What is flex view

The result of this is that your items will all line up in a row, using the size of the content as their size in the main axis. If there are more items than can fit in the container, they will not wrap but will instead overflow. If some items are taller than others, all items will stretch along the cross axis to fill its full size. You can see in the live example below how this looks. Try editing the items or adding additional items in order to test the initial behavior of flexbox.

Adding the flex-direction property to the flex container allows us to change the direction in which our flex items display. Setting flex-direction: row-reverse will keep the items displaying along the row, however the start and end lines are switched. If we change flex-direction to column the main axis switches and our items now display in a column. Set column-reverse and the start and end lines are again switched. The live example below has flex-direction set to row-reverse.

Try the other values — row , column and column-reverse — to see what happens to the content. While flexbox is a one dimensional model, it is possible to cause our flex items to wrap onto multiple lines.

In doing so, you should consider each line as a new flex container. Any space distribution will happen across that line, without reference to the lines either side. To cause wrapping behavior add the property flex-wrap with a value of wrap. Now, should your items be too large to all display in one line, they will wrap onto another line. The live sample below contains items that have been given a width, the total width of the items being too wide for the flex container.

As flex-wrap is set to wrap , the items wrap. Set it to nowrap , which is also the initial value, and they will instead shrink to fit the container because they are using initial flexbox values that allows items to shrink.

Using nowrap would cause an overflow if the items were not able to shrink, or could not shrink small enough to fit. Find out more about wrapping flex items in the guide Mastering Wrapping of Flex Items. You can combine the two properties flex-direction and flex-wrap into the flex-flow shorthand. The first value specified is flex-direction and the second value is flex-wrap. In the live example below try changing the first value to one of the allowable values for flex-direction - row , row-reverse , column or column-reverse , and also change the second to wrap and nowrap.

To have more control over flex items we can target them directly. We do this by way of three properties:. We will take a brief look at these properties in this overview, and you can gain a fuller understanding in the guide Controlling Ratios of Flex Items on the Main Axis. Before we can make sense of these properties we need to consider the concept of available space. What we are doing when we change the value of these flex properties is to change the way that available space is distributed amongst our items.

This concept of available space is also important when we come to look at aligning items. If we have three pixel-wide items in a container which is pixels wide, then the space we need to lay out our items is pixels. On planes, trains and automobiles; in hotel rooms and waiting rooms; at work or at play - you name it - Verizon's new Flex View capability puts video content at customers' fingertips. Customers also can access Flex View online through their personal computers by downloading Media Manager, a free software application from Verizon that provides a rich interface for FiOS customers to store and access personal content.

Media Manager already lets users organize and enjoy their personal content, including photographs, music and home videos. Customers can click the Flex View store icon on the Media Manager interface to purchase or rent a title, watch a trailer or bookmark a title. Subscribers already using Media Manager don't have to do anything to receive the free Flex View software update, which will be added automatically to their service by Verizon. In addition, customers can access Flex View via a mobile device.

Subscribers can authorize Flex View on up to five devices per account, including mobile devices, PCs or laptops, and FiOS TV set-top boxes all set-top boxes in the home count collectively as one device. Once a subscriber purchases or rents a title, it automatically becomes available for viewing on each of the authorized devices.

Customers who opt to rent a title have up to 30 days following the purchase to play the movie, and will have hours to watch it. Next year, FiOS customers also will enjoy expanded access to their personal content - including photos, videos and music - through Flex View. Customers can upload their personal content from digital cameras, mobile phones, home storage, the Internet and more by using Media Manager.

Once the content is uploaded, the customer will be able to access it on the TV screen, online or on select mobile devices. Flex View is part of Verizon's next-generation FiOS service, which also includes interactive services like an advanced interactive media guide; social networking, news and entertainment widgets; DVR management via broadband or cell phone; and more.

FiOS TV offers a broad collection of programming that includes more than all-digital channels with up to HD channels and 18, monthly video-on-demand titles. We'd advise against using the longhand flex properties unless you really have to for example, to override something previously set. They lead to a lot of extra code being written, and they can be somewhat confusing. You can also use flexbox features to align flex items along the main or cross axis. Let's explore this by looking at a new example: flex-align0.

At the moment you'll see a horizontal menu bar with some buttons jammed into the top left-hand corner. Refresh the page and you'll see that the buttons are now nicely centered horizontally and vertically. We've done this via two new properties. You can override the align-items behavior for individual flex items by applying the align-self property to them. For example, try adding the following to your CSS:.

Flexbox also has a feature for changing the layout order of flex items without affecting the source order. This is another thing that is impossible to do with traditional layout methods. Refresh and you'll see that the "Smile" button has moved to the end of the main axis. Let's talk about how this works in a bit more detail:. You can set negative order values to make items appear earlier than items whose value is 0.

For example, you could make the "Blush" button appear at the start of the main axis using the following rule:. It's possible to create some pretty complex layouts with flexbox. It's perfectly OK to set a flex item to also be a flex container, so that its children are also laid out like flexible boxes.

Have a look at complex-flexbox. The HTML for this is fairly simple. Here we lay them out in a wrapping row and align them in the center of the available space as we did with the individual button example we saw earlier.

Finally, we set some sizing on the button. This time by giving it a flex value of 1 auto. This has a very interesting effect, which you'll see if you try resizing your browser window width. The buttons will take up as much space as they can. As many will fit on a line as is comfortable; beyond that, they'll drop to a new line.

However, you should be aware that there are still older browsers in use that don't support Flexbox or do, but support a really old, out-of-date version of it. While you're just learning and experimenting, this doesn't matter too much; however, if you're considering using flexbox in a real website, you need to do testing and make sure that your user experience is still acceptable in as many browsers as possible.

Flexbox is designed to provide a consistent layout on different screen sizes. You will normally use a combination of flexDirection , alignItems , and justifyContent to achieve the right layout. The defaults are different, with flexDirection defaulting to column instead of row , alignContent defaulting to flex-start instead of stretch , flexShrink defaulting to 0 instead of 1 , the flex parameter only supporting a single number. Space will be divided according to each element's flex property.

In the following example, the red, yellow, and green views are all children in the container view that has flex: 1 set. The red view uses flex: 1 , the yellow view uses flex: 2 , and the green view uses flex: 3.

This is also referred to as the main axis. The cross axis is the axis perpendicular to the main axis, or the axis which the wrapping lines are laid out in. If wrapping is enabled, then the next line will start to the right of the first item on the top of the container. If wrapping is enabled, then the next line will start under the first item on the left of the container.

If wrapping is enabled, then the next line will start to the right of the first item on the bottom of the container. If wrapping is enabled, then the next line will start under the first item on the right of the container. You can learn more here.