Introduction to Bootstrap - Benefits of Bootstrap - Setting up Bootstrap

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Mar 9, 2024

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Introduction to Bootstrap

Bootstrap is an intuitive and open-source framework that makes front-end development of web applications simpler as well as quicker. So, it is also known as the front-end framework. Primarily, bootstrap aims to make responsive Web applications as well as websites. It is presently the most popular CSS framework for building responsive websites.

The framework encompasses JavaScript, CSS, and HTML developing custom components while designing web pages. Developed by the Twitter team, bootstrap also supports HTML5 and CSS3. It includes a free set of tools for creating web applications and websites.

Bootstrap consists of CSS and HTML-based templates for designing a variety of components such as forms, layout, navigation, and even JavaScript extensions. It also includes a set of defined CSS classes that web developers can use directly. The framework also uses JavaScript/ jQuery framework for creating effects, styles, and actions for its components. In short, Bootstrap is a CSS framework, a templating system, and a JavaScript toolkit.

Web developers use CSS to apply styles to the elements of a web page by creating as well as assigning classes to these elements. However, bootstrap automates this styling task by facilitating the developer to include a bootstrap file and state the predefined class names for the elements. This also eliminates the need to write custom CSS classes for styling the elements. Thus, bootstrap saves a lot of time while designing web pages.
 

Benefits of Bootstrap

There are many reasons why web designers and web developers prefer Bootstrap. The following are the reasons:

• Easy and flexible enough to get started: Using Bootstrap is extremely easy, adaptable, and quick. Web developers can use it along with CSS, dynamic stylesheet language (less), or Syntactically awesome style sheets (Sass). Both less and Sass or style Sheet languages. while less is compiled into CSS, Sass is interpreted into CSS. Furthermore, there are different ways to add bootstrap to a web project, which shows its flexibility.
  
  
• 100% responsive designs: A website should be responsive to each Internet-enabled device. For example, it should adapt to the screen of a smartphone or tablet without compromising its smooth appearance and pleasant navigation. This is exactly what Bootstrap ensures through its fluid grid layout that readjusts itself dynamically to the screen resolution. The ready-made bootstrap classes enable identifying the number of sports in the grid that each column should use. This helps in identifying points at which the columns should load horizontally rather than vertically to display the requested page accurately on the targeted smartphone. Bootstrap 3 comes with a mobile-first approach by offering mobile-first styles.
  
  
• Great grid system: bootstrap implements a 12-column, responsive grid that supports offset and nested elements.
  
  
• Better development speed: Rather than coding from scratch, bootstrap allows the use of ready-made blocks of code for designing a web page. Merging these blocks with the code of cross-browser compatibility and CSS-less functionality can save several hours of coding. Even for backend developers who need to do some user interface modification, Bootstrap is efficient. This is because there is no need for them to know HTML and CSS well for using Bootstrap.
  
  
• Browser compatibility: Bootstrap resolves several cross-browser compatibility issues. This means a web application made using Bootstrap runs smoothly in Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.
  
  
• Customization: It is possible to use Bootstrap as per the distinct design requirements. Web developers can select the required aspects by ticking off those that are not required. These aspects are available on the bootstrap to customize page, which includes common CSS, components, JavaScript components, and utilities. This is the custom version of Bootstrap, which is ready for download.
  
  
• Consistency: Initially, a few Twitter team members expanded the framework for improving consistency across the internal tools. However, later, Mark Otto who is the co-founder released the first open-source bootstrap version after comprehending the framework's potential. He also depicted how the framework is expended through the single core concept of combining designers and developers.
  
  
• Big support: There is a big supportive community for Bootstrap due to which web developers can obtain any kind of help at any time. Moreover, the makers frequently update the framework. Currently, it is hosted and updated on Github with over 500 contributors. The open-source framework is available at no cost.
  
  
• Bundled JavaScript components: Bootstrap comes with a set of JavaScript components for using different functionalities for user interface components. A few examples of these functionalities include tooltips, alerts, and model windows. This means that there is no need to write scripts for these functionalities.
  
  
• Simple integration: Web developers can integrate Bootstrap with other frameworks and platforms, even for existing websites. Some bootstrap elements are usable with an existing CSS.
  
  
• Extensive pre-styled components: Bootstrap comes with a variety of pre-style components for dropdowns, alerts, and navbars.
  
  

Setting up Bootstrap

It is easy to download, install, and set up Bootstrap for getting started. There are two ways to start using the framework on a website, which are:

• Downloading from getbootstrap.com
• Including it from a content delivery network (CDN)
  
  

1. Downloading from getbootstrap.com:

• Download Bootstrap: This enables downloading the precompiled, mini versions of Bootstrap CSS, fonts, and JavaScript. It does not provide original files of source code or documentation. The precompiled one facilitates drag-and-drop usage in any project. It includes the compiled CSS and JS files, minified compiled versions of each, optional bootstrap theme, and glyph icon fonts.
  
  
• Download source: Enables obtaining the latest documentation and JavaScript source code from Github. This is the source code version that encompasses the precompiled CSS and JS files, font files, and bootstrap list assets. It is a more comprehensive version with a higher learning core than the pre-compiled versions.
  
  
• Download Sass: Enables obtaining the latest bootstrap version imported two Sass from Less for Sass-only projects.
  
  

2. Including from a CDN:

Alternatively, web developers can include Bootstrap from CDN. This is the option for those developers who do not intend to host the framework by themselves. A CDN, as a system of distributed servers, delivers web pages to a user as per the geographic location of the server and the user. The closer the server, the faster is the content sent to the user. CDN aims at accelerating the delivery of web content for sites with global reach and high traffic. So, using bootstrap CDN provides the benefit of faster loading time.