60 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
60 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: MaterializeCSS Framework as an Alternative to Bootstrap
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---
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<a href='http://materializecss.com/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>MaterializeCSS</a> is a modern responsive front-end framework based on google's <a href='https://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introduction.html' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Material Design principles</a>.
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## What is Material Design?
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Material Design (codenamed Quantum Paper) is a design system developed by Google. Expanding upon the "card" motifs that debuted in Google Now, Material Design makes more liberal use of grid-based layouts, responsive animations and transitions, padding, and depth effects such as lighting and shadows.
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This <a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8TXgCzxEnw' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>video</a> gives you an idea about material design:
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## Check out these websites that use Materialize and see the difference from what you're used to!
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Test them on your phone too for a better feel.
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* <a href='https://www.100xp.io/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>The 100</a>
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* <a href='http://demo.geekslabs.com/materialize/v2.1/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Admin Themes</a>
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* <a href='http://www.straphq.com/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>StrapHq</a>
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More examples <a href='http://materializecss.com/showcase.html' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>here</a>
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## A Bootstrap alternative, really?
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Chill, nothing can ever beat Bootstrap, in my opinion. However, materialize CSS offers just that, Materialize-ation - The feeling of interacting with the interface as if its a physical material, like paper. I just came up with that.
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But really...
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I do like materialize because of its simplicity, for example:
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In Bootstrap you would do this to create a button
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<button class="btn btn-primary btn-lg">
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My Button
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</button>
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Basically each class name repeatedly has the btn- attached to it. And this is mostly the case for many other bootstrap components especially when you want to add simple classes like color.
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With Materialize you can add all the classes simply like this:
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<button class="btn waves-effect waves-light green">My Button</a>
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As you can see, use of the btn- has been reduced. The `green` class can be re-used with any/all other HTML element other than the `button` shown in this case.
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There is another lighter version of material Design Framework but its not as elegant or simple as the materializeCSS framework Other than this simplicity, here are more reasons why I love materializeCSS:
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* It's simple! -- Just emphasizing
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* It's open-source, you can git it here
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* A community is also growing around it
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* <a href='http://fezvrasta.github.io/bootstrap-material-design/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Someone</a> is looking to produce a blend of Bootstrap + Materialize. Sweeet!
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## Anything else?
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Try it out and maybe you will love it. In fact since thats where even android UI is already headed, this might a good way to get yourself better at Material design for mobile-focused web-apps like <a href='https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/getting-started/your-first-progressive-web-app/#what-will-you-learn' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>progressive web apps</a>
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### Maybe you shouldn't use it ...yet
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It's undergoing changes being at alpha stage. So you might skip it and not use it on crucial project until it matures.
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