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What You Need To Build A Simple dropdown With Tailwind CSS

Simple dropdown

What is Tailwind CSS?

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework that focuses on creating personalized user interfaces quickly. It can gives you all the building blocks you are able to create personalized designs without having to fight to override irritating opinionated styles. Also, Tailwind CSS is a highly configurable, low-level CSS framework.

The description of Simple dropdown ui component

Why use Tailwind CSS to make a Simple dropdown ui component?

  • It can make the building process of Simple dropdown ui component faster and more easily.
  • Enables building complex responsive layouts and components freely.
  • Minimum lines of CSS code in Simple dropdown component file.

The preview of Simple dropdown ui component

Free download of the Simple dropdown's source code

The source code of Simple dropdown ui component

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/alpinejs/[email protected]/dist/alpine.min.js" defer></script>
<div class="flex justify-center h-screen">
<div x-data="{ dropdownOpen: true }" class="relative my-32">
  <button @click="dropdownOpen = !dropdownOpen" class="relative z-10 block rounded-md bg-white p-2 focus:outline-none">
    <svg class="h-5 w-5 text-gray-800" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="currentColor">
      <path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M5.293 7.293a1 1 0 011.414 0L10 10.586l3.293-3.293a1 1 0 111.414 1.414l-4 4a1 1 0 01-1.414 0l-4-4a1 1 0 010-1.414z" clip-rule="evenodd" />
    </svg>
  </button>

  <div x-show="dropdownOpen" @click="dropdownOpen = false" class="fixed inset-0 h-full w-full z-10"></div>

  <div x-show="dropdownOpen" class="absolute right-0 mt-2 py-2 w-48 bg-white rounded-md shadow-xl z-20">
    <a href="#" class="block px-4 py-2 text-sm capitalize text-gray-700 hover:bg-blue-500 hover:text-white">
      your profile
    </a>
    <a href="#" class="block px-4 py-2 text-sm capitalize text-gray-700 hover:bg-blue-500 hover:text-white">
      Your projects
    </a>
    <a href="#" class="block px-4 py-2 text-sm capitalize text-gray-700 hover:bg-blue-500 hover:text-white">
      Help
    </a>
    <a href="#" class="block px-4 py-2 text-sm capitalize text-gray-700 hover:bg-blue-500 hover:text-white">
      Settings
    </a>
    <a href="#" class="block px-4 py-2 text-sm capitalize text-gray-700 hover:bg-blue-500 hover:text-white">
      Sign Out
    </a>
  </div>
</div>
</div>

How to make a Simple dropdown with Tailwind CSS?

Install tailwind css of verion 1.7.0

Use the link html tag to import the stylesheet of Tailwind CSS of the version 1.7.0

<link href=https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/tailwind.min.css rel="stylesheet">

All the unility class needed to make a Simple dropdown component

  • flex
  • h-screen
  • relative
  • my-32
  • z-10
  • block
  • bg-white
  • p-2
  • h-5
  • w-5
  • text-gray-800
  • fixed
  • h-full
  • w-full
  • absolute
  • right-0
  • mt-2
  • py-2
  • w-48
  • z-20
  • px-4
  • text-sm
  • text-gray-700
  • hover:bg-blue-500
  • hover:text-white

25 steps to make a Simple dropdown component with Tailwind CSS

  1. Use flex to create a block-level flex container.

  2. Use h-screen to make an element span the entire height of the viewport.

  3. Use relative to position an element according to the normal flow of the document.

  4. Control the vertical margin of an element to 8rem using the my-32 utilities.

  5. Control the stack order (or three-dimensional positioning) of an element to 10 in Tailwind, regardless of order it has been displayed, using the z-10 utilities.

  6. Use inline utilities to put the element on its own line and fill its parent.

  7. Control the background color of an element to white using the bg-white utilities.

  8. Control the padding on all sides of an element to 0.5rem using the p-2 utilities.

  9. Use h-5 to set an element to a fixed height(1.25rem).

  10. Use w-5 to set an element to a fixed width(1.25rem).

  11. Control the text color of an element to gray-800 using the text-gray-800 utilities.

  12. Use fixed to position an element relative to the browser window.

  13. Use h-full to set an element’s height to 100% of its parent, as long as the parent has a defined height.

  14. Use w-full to set an element to a 100% based width.

  15. Use absolute to position an element outside of the normal flow of the document, causing neighboring elements to act as if the element doesn’t exist.

  16. Use the right-0 utilities to set the right position of a positioned element to 0rem.

  17. Control the margin on top side of an element to 0.5rem using the mt-2 utilities.

  18. Control the vertical padding of an element to 0.5rem using the py-2 utilities.

  19. Use w-48 to set an element to a fixed width(12rem).

  20. Control the stack order (or three-dimensional positioning) of an element to 20 in Tailwind, regardless of order it has been displayed, using the z-20 utilities.

  21. Control the horizontal padding of an element to 1rem using the px-4 utilities.

  22. Control the text color of an element to sm using the text-sm utilities.

  23. Control the text color of an element to gray-700 using the text-gray-700 utilities.

  24. Control the background color of an element to blue-500 using the hover:bg-blue-500 utilities on hover.

  25. Control the text color of an element to white on hover using the hover:text-white utilities.

Conclusion

The above is a step-by-step tutorial on how to use Tailwind CSS to make a Simple dropdown components, learn and follow along to implement your own components.