Introduction to Composing Layouts in React

Welcome to Composing Layouts in React

Introduction

Using CSS in this age of components is difficult, especially where web layout is concerned.  In this module, you will learn the rules to be able to build composable layouts.

CSS in the Age of Components

Complex layouts can be broken down into smaller layout primitives that can be combined to build more complex structures.  Thinking compositionally will open up a more practical and reusable way of creating layouts on the web.

What is Layout Composition? A React Layout Primitives Guide

Knowing where to place your styles is critical to understanding composable layouts.  Using the Principles of Encapsulated CSS you will know exactly how to apply your layout styles in your components.

Encapsulated CSS - How to Apply CSS in a Composable Way

In the lesson, you will learn about Normal Flow and what patterns you can use to apply the principle of Encapsulated CSS in the context of Normal Flow.

Normal Document Flow in HTML, CSS, and React

You will learn the basics of CSS Flexbox and CSS Grid, especially which properties conform to the Encapsulated CSS principles and which ones do not.

CSS Grid vs Flexbox for Composable Layouts

In this lesson you will learn how to reset the default browser styles so that they follow Encapsulated CSS.

How to Add a CSS Reset to Remove Default Browser Style

Composable Layouts

What are Layout Spacers?

The Stack layout pattern is one of the most simple and common layout patterns on the web.  In this lesson, you will learn how to build the Stack primitive and how to make it configurable for your situation

How to Build a Stacked Component Layout in React

The layout challenge that is as old as the web itself is putting two items next to each other. In this lesson, you will learn how to build the Split primitive to solve this problem.

How to Build a Split Pane Layout in React

Having a column-based grid system to lay our elements out on is very useful, which is why Bootstrap and other CSS frameworks are built on that model.  In this lesson, you will learn how to build the Columns primitive and its helper the Column to build your custom column layout.

How to Build React Grid Layouts With Custom Column Numbers

Building an inherently responsive grid of items has been reduced down into a single line of CSS.  In this lesson, you will learn how to build the Grid primitive that easily lets us achieve this layout.

How to Build a React Responsive Grid Layout

Text in a paragraph is one of the best examples of "responsive by default."  Text will wrap and cluster according to the text alignment.  In this lesson, we will learn how to achieve that same effect using the InlineCluster primitive.

How to Build Responsive React Text Elements With InlineCluster

Clustering is one way to do responsive inline layouts, but sometimes we want to switch the direction that the items are flowing when we cross a certain threshold.  In this lesson, we will learn how to build the Inline primitive that does just that.

How to Add Inline Styling to React Components

Layout Primitives - The Spacers

Introduction to layout wrapper primitives

Introduction to Layout Wrapper Primitives

In this lesson, you will learn how to build the PadBox primitive and use it in a Pricing Plan component.

How to Build a Pricing Page Widget in React With PadBox

In this lesson, we will be creating a Center layout primitive that centers itself and its children.

Automatically Center Text DIVs with React Center Component

In this lesson, we will build the Frame primitive, which frames out a visual media, like an image or video,  and forces it into the aspect ratio needed for the design without distorting the image.

Resize Images And Maintain Aspect Ratio in React and CSS

In this lesson, we will learn how to build the Cover primitive, which will vertically center its children and allow you to inject a top or a bottom section around it.

How to Vertically Center a DIV in React With CSS

Let's revisit the Hero section from Module 1 and build it for real using the primitives we have learned.

How to Build Accessible Navigation Divs in React

Layout Primitives - The Wrappers

Introduction to The Settings Pages

This lesson is going to focus on getting the menu and header completed on our mock Settings Page

How to Build a React Navbar With a Menu and Header

This lesson will focus on getting the main section with the sidebar navigation for our Settings page.

How to Build a React Sidebar Menu

In this lesson, we will be focusing on the profile pane.

How to Build a Profile Settings Page in React

In this lesson, we will be finishing the Settings page by completing the privacy pane.

How to Build a Privacy Page with Toggle Buttons in React

Composing Layouts in Practice

CSS layout has grown and evolved into a robust set of tools to accomplish some fantastic modern layouts.
The problem is that we are still teaching CSS as something that is" hacked" together by using" tricks" to get our desired web layouts.
Learning CSS like this typically leads us down one of two paths: We either build fragile page layouts using 
the "see what sticks" method of CSS, or we give up and declare that CSS is too tricky and bring in an X column grid system like Twitter Bootstrap.

Creating page layouts in CSS doesn't have to be complicated. Like how you make much of your everyday speech using just a small 
subset of vocabulary composed together, you can achieve sophisticated layouts by composing simple low-level layout primitives in unique ways.

In this course, you will learn foundational layout primitives that you can use to build many of your more complex layouts. You will also learn 
how to apply the principle of "Encapsulated CSS" to both extend these primitives as well as to create custom layout primitives. To do this, we 
will recreate many of the layouts found in the wild using the principles mentioned above.

This course does not require extensive knowledge of CSS. It does assume that you have a basic understanding of the CSS box model, CSS specificity, 
CSS selectors, and CSS sizing units. Though you can apply the principles in this course to any modern web framework, including no framework 
development, this course will be using React and assume you have a basic understanding of React, JSX, and React hooks.

Composing Layout in React is for both novice and experienced developers who want to take their layout skills to the next level. This course will 
teach you the practical skills you need to build modern layouts for the web without depending on heavy CSS frameworks. Unlike courses and blog 
posts that teach each layout property in isolation, our product teaches practical layout patterns that you can use every day when solving your 
layout challenges.

In this course we show you how to build complex layouts in React by composing just a few foundational layout primitives.
Along the way you will learn modern CSS Layout tools like Normal Flow, Flexbox, and Grid.

Composing Layouts in React

What it means to compose layouts and why you should do it

How to apply the principles of Encapsualted CSS in our React components

The foundational layout primitives that every developer should know

Composition, simply put, is when you build something greater than the sum of its parts. For example, an organism is composed of organs, which are composed of organ parts, which are composed of cells, which are composed of atoms. A musical composition can be broken down to nothing more than masterfully applying rhythm and tempo to 12 unique notes, creating all of our musical masterpieces.

Composition also applies to web layout. Complex layouts can be broken down into simpler "layout primitives," as 

. These layout primitives are single-purpose layout components that do one thing and one thing well. It is by strategically combining these primitives that we achieve more complex layout structures.

Let's take the below hero layout, for example:

Naively we might choose to do something like this:

.hero-container {
  /* container styles*/
}
.hero-top {
  /* top styles*/
}
.hero-left {
  /* left styles*/
}
.hero-right {
  /* right styles*/
}
/* ect... */

There are several CSS methodologies like 

 that can help create more consistent class names and are generally useful in managing our CSS style sheets at scale. Unfortunately those methodologies can only get you so far.

---
title: What is Layout Composition? A React Layout Primitives Guide
slug: composing-layout
description: Complex layouts can be broken down into smaller layout primitives that can be combined to build more complex structures.  Thinking compositionally will open up a more practical and reusable way of creating layouts on the web.
isPublicLesson: false
privateVideoUrl: https://fullstack.wistia.com/medias/o4b5zyiket
useMdx: true
---

## What is composition?

Composition, simply put, is when you build something greater than the sum of its parts. For example, an organism is composed of organs, which are composed of organ parts, which are composed of cells, which are composed of atoms. A musical composition can be broken down to nothing more than masterfully applying rhythm and tempo to 12 unique notes, creating all of our musical masterpieces.

Composition also applies to web layout. Complex layouts can be broken down into simpler "layout primitives," as [described by Heydon Pickering](https://every-layout.dev/rudiments/composition/). These layout primitives are single-purpose layout components that do one thing and one thing well. It is by strategically combining these primitives that we achieve more complex layout structures.

## Layout without composition

Let's take the below hero layout, for example:

![hero example](https://d2uusema5elisf.cloudfront.net/courses/composing-layouts-in-react/module_01/lesson_01.01/public/assets/hero-example.png)

Naively we might choose to do something like this:

```css { actualFilename=./protected/naive-solution.css endChar=159 endLine=14 startChar=0 startLine=1 url=https&#x3A;//gitlab.com/fullstackio/books/composing-layouts-in-react/module_01/lesson_01.01/protected/naive-solution.css }
.hero-container {
  /* container styles*/
}
.hero-top {
  /* top styles*/
}
.hero-left {
  /* left styles*/
}
.hero-right {
  /* right styles*/
}
/* ect... */
```

There are several CSS methodologies like [BEM](http://getbem.com/introduction/), [Object-Oriented CSS(OOCSS)](http://oocss.org/), or [Atomic CSS ](https://github.com/nemophrost/atomic-css) that can help create more consistent class names and are generally useful in managing our CSS style sheets at scale. Unfortunately those methodologies can only get you so far.

Travis Waith-Mair

Hey guys, Travis here with another lesson in composing layouts in React.

Today we're going to talk about actually composing layouts.

Composition simply put is when you build something greater than the sum of its

For example, an organism is composed of organs, composed of organ parts, which

A musical composition can be broken down to nothing more than the mass, than

applying rhythm and tempo to 12 unique notes.

Complex layouts can be broken down into simpler layout primitives, as described

These layout primitives are single-purpose layout components that do one thing

thing well is by strategically combining these primitives that we combine more

So let's look at layout without composition.

We have a menu bar on the top with a side bar with some content and some call

And then an image on the right hand side.

A naive solution, we might choose to do something like this.

Style the hero top, hero left, hero right, etc.

There are several CSS methodologies like BEM, object oriented CSS or atomic CSS

help us create more consistent class names and generally are useful in managing

But unfortunately these methodologies can only get you so far.

When we get Procheck components layout as something unique for each component,

a fantastic opportunity to define a consistent visual structure in our

Instead, all of our layouts would be treated as unique things that need to be

So let's look at what layout with composition is.

Instead of looking at our hero component as one isolated element, let's break

smaller single purpose layout components like this.

We can have a stack component that vertically stacks elements on top of each

component that horizontally stacks elements in a row.

We can have a split component that splits the two children into fractions of

We can have a cover component that covers an area and vertically centers its

And a frame component that frames out media such as images into correct aspect

Now don't worry about how these components aren't implemented, that's what the

Just focus on the intended outcomes of what these components are trying to do.

Now we can take these components, these layout primitives, and we can compose

Our menu bar is really just in line bunch of elements.

Our left hand side is a cover element that vertically centers its children.

That children is a stack component where we're stacking items on top of each

The right hand side is a frame component that frames out the media.

Both of those are composed together in a split component and the whole thing is

In code that would look something like this.

With a stack in inline, our split is at the same level as our inline and then

and frame are split apart from each other and so on.

These layout primitives can be applied in a sign and form for example.

They can also be assigned in a post feed, a feature page, or any other part of

Most of the layouts we use every day are not that unique and can be broken down

in part to one of a handful of layout primitives.

Thinking in terms of layout composition can feel strange at first, but probably

the more difficult parts is knowing where you should apply your style rules in

Luckily there's a methodology that I have termed encapsulated CSS that answers

exact question and that is what we will be learning next.