Coding guide: Drawers

Here you can find examples of how to create a drawer on Firefox OS, as well as downloads for the CSS and image resources used by the built-in apps on Firefox OS. You can copy these resources into your app and make use of them to build apps that match these apps' appearances.

Implementing a drawer

To implement a tab bar using the style shown here, place the CSS and media files into your app and then import the CSS using the @import at-rule:

@import url(resources/drawer.css);

Make sure the media files are in the location expected by the CSS (either by placing them in a corresponding location or by revising the CSS).

One handy feature of the implementation of drawers is that the opening and closing of the drawers is all handled in CSS; you don't have to implement any code at all.

Example

HTML to create the drawer

The drawer user interface consists of two primary components: the sidebar that slides in from the side of the screen, and the toolbar that triggers the drawer. Because of this, you need to import both the headers.css and drawer.css style sheets, like this:

@import url(resources/headers.css);
@import url(resources/drawer.css);

The sidebar contains a toolbar at the top that contains any control buttons the drawer menu requires (in this case, an add button) and the drawer's title. Below that is whatever content the drawer wishes to present -- in this case, a menu.

<section data-type="sidebar">
  <header>
    <menu type="toolbar">
      <a href="#"><span class="icon icon-add">add</span></a>
    </menu>
    <h1>Title <em>(9)</em></h1>
  </header>
  <nav>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="#">label</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">label</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">label</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">label</a></li>
    </ul>
    <h2>Subtitle</h2>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="#">label</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">label</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">label larger label than the </a></li>
      <li><a href="#">label</a></li>
    </ul>
  </nav>
</section>

The drawer is activated using a button at the left end of the main screen's toolbar; this is implemented as follows:

<section id="drawer" role="region">
  <header>
    <a href="#"><span class="icon icon-menu">hide sidebar</span></a>
    <a href="#drawer"><span class="icon icon-menu">show sidebar</span></a>
    <h1>Inbox</h1>
  </header>
  <div role="main">Here is where our main screen's UX is.</div>
</section>

CSS

The CSS here defines the styling for our interface.

 
@import url(https://developer.mozilla.org/media/gaia/shared/style/headers.css);@import url(https://developer.mozilla.org/media/gaia/shared/style_unstable/drawer.css); 
@import url('https://developer.mozilla.org/media/css/gaia.css'); 
html, body { 
  margin: 0; 
  padding: 0; 
  font-size: 10px; 
  height: 100%; 
  overflow-x: hidden; 
  background: #000 url(https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/4655/fx_logo_white_backdrop.jpg) fixed; 
} 
body { background: none; } 

section[role="region"] {
  height: 100%;
  font: 2.2rem/1em "MozTT", Sans-serif;
}
div[role="main"] {
  background: #fff;
  height: calc(100% - 5rem);
  overflow: hidden;
}
div[role="main"] p {
  margin: 2rem 2.5rem;
}
/* Base icons */
section[data-type="sidebar"] > header .icon.icon-add {
  background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,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);
}

JavaScript code

We will soon add code here to demonstrate how to receive responses from the items in the drawer.

// none yet

Working demo

You can try out the drawer in this live demonstration.