React Boxen

A layout primitive for React.

React Boxen utilizes Styled Components to provide cross-browser layout.

Why?

• Flex Box Plus - Provides a helpful layer of abstraction on top of the robust (and sometimes confusing) display flex properties
• Child spacing - Provides consistent spacing between child elements vertically, horizontally, and wrapping

Installation

npm install react-boxen --save or yarn add react-boxen

Usage Examples

Spacing vertically

This example produces a layout with each child spaced vertically.

import React from "react"
import Box from "react-boxen"

const css = {
  parent: `
    padding: 1em;
    background: lightgray;
  `,
  child: `
    padding: 0.75em;
    background: white;
  `
}

export default () =>
  <Box
    css={css.parent}
    childSpacing="10px">
    <Box css={css.child}>Child 1</Box>
    <Box css={css.child}>Child 2</Box>
    <Box css={css.child}>Child 3</Box>
  </Box>

Spacing horizontally

This example produces a layout with each child spaced horizontally.

import React from "react"
import Box from "react-boxen"

const css = {
  parent: `
    padding: 1em;
    background: lightgray;
  `,
  child: `
    padding: 0.75em;
    background: white;
  `
}

export default () =>
  <Box
    css={css.parent}
    childDirection="row"
    childSpacing="10px">
    <Box css={css.child}>Child 1</Box>
    <Box css={css.child}>Child 2</Box>
    <Box css={css.child}>Child 3</Box>
  </Box>

Child grow

When a child receives grow as a prop (or data-grow for native elements) it fills the available space.

import React from "react"
import Box from "react-boxen"

const css = {
  parent: `
    padding: 1em;
    background: lightgray;
  `,
  child: `
    padding: 0.75em;
    background: white;
  `
}

export default () =>
  <Box
    css={css.parent}
    childDirection="row"
    childSpacing="10px">
    <Box css={css.child}>Child 1</Box>
    <Box grow css={css.child}>Child 2</Box>
    <Box css={css.child}>Child 3</Box>
  </Box>

API

Box Properties

Properties placed on the Box component directly.

Property	Type	Value (default *)	Description
css	String	Template literal containing valid CSS	See styled-components documentation
childAlign	String	flex-start * flex-end center stretch baseline	Align children along the cross axis
childBasis	String	Length	Assigns flex-basis on children
childDirection	String	column * column-reverse row row-reverse	Vertical or horizontal orientation of children
childJustify	String	flex-start * flex-end center space-between space-around	Align children along the main axis
childWrap	String	nowrap * wrap wrap-reverse	Define whether or not children can wrap
childWrapLastGrow	Bool	True *	Setting to false preserves any orphan element's width when childWrap is wrap.
childSpacing	String	Length	Spacing between children on any axis (accepts shorthand value 5px 10em)
padding	String	Length	Accepts shorthand 5px 10em
...rest	Any	Any	Rest of props (aside from children) are spread onto Box itself (e.g. onClick, onPress, etc.)

Child Properties

Properties added to any direct child. For compound components use values as shown. For native elements (e.g. <div />) use data-<grow|shrink|...> (i.e. <div data-grow>Child</div>).

Property	Type	Value (default *)	Description
basis	String	Length	Individual flex-basis. This controls the length (width or height) along the main axis.
grow	Number	0 *	Amount Box should grow to fill available space
scroll	Bool	False *	Sets child wrapper to 100% height and overflow auto
shrink	Number	0 *	Amount Box should shrink inside available space
spacerRef	Func	null *	A function used to access the reference of the child's wrapping Spacer

Roadmap

Technically, there is nothing preventing usage with React Native. The web is a more immediate proving ground. As the API solidifies, testing and support will be hammered out for RN. PRs are always welcome!