What is Bootstrap?

What is a Responsive Website?

• A responsive website is designed using Bootstrap in such a way that the web pages of the website will automatically adjust for different screen sizes and viewports.
• It adjusts, shrinks, hides, or enlarges itself automatically to make it look good on all devices (desktops, tablets, and phones).

Imagine if responsive websites could not be designed then we would have to rewrite the code for each device or screen. Hence, responsive design saves developers hundreds of hours of coding time.

• To create a responsive website, the following meta tag has to be added to the of all the web pages.

  Not all devices have the same width; you should ensure that your pages work well in a large variety of screen sizes and orientations. This meta tag will set the viewport of your page, which will ensure proper rendering and scaling of the web page.

What is Bootstrap?

• Bootstrap is a powerful open-source front-end framework for faster and easier web development. It uses HTML, CSS, and Javascript to build mobile-first, responsive websites without writing different pieces of code for different devices.

• Bootstrap is the most popular framework in recent times. It has eased the development process since it gives you access to everything you need to design your website. It gives you pre-written HTML, CSS, and Javascript components that you can directly integrate into your web application. This will accelerate your development without sacrificing performance.

• Bootstrap is compatible with all the major browsers. The most recent Bootstrap version is Bootstrap 5 which is compatible with all browsers except Internet Explorer. Bootstrap 3 is compatible with Internet Explorer 8-9.

• Bootstrap provides custom styles for all the HTML elements. You can use these components directly or add your styling to further personalize their appearance.

History of Bootstrap

Bootstrap was developed at Twitter by Mr. Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton. It was initially named as Twitter Blueprint. Later it was named as Bootstrap and got released as an open-source product in August 2011 on GitHub. The purpose of the project was to make the development of web pages and their maintenance very easy, consistent and reliable. Later in June 2014, Bootstrap became the most popular project on Github.

Bootstrap Features

• Easy to Use

  It is simple, to begin with. Anybody with a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS can get an introduction to Bootstrap. This feature makes this Framework very popular among developers.

• Easily Personalizable

  Although Bootstrap comes with pre-defined styles for HTML elements, you can make modifications to get the most customized code ever.

• Reusable Code

  Code reusability is a very useful feature of Bootstrap that eases development and saves developers a lot of coding time.

• Responsive Utility Classes

  Web Pages designed by using Bootstrap are responsive, they adjust on all screen sizes whether it is a mobile screen or a computer screen.

• Variety of Components

  Bootstrap provides a large variety of components like buttons, Drop-downs, Progress-bars, etc.

• Javascript Components

  Bootstrap also contains out-of-the-box Javascript Components with added features like modals, tooltips, popovers, etc.

• Templates Provided by Bootstrap

  The beginner-friendly templates provided by Bootstrap make it easy for inexperienced developers to create their websites using these templates and their easy tutorials.

What Does the Bootstrap Package Contain?

• Scaffolding

  Bootstrap provides a basic structure with Grid System, link styles, background, and media layout.

• CSS

  Bootstrap provides features like global CSS settings, an advanced grid system, and basic HTML elements styled and enhanced with extensible classes.

• Components

  Bootstrap consists of a variety of reusable components built to provide dropdowns, alerts, pop-overs, navigation, carousels, tooltips, and much more.

• Javascript Plugins

  Bootstrap provides a variety of custom Javascript Plugins. Plugins can be used individually or all at once(compiled). These plugins can enhance the functionality of Bootstrap components such as grids, carousels, etc., and increase the interaction of your website. All the plugins are dependent on jQuery, so jQuery must be included before the plugin files.

Why Do We Need to Use Bootstrap?

The key reasons to use bootstrap are:-

• Open Source Framework

  Bootstrap is an open-source framework. That means it is entirely free to use. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to build a consistent and responsive website.

• Browser Supportive

  Bootstrap is compatible with most popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc. However, the latest version of Bootstrap (Bootstrap 5) does not support Internet Explorer. If you want IE8 or IE9 support, go for Bootstrap 3.

• Mobile-First Approach

  Mobile-first approach refers to designing for smaller screens (like mobile phones) and scaling them up for bigger screens(like computer screens). This allows the developers to focus on the core functions of their projects. Bootstrap 3 was the first version to be mobile-first.

• Simple and Easy to Start

  Bootstrap is very easy, to begin with. A person having basic knowledge of HTML and CSS can start using Bootstrap. Also, Bootstrap provides various templates that can be used by inexperienced developers directly from the official website of Bootstrap and begin with developing their projects.

• Responsive Design

  Bootstrap components are self-adjustable on different screen sizes like mobile phones, tablets, or computer screens. The web pages designed using Bootstrap contain responsive CSS which takes care of all the scaling between the devices.

• Easy Customization

  Even though Bootstrap is designed with responsive layouts, components, and 12-column grids, they can be easily customized. Whether you need a responsive grid or a fixed one, it can be made possible by applying a few changes. Similarly, all the components and features provided by Bootstrap can be easily customized.

• Clean Interface for Developers

  Bootstrap provides a clean and consistent outcome for building user interfaces for websites.

Bootstrap Components

Bootstrap includes several pre-styled reusable components such as buttons, dropdown menus, alert boxes, carousels, and many more. In most cases, you can make use of a component simply by using the appropriate class name provided in the official documentation. A brief introduction to Bootstrap components is given below:-

• Alerts: A popup with a predefined message that appears after any action performed by the user.

• Buttons: They are a set of customizable buttons used to perform an action in a form, dialogue box, etc. They come in a variety of sizes, states, and styles.

• Button Group: It is a set of buttons that are aligned in a single line and can be positioned vertically or horizontally as per requirement.

• Cards: Bootstrap provides cards which is a potent and helpful content container. It has a little padding around its content and includes various options like headers and footers, display options, and different colors.

• Carousels: They are used to implement an image slideshow on our webpage to make it look more attractive. Carousels are built with CSS 3D transforms and a bit of javascript.

• Forms: They are used to collect various inputs from the user simultaneously. Bootstrap provides three layouts: vertical(this is the default), horizontal and inline.

• Modal: A little popup window that is displayed on top of the main window.

• Spinner: The Spinner displays the loading state of websites. They are created using only HTML and CSS.

• Jumbotron: It provides extra attention to a specific piece of text or information by making it more extensive and noticeable.

• Tooltip: When the user moves the mouse pointer over an element or link, the small amount of information that displays about it is the tooltip.

• Dropdown: They are contextual and toggleable overlays that display the menu as a list of links or more.

• Collapse: It is a JavaScript plugin that allows you to show or conceal content on a button click.

How to Use Bootstrap?

There are three ways to use Bootstrap Framework in web applications:-

1. Using Bootstrap CDN(Content Delivery Network)

We can directly add bootstrap files to our webpage without downloading them by referencing them from the public CDN.

2. Downloading the Bootstrap Files

Instead of using CDN, you can download the latest version of the Bootstrap files from here.

The downloaded files will contain the compiled as well as minified versions of CSS and Javascript plugins. We can use any of these versions as per the requirement.

3. Using Package Managers

There are various package managers like yarn, composer, and npm that can be used to get Bootstrap in your project.

• For node.js applications, we need to install bootstrap with the npm package by using the following command:

  $ npm install bootstrap

• To install Bootstrap in your node.js applications with the yarn package, use the following command:

  $ yarn add bootstrap

Hello World Using Bootstrap

The following code snippet is a basic Hello world program using Bootstrap:

Output

Advantages of Bootstrap

• Provides Faster and easier web development without compromising the quality and consistency of the website.
• You can customize the pre-styled components provided by Bootstrap and get your personalized website.
• It is responsive. So, You need not worry about how your website will scale on different devices of different sizes. Bootstrap takes care of that.
• It is open-source. Hence, it is entirely free to use.
• It has large community support and easy documentation. So whenever you run into problems, you can get assistance very easily.
• It provides a very effective responsive grid system.