A simple JavaScript plugin to match the height of boxes.
This package should be almost completely unnecessary at this point. I made this before Flexbox and CSS Grid were viable options. The projects I worked on at the time often required that I create a grid of boxes with equal, yet dynamic heights. This was my solution. You should count yourself lucky if you never had to solve this problem (and have it work responsively!).
Matchbox is available via NPM. NOTE: matchboxes is plural as a Matchbox project already exists.
$ npm install matchboxes
Matchbox is also available on Bower:
$ bower install matchboxjs
var matchbox = new Matchbox({
initClass: 'js-matchbox-initialized',
parentSelector: '.js-box',
childSelector: '.js-match',
groupsOf: 2,
breakpoints: []
});
matchbox.init();After adding matchbox.js to your project, instantiate a new Matchbox, passing in your options object as the first argument, and call the .init() function on your Matchbox instance.
| Option Name | Type | Description | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| initClass | String | class name set on body on init |
'js-matchbox-initialized' |
| parentSelector | String | class or id selector | '.js-box' |
| childSelector | String | class or id selector | '.js-match' |
| groupsOf | Integer | Size of groups to process for matches | 2 |
| breakpoints | Array | Array of objects; each object must have a bp and a groupsOf property. |
[] |
| Method Name | Description |
|---|---|
| init() | initializes the Matchbox instance with |
| groupsOf(number) | Quickly modify the groupsOf setting on a Matchbox instance |
| destroy() | destroys the Matchbox instance and resets all applied heights |
| update() | forces an update of Matchbox instance |
Matchbox is designed to behave mobile first with no option (currently) to operate otherwise. If you would like a Matchbox instance to automatically update per breakpoint, add objects to the breakpoints array at initialization like so:
var matchbox = new Matchbox({
breakpoints: [
{ bp: 480, groupsOf: 3 },
{ bp: 768, groupsOf: 4 }
]
});
matchbox.init();Matchbox will sort your breakpoints from smallest to lowest, and then detect when the window.innerWidth is greater than or equal to your breakpoint but less than your next breakpoint. It will utilize Matchbox's groupsOf method to then update your Matchbox instance.
If you would like to contribute to Matchbox, please submit an issue with your desired enhancements or fixes first. After a course of action has been decided, feel free to fork the repo and submit pull requests. They will be looked at and evaluated timely.
Copyright (c) 2016 Kyle Shevlin
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.