by Michael Henderson

CodePen Tips and Best Practice

When working in FCC there are going to be times when you create your own projects with CodePen. Campers like to share these projects on the Free Code Camp Forum to receive feedback from other Campers.

Today, I am going to show you how to get the most out of CodePen and how to maximize your feedback within the FCC Forum.

Get your sleeping bag and marshmallows. Oh, and don't forget to get your Yeti Cooler back from that bear who stole it while you were sleeping! We are going on a hike to learn a few things.

Organizing Your Code In CodePen

When working with CodePen for the first time I remember having all of my code in the HTML section of my Pen. Just like the image below I had my HTML, CSS, and <head> content all in one spot.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with building your website like this. But, in CodePen there are ways to clean up your code to make it more organized and readable by others who are helping you or simply checking out your awesome project.

You can open this pen in another tab by clicking here. This will allow you to play around with the code and follow along.

Let's Remove Some Things

<!-- Remove The Following Lines of Code From The Html Section -->

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html lang="en">

</html>

We do not need these pieces of code because CodePen automatically injects them into our project.

Follow these steps to properly place your head content where it needs to go in CodePen.

Let’s move our meta content and google font links to the Stuff For <head> part of CodePen.

Here is a snapshot of the code between the head tags. You should only move the code that I have in bold.

<head> <! — Theme Made By www.w3schools.com — No Copyright --> <title>Bootstrap Theme Company Page</title> <meta charset=”utf-8"> <meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel=”stylesheet” href=”http://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/css/bootstrap.min.css"> <link href=”http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Montserrat" rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”> <link href=”http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato" rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”> <script src=”https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.12.2/jquery.min.js"></script> <script src=”http://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script> <style> body { font: 400 15px Lato, sans-serif; line-height: 1.8; color: #818181; } h2 { font-size: 24px; text-transform: uppercase; color: #303030; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 30px; } h4 { font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.375em; color: #303030; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 30px; } .jumbotron { background-color: #f4511e; color: #fff; padding: 100px 25px; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; } .container-fluid { padding: 60px 50px; } .bg-grey { background-color: #f6f6f6; } .logo-small { color: #f4511e; font-size: 50px; } .logo { color: #f4511e; font-size: 200px; } .thumbnail { padding: 0 0 15px 0; border: none; border-radius: 0; } .thumbnail img { width: 100%; height: 100%; margin-bottom: 10px; } .carousel-control.right, .carousel-control.left { background-image: none; color: #f4511e; } .carousel-indicators li { border-color: #f4511e; } .carousel-indicators li.active { background-color: #f4511e; } .item h4 { font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.375em; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; margin: 70px 0; } .item span { font-style: normal; } .panel { border: 1px solid #f4511e; border-radius:0 !important; transition: box-shadow 0.5s; } .panel:hover { box-shadow: 5px 0px 40px rgba(0,0,0, .2); } .panel-footer .btn:hover { border: 1px solid #f4511e; background-color: #fff !important; color: #f4511e; } .panel-heading { color: #fff !important; background-color: #f4511e !important; padding: 25px; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; } .panel-footer { background-color: white !important; } .panel-footer h3 { font-size: 32px; } .panel-footer h4 { color: #aaa; font-size: 14px; } .panel-footer .btn { margin: 15px 0; background-color: #f4511e; color: #fff; } .navbar { margin-bottom: 0; background-color: #f4511e; z-index: 9999; border: 0; font-size: 12px !important; line-height: 1.42857143 !important; letter-spacing: 4px; border-radius: 0; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; } .navbar li a, .navbar .navbar-brand { color: #fff !important; } .navbar-nav li a:hover, .navbar-nav li.active a { color: #f4511e !important; background-color: #fff !important; } .navbar-default .navbar-toggle { border-color: transparent; color: #fff !important; } footer .glyphicon { font-size: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; color: #f4511e; } .slideanim {visibility:hidden;} .slide { animation-name: slide; -webkit-animation-name: slide; animation-duration: 1s; -webkit-animation-duration: 1s; visibility: visible; } @keyframes slide { 0% { opacity: 0; -webkit-transform: translateY(70%); } 100% { opacity: 1; -webkit-transform: translateY(0%); } } @-webkit-keyframes slide { 0% { opacity: 0; -webkit-transform: translateY(70%); } 100% { opacity: 1; -webkit-transform: translateY(0%); } } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .col-sm-4 { text-align: center; margin: 25px 0; } .btn-lg { width: 100%; margin-bottom: 35px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { .logo { font-size: 150px; } } </style></head>

Click the settings button.

2. Click HTML.

3. Paste the content into Stuff for <head>. Once you are done click Save & Close.

Now let's move our CSS where it supposed to go

Copy everything between your opening and closing styles tag and paste it into the CSS section.

Your HTML and CSS are now separated. This makes for an organized and efficient working environment. Please note: You do not have to put <styles> tags in your CSS section.

Adding The Bootstrap Stylesheet To Your Project

Click Settings. Click CSS.

3. Click the drop down arrow at the bottom where it says “Quick-add” and select bootstrap. It will add it to your external CSS links.

Quick Tip: You can also add Font Awesome as an external style sheet. Read the content under Add External CSS.

Adding JavaScript

Still in settings, click JavaScript.

2. Click the “Quick-add” drop down menu and add jQuery and Bootstrap.

3. Click Save & Close.

Moving Our JavaScript from the HTML section

Scroll to the bottom and copy the javascript code between your script tags.

<script>$(document).ready(function(){ // Add smooth scrolling to all links in navbar + footer link $(“.navbar a, footer a[href=’#myPage’]”).on(‘click’, function(event) { // Make sure this.hash has a value before overriding default behavior if (this.hash !== “”) { // Prevent default anchor click behavior event.preventDefault();

// Store hash var hash = this.hash;

// Using jQuery’s animate() method to add smooth page scroll // The optional number (900) specifies the number of milliseconds it takes to scroll to the specified area $(‘html, body’).animate({ scrollTop: $(hash).offset().top }, 900, function(){ // Add hash (#) to URL when done scrolling (default click behavior) window.location.hash = hash; }); } // End if }); $(window).scroll(function() { $(“.slideanim”).each(function(){ var pos = $(this).offset().top;

var winTop = $(window).scrollTop(); if (pos < winTop + 600) { $(this).addClass(“slide”); } }); });})</script>

2. Paste it in the JavaScript section.

Finishing up

Now that your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are separated out, you have a more organized working environment within CodePen. This also makes it easier for others to help you in the Free Code Camp Forum, because they can locate your code and easily diagnose any errors. Play around in the CodePen settings and see what else you can do.

Next time you build a project in CodePen you will know how to add stylesheets, where to properly place <head> content, how to add a JavaScript library, and how to separate your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I hope this helps!

I also have a video explaining how to do some of this too.

Happy coding my friends!

If you liked this article, please let us know down in the comments.

Also, feel free to checkout my YouTube channel where I do cool stuff like review projects and share my life as a Software Engineer.