css grid of squares with flexbox

css responsive-design flexbox
Moto picture Moto · Mar 27, 2015 · Viewed 70.6k times · Source

I am trying to create a responsive grid of squares. The squares should resize to fit the viewport's width. The squares should not resize when changing the viewport's height.

I got how to adjust the width of each square, but I don't know how to make the elements square and how to scale their height when the viewport width changes.

In the example at the fiddle below the seven squares should always fit horizontally, and they should scale as squares. I do not care how many rows are visible.

Fiddle here http://jsfiddle.net/gonyhvz8/11/

<body>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>
<div class="flex-container">
    <div class="flex-item">1</div>
    <div class="flex-item">2</div>
    <div class="flex-item">3</div>
    <div class="flex-item">4</div>
    <div class="flex-item">5</div>
    <div class="flex-item">6</div>
    <div class="flex-item">7</div>
</div>


.flex-container {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  list-style: none;
  display: -webkit-box;
  display: -moz-box;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: -webkit-flex;
  display: flex;
  -webkit-flex-flow: row;
  justify-content: space-around;
  height: 50px;
  line-height:30px;
}

.flex-item {
  background: tomato;
  margin: 5px;
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-size: 1.5em;
  text-align: center;
  flex: 1 0 0px;
  height: auto;
}

Answer

G-Cyrillus picture G-Cyrillus · Mar 27, 2015

you should not set any size. you may use an extra element or a pseudo elemnt with vertical padding in %. this will allow you to use width as reference : a snippet to show: 

.flex-container {
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
    list-style: none;
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -moz-box;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-flex-flow: row;
    justify-content: space-around;
   
    line-height:30px;
}
.flex-item {
    background: tomato;
    margin: 5px;
    color: white;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 1.5em;
    text-align: center;
    flex: 1 0 auto;
    height:auto;
}
.flex-item:before {
    content:'';
    float:left;
    padding-top:100%;
}
<body>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
    <div class="flex-container">
        <div class="flex-item">1</div>
        <div class="flex-item">2</div>
        <div class="flex-item">3</div>
        <div class="flex-item">4</div>
        <div class="flex-item">5</div>
        <div class="flex-item">6</div>
        <div class="flex-item">7</div>
    </div>
</body>

an inline-block element could do too, just adapt the display/behavior of the box and it's content. the magic here comes from padding:50% 0; (100% vertical padding equals width of parent). see w3c about vertical margin and padding

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