Refactor with Sass

[JacobGrisham]

Remove the need for Bootstrap and practice Flexbox and Grid Layouts with Sass

Follow the styling guide from robinhood itself

[MADHUMITHASIVAKUMARR]

Refactoring your front-end styles to use Sass (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets) can enhance your development workflow by allowing for better organization, variables, nesting, and mixins. Here’s a step-by-step guide to refactor your CSS to Sass for your finance full-stack web app.

Step 1: Install Sass

If you haven't already, you need to install Sass. You can do this via npm:

npm install sass --save-dev

Step 2: Set Up Your File Structure

Create a folder structure for your Sass files. A common setup might look like this:

/styles
  ├── /partials
  │   ├── _variables.scss
  │   ├── _mixins.scss
  │   ├── _base.scss
  │   ├── _layout.scss
  │   └── _components.scss
  ├── main.scss

Step 3: Create Partial Files

1. Variables (_variables.scss):
   Define color schemes, fonts, and other constants.

   $primary-color: #3498db;
   $secondary-color: #2ecc71;
   $font-stack: 'Helvetica, sans-serif';

2. Mixins (_mixins.scss):
   Create reusable styles.

   @mixin flex-center {
     display: flex;
     justify-content: center;
     align-items: center;
   }

3. Base Styles (_base.scss):
   Include your base styles for resets and typography.

   body {
     font-family: $font-stack;
     background-color: #f4f4f4;
     margin: 0;
     padding: 0;
   }

4. Layout Styles (_layout.scss):
   Define styles related to the layout of your app.

   .container {
     width: 80%;
     margin: 0 auto;
   }

5. Component Styles (_components.scss):
   Define styles for specific components.

   .button {
     background-color: $primary-color;
     color: white;
     padding: 10px 15px;
     border: none;
     border-radius: 5px;
     cursor: pointer;
   
     &:hover {
       background-color: $secondary-color;
     }
   }

Step 4: Main Sass File

In your main.scss file, import all the partials:

@import 'partials/variables';
@import 'partials/mixins';
@import 'partials/base';
@import 'partials/layout';
@import 'partials/components';

Step 5: Compile Sass to CSS

You can compile your Sass files to CSS using the command line:

npx sass styles/main.scss styles/main.css

You might also want to set up a watch command to automatically compile Sass files when changes are made:

npx sass --watch styles/main.scss styles/main.css

Step 6: Update HTML Links

Ensure that your HTML files link to the compiled CSS file:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles/main.css">

Step 7: Remove Old CSS

Once you’ve confirmed that everything works correctly with Sass, you can remove any old CSS files that are no longer needed.

Additional Tips

• Nesting: Take advantage of Sass’s nesting feature to structure your CSS better. For example:

  .navbar {
    background-color: $primary-color;
  
    .nav-item {
      color: white;
  
      &:hover {
        text-decoration: underline;
      }
    }
  }

• Use Functions: You can create custom functions in Sass for complex calculations or color manipulations.

• Organize Further: As your project grows, consider breaking down your partials even further into more specific files for better organization.

Conclusion

Refactoring to Sass will make your stylesheets more maintainable and scalable.