A software framework that by design supports web application developments is referred to as a responsive web design framework. Since entering the technology industry back in August 2011, Bootstrap has created some amazing products such as Bootstrap Admin Templates. It is a front-end framework that is free and open source that is purposely created for designing web applications and websites. This front-end framework was the first of its kind and is currently empowering more than 3 million websites in the world. A lot of contributors are constantly improving the framework. Bootstrap is considered by most people as their favorite website front-end framework, success, and popularity that reflects in the proportion of the bootstrap templates empowered websites in several niches. One reason behind this is the fact that it enables CSS and HTML beginners to easily create web project front ends that are very powerful since they have ready-made code pieces. Additionally, bootstrap has the best lightweight CSS framework that automatically adjusts the web page depending on the size of the display screen, at a very high speed too. It has also grown due to its stable support for every browser.
For developing responsive, mobile-first projects, bootstrap is a very popular JS, HTML, and the best CSS framework on the web. Bootstrap simplifies the front-end web development process by increasing its speed and making it easy. Bootstrap has been designed for all projects regardless of size, for devices of all shapes, and also for all kinds of people skilled or nonskilled.
Creating a website using Bootstrap
Now that we have a basic understanding of the bootstrap framework, we are now going to see how we can utilize the bootstrap framework to boost the development time and also include great features to a website. Bootstrap has been designed to be user-friendly to everybody such that if you visit their ‘Get started’ page proceeding from there is a piece of cake. They have a setup guide that contains useful information like integration with LESS, templates, translations, links to CDNs, and installation guidelines. This guide is mainly for Bootstrap beginners which saves them from going into advanced and intermediate concepts like Sass integration and LESS.
Bootstrap is useful in creating a website in various ways such as: easily designing prototypes, facilitating cross-browser compatibility, eliminating repetition between projects, utilizing responsive design which enables the website to adapt to large and small screen displays, and also adding consistency to the design.
Any web project one works on, must work properly and be responsive to all the major browsers Bootstrap has an open-source community that covers this, and since many developers know the same system they comfortably work in harmony which makes it easier for newcomers into a project to catch up.
One essential aspect of the framework is the grid which forms the basis that the entire layout can be created. Bootstrap’s core responsive CSS adds styling to lists, images, tables, forms, and very helpful buttons, and also adds functioning navigation bars. On the other hand, core JavaScript will be helpful by adding codes for creating alerts, modals, accordions, carousels, and dropdowns.
Bootstrap has a sample of templates that appear on its website either as premium bootstrap admin templates or as bootstrap admin templates free download from which one can start but for the sake of a better understanding, we will start from scratch. The first step should be to download the bootstrap which will come as a zip file with fonts, js, and CSS directories. This file should be unzipped and the files saved in a directory. It is worth noting that bootstrap comes without HTML but it has a page on which documentation can be started by using index.html. This is very easy to start since we now have a basic head, HTML, doctype, and body tags. An important tag that ensures the website has a ratio of 1:1 with the screen size is the ‘viewport’ tag.
At his time we have not yet utilized the bootstrap framework to create a website, but if we proceed with copy-pasting from the docs we will have a website. We should start by adding a navigation bar in the quintessential bootstrap. This may seem complicated but it’s just a simple process. You will then have a ‘navbar header’ class that will contain ‘brand’ information’ where you can include the company name or its logo. We should then proceed to the jumbotron header which is an attention-grabbing and space-wasting header. The last thing that should be added is some main content which is mostly in the form of the grid which is simply rows that contain columns. A 12 – column system is the grid that bootstrap operates. You can then decorate the site with glyphicons which are a set of icons that comes inbuilt with bootstrap. For the icon to work you must load your fonts. After going through all those processes the foundation layout is completed and you should then move to add your design. You can then finally begin styling and in a few minutes, your generic bootstrap layout will be transformed into a flat layout.
CONCLUSION
This is simply an illustration of how to use bootstrap templates and how the bootstrap framework can be utilized in creating a website using minimum development time and still having great features.
