Static Files¶

The authentication views and templates work, but they look very plain right now. Some CSS_ can be added to add style to the HTML layout you constructed. The style won't change, so it's a static file rather than a template.

Flask automatically adds a static view that takes a path relative to the flaskr/static directory and serves it. The base.html template already has a link to the style.css file:

.. code-block:: html+jinja

{{ url_for('static', filename='style.css') }}

Besides CSS, other types of static files might be files with JavaScript functions, or a logo image. They are all placed under the flaskr/static directory and referenced with url_for('static', filename='...').

This tutorial isn't focused on how to write CSS, so you can just copy the following into the flaskr/static/style.css file:

.. code-block:: css :caption: flaskr/static/style.css

html { font-family: sans-serif; background: #eee; padding: 1rem; }
body { max-width: 960px; margin: 0 auto; background: white; }
h1 { font-family: serif; color: #377ba8; margin: 1rem 0; }
a { color: #377ba8; }
hr { border: none; border-top: 1px solid lightgray; }
nav { background: lightgray; display: flex; align-items: center; padding: 0 0.5rem; }
nav h1 { flex: auto; margin: 0; }
nav h1 a { text-decoration: none; padding: 0.25rem 0.5rem; }
nav ul  { display: flex; list-style: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; }
nav ul li a, nav ul li span, header .action { display: block; padding: 0.5rem; }
.content { padding: 0 1rem 1rem; }
.content &gt; header { border-bottom: 1px solid lightgray; display: flex; align-items: flex-end; }
.content &gt; header h1 { flex: auto; margin: 1rem 0 0.25rem 0; }
.flash { margin: 1em 0; padding: 1em; background: #cae6f6; border: 1px solid #377ba8; }
.post &gt; header { display: flex; align-items: flex-end; font-size: 0.85em; }
.post &gt; header &gt; div:first-of-type { flex: auto; }
.post &gt; header h1 { font-size: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0; }
.post .about { color: slategray; font-style: italic; }
.post .body { white-space: pre-line; }
.content:last-child { margin-bottom: 0; }
.content form { margin: 1em 0; display: flex; flex-direction: column; }
.content label { font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0.5em; }
.content input, .content textarea { margin-bottom: 1em; }
.content textarea { min-height: 12em; resize: vertical; }
input.danger { color: #cc2f2e; }
input[type=submit] { align-self: start; min-width: 10em; }

You can find a less compact version of style.css in the :gh:example code <examples/tutorial/flaskr/static/style.css>.

Go to http://127.0.0.1:5000/auth/login and the page should look like the screenshot below.

.. image:: flaskr_login.png :align: center :class: screenshot :alt: screenshot of login page

You can read more about CSS from Mozilla's documentation <CSS_>_. If you change a static file, refresh the browser page. If the change doesn't show up, try clearing your browser's cache.

.. _CSS: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/CSS

Continue to :doc:blog.