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Writing CSS For AMP Runtime?

Who should read this doc?

Do you contribute changes to the AMP Runtime or add/modify AMP extensions? If you answer yes, then you should definitely read this document.

Do you write solutions on top of the amp library (ampstart/ABE), this may be a good read for you.

What is Specificity?

Specificity is the means by which browsers decide which CSS property values are the most relevant to an element and, therefore, will be applied. Specificity is based on the matching rules which are composed of different sorts of CSS selectors.

A selector is something which can identify/select an element or a group of elements and apply a list of properties to all the selected elements.

Example: CSS selectors

 *
.favorite
ul#summer-drinks li.favorite
html body div#pagewrap ul#summer-drinks li.favorite
html > body div#pagewrap ul#summer-drinks > li.favorite
.ampstart-dropcap:first-letter
#summer-drinks::before
#summer-drinks::after

A selector can contain a class, id, pseudo elements, psuedo classes , :not(), and a combination of any of these and many more. For a comprehensive list of all CSS selectors, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference#Selectors.

In general, the order of the CSS selectors do not affect which rules get applied to your CSS, unless the selectors have the same specificity and apply to at least one element in common. Well-written CSS will work perfectly fine even when the selectors are re-ordered (for example, when reordering imports in a css file). In the real world, it's hard to achieve this, especially when we import CSS via gulp or third-party CSS (which can change at any time).

How to calculate Specificity

Visit the CSS Tricks: Specifics on CSS Specificity which explains specificity in very simple terms and shows how specificity is computed (it's very short and understandable).

To compute specificity, use this online calculator: https://specificity.keegan.st/

Writing CSS in AMP Runtime or Extensions

Creating a new Selector

  1. Keep the specificity as low as possible; the Selector properties should be easily overridable (using maybe a single id or class-name, without having to repeat a complex selector).
  2. Try to write selectors by using tag names and attributes; class names that get added after build GET FOUC. FOUC (Flash Of Unstyled Content) is a really bad UX. Use caution and best effort to STAY AWAY from using elements/classes that are a result of BUILDing in the CSS.
    • A good example would be amp-selector.
    • A bad example would be amp-accordion (See the Case Studies below).
  3. Keep the Selector as simple as possible and ensure it's readable.

Modifying an existing Selector

This is a bit more tricky than creating a new selector (with completely new properties).

AMP is a versioned library that a lot of websites use. You might ask yourself, "But I am only changing CSS, how can this break AMP?". Well, you can! All it takes to break backwards compatibility is replacing a selector with another selector that has higher specificity.

  1. Do not change the specificity of a selector, if possible.
  2. If a new property (like font-size: 12px;) is being added, it is okay to add a new selector.
  3. If an existing property is being shifted around between existing selectors, make sure the properties always move from higher specificity to lower specificity.
  4. DO NOT move properties to a selector with high specificity at any cost! This is a BREAKING change.
  5. Remember there are 2 types of properties:
    • Overridable
    • Non-overridable: The ones suffixed with !important
      • These properties can be shifted around easily. However, BE CAUTIOUS when you suffix an existing property with !important because this is ALWAYS going to BREAK backwards compatibility (but could fix issues).
      • Always add !important during the first pass, and plan for it during design or early implementation phases.

FOUC

When building extensions, you should always be aware of things that could cause FOUC (Flash Of Unstyled Content). This happens when (if) the extension is built very late and the extension’s CSS is dependent on DOM Structure changes (addition of a class or a tag or may be restructuring the DOM itself) that happens as a result of building the extension.

While it is not completely possible to avoid this, ideally it would be better to write selectors that are independent of BUILD outcomes. This ensures that there is no repaints (at least in the initial state).

One way to avoid re-layouts after BUILD is to separate out all the CSS properties into in and out properties. "In" styles are unlikely to cause a lot of FOUC or any at all. "Out" styles may cause FOUC and we should probably phrase it as "not allowed". A good example is padding vs margin of the element itself. It's totally fine to change padding during build, but a huge no-no for margin.

Rule of thumb

  1. Create low specificity selectors.
  2. It's mostly OK to move properties/selectors from HIGHER TO LOWER specificity.
  3. DON’T move properties/selectors from LOWER TO HIGHER specificity.
  4. Avoid FOUC by writing CSS on tags and attributes and not depending on BUILD outcomes.

Case Studies

Here are some examples of what not to do, using real examples.

AMP Selector CSS has high specificity

The following CSS is an example of a bad selector:

amp-selector​:not​([​disabled​]) [​option​][​selected​]​:not​([​disabled​]) {
  ​outline​: ​solid​ ​ 1 ​px​ ​rgba​(​ 0 ​, ​ 0 ​, ​ 0 ​, ​0.7​);
}

Why is it bad?

  1. It's a super high specificity selector, that is, it's very hard to override using a single class name or id.
  2. There are no comments, and it's almost unreadable.

The only good part about this CSS is that it completely avoids FOUC by targeting tags and attributes, and not depending on the build outcome.

Improving the CSS

Here is how we changed this CSS to make it better:

amp-selector​ [​option​][​selected​] {
  ​outline​: ​solid​ ​ 1 ​px​ ​rgba​(​ 0 ​, ​ 0 ​, ​ 0 ​, ​0.7​);
}
amp-selector​ [​selected​][​disabled​],
amp-selector​[​disabled​] [​selected​] {
  ​outline​: ​none​;
}

Fixing PR: https://github.com/ampproject/amphtml/commit/e12deb125bc0bed16d33481e0c

AMP Accordion CSS changes broke specificity

- .i-amphtml-accordion-header​ {
- ​cursor​: ​pointer​;
- ​background-color​: ​#efefef​;
- ​padding-right​: ​ 20 ​px​;
- ​border​: ​solid​ ​ 1 ​px​ ​#dfdfdf​;
- }


+ amp-accordion​ ​>​ ​section​ ​>​ ​:first-child​ {
+ ​cursor​: ​pointer​;
+ ​background-color​: ​#efefef​;
+ ​padding-right​: ​ 20 ​px​;
+ ​border​: ​solid​ ​ 1 ​px​ ​#dfdfdf​;
+}

The lesson learnt here is that even though the breaking CSS was a good change (it fixed the FOUC due to the class introduced at BUILD), it moved properties from a selector with LOWER specificity to HIGHER specificity, which breaks backward compatibility.

Reading material