
While I hope that you will enjoy reading this book and will learn from it, I also hope that you can contribute to helping other readers learn to use Bootstrap. You can help your fellow readers in a number of ways:
- If you find specific technical problems, bad explanations, or things that can be improved, please report them through the errata system.
- If you like (or donât like) the book, please leave reviews. The most visible places to do so are on Amazon.com (or its international sites) and at the OâReilly page for the book. Detailed explanations of what worked and what didnât work for you (and the broader target audience of programmers new to Bootstrap) are helpful to other readers and to me.
- If you find you have much more you want to say about Bootstrap, please consider sharing it, whether on the Web, in a book of your own, in training classes, or in whatever form you find easiest.
Iâll update the book for errata and try to address issues raised in reviews. Even once the book is published, I may still add some extra pieces to it. If you purchased it as an ebook, youâll receive these updates for free until itâs time for a whole new edition. I donât expect that new edition declaration to come quickly, however, unless the Bootstrap world changes substantially.
Hopefully this book will engage you enough to make you consider sharing.
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We have a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any additional information. You can access this page at http://oreil.ly/bootstrap-web.
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Many thanks to Dave Winer for introducing me to Bootstrap in the first place, and to Simon St. Laurent for the opportunity to write this book. Detailed feedback from my friends Roseanne Fallin and Tony Quartorolo has made it possible; I hope that this book can get readers started on the right track. I would also like to thank Melissa Morgan for letting me take a few risks and develop the way that I like at MAKE.
In particular, thanks to my wonderful wife, Melissa, for putting up with me and encouraging me to finish. And thanks to my son, Rush, for understanding that I needed to âworkâ and to my daughter, Hailey, for the warm smiles and huge hugs. I love my family, and am so glad for everything they offer me.
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