css grid-template-areas property not aligning grid items

Question

I am new to css grids, and I am trying to build a page with this layout:

The problem I have is the .main class and the grid inside the container grid.

I think I have the wrong setup for the grid in .main.

For the upper container .container, I can see that three columns layout is working.

On the first row, I want the div image div to span 2 out of three columns, and blogart div to take up one column.

The second row should have three blogart divs spaning one column each.

But in the inner grid .main, all the markup is in a fourth column.

I have setup a codepen Greatful for any suggestions.

This is my markup, the css is in the codepen:

body {
  padding-top: 20px;
  background: #f5f7f8;
}

.container{
  display: grid;
  width: 100%;
  max-width: 750px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  
  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
  grid-template-rows: 80px 180px 80px;
  grid-gap: 20px;
  
  grid-template-areas: "header   header   header"
                       "main     main     main"
                       "footer   footer   footer";
}

.container div{
  color: white;
  font-size: 20px;
  padding: 20px;
}

.header {
  background: #b03532;
  grid-area: header;
}

.main {
  background: #33a8a5;
  grid-area: main;
  
  display: grid;
  
  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
  grid-template-rows: auto;
  grid-gap: 20px;
  
  grid-template-areas: "bigimg bigimg blogart"
                       "blogart blogart blogart";
  
}

.bigimg {
  background: #da6f2b;
  grid-area: bigimg;
}

.blogart {
  background: #3d8bb1;
  grid-area: blogart;
}

.footer {
  background: #6a478f;
  grid-area: footer;
}

<section class="container">
  <div class="header">Header</div>

  <div class="main">
    <div class="bigimg">img</div>
    <div class="blogart">blogart</div>
    <div class="blogart">blogart</div>
    <div class="blogart">blogart</div>
    <div class="blogart">blogart</div>
  </div>

  <div class="footer">footer</div>
</section>

-Thanks

Michael Benjamin · Answer 1 · 2017-04-19T00:35:36.827

The problem is this section of your code:

.main {
  grid-template-areas: "bigimg  bigimg  blogart"
                       "blogart blogart blogart";
}

The layout is invalid.

From the spec:

7.3. Named Areas: the grid-template-areas property

This property specifies named grid areas, which are not associated with any particular grid item, but can be referenced from the grid-placement properties.

The syntax of the grid-template-areas property also provides a visualization of the structure of the grid, making the overall layout of the grid container easier to understand.

All strings must have the same number of columns, or else the declaration is invalid.

If a named grid area spans multiple grid cells, but those cells do not form a single filled-in rectangle, the declaration is invalid.

Note: Non-rectangular or disconnected regions may be permitted in a future version of this module.

^{(emphasis mine)}

In short, your .blogart visualization is L-shaped, not rectangular, so it doesn't work.

This is not a problem with your .container visualization, which works fine:

.container {
  grid-template-areas: "header   header   header"
                       "main     main     main"
                       "footer   footer   footer";
}

To make your layout work consider using grid-column and grid-row on the grid items. Here's a rough sketch, based on your demo:

body {
  padding-top: 20px;
  background: #f5f7f8;
}
.container{
  display: grid;
  width: 100%;
  max-width: 750px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
  grid-template-rows: 80px 180px 80px;
  grid-gap: 20px;
  grid-template-areas: "header   header   header"
                       "main     main     main"
                       "footer   footer   footer";
}
.container div {
  color: white;
  font-size: 20px;
  padding: 20px;
}
.header {
  background: #b03532;
  grid-area: header;
}
.main {
  background: #33a8a5;
  grid-area: main;
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
  grid-template-rows: auto;
  grid-gap: 20px;
  /* grid-template-areas: "bigimg bigimg blogart"
                       "blogart blogart blogart"; */
  
}
.bigimg {
  grid-column: 1 / 3;
  background: #da6f2b;
  /* grid-area: bigimg; */
}
.blogart:nth-child(2) {
  grid-column: 3 / 4;
  background: #3d8bb1;
  /* grid-area: blogart; */
}
.blogart:not(:nth-child(2)) {
  grid-column: auto / span 1;
  grid-row: 2;
  background: orange;
  /* grid-area: blogart; */
}

.footer {
  background: #6a478f;
  grid-area: footer;
}

<section class="container">
  <div class="header">Header</div>
  <div class="main">
    <div class="bigimg">img</div>
    <div class="blogart">blogart</div>
    <div class="blogart">blogart</div>
    <div class="blogart">blogart</div>
    <div class="blogart">blogart</div>
  </div>
  <div class="footer">footer</div>
</section>

revised codepen

thanks for all the help :) – user2371684 Apr 18 '17 at 19:36 — user2371684, Apr 18 '17 at 19:36

keithjgrant · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-19T13:51:18.370

You are trying to name multiple grid areas “blogart”, but this is invalid. You cannot name multiple grid areas with the same name.

There are several ways to define a grid, apart from using named template areas. Instead of using grid-template-areas in your inner grid, you might want to rely on the grid auto-placement algorithm.

Try something like this:

.main {
  background: #33a8a5;
  grid-area: main;

  display: grid;

  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
  grid-template-rows: auto;
  grid-gap: 20px;
}

Then, each grid item in the grid will automatically lay out, one per grid cell, for three columns, until they have all been placed.

edit

Here’s a more complete demo: https://codepen.io/keithjgrant/pen/JNGNKX

I made a few changes:

I removed the grid-template-rows from the outer grid. You had constrained the heights of each row; it's better to allow the contents to grow/shrink automatically as necessary.
I removed the grid-template-areas from the inner grid and the grid-area from its grid items. This allows them to lay out naturally, in the order they appear. Each grid item will fill one grid cell by default.
I added a grid-column: span 2 to the img, since you want that to span 2 columns.

Play around with that. Notice you can now add (or remove) as many “blogart” elements you want, and the layout still works.

i saw my error with multiple blogart areas. But with the .blogart:nth-child(3) spanning between column 1-3, do we need a markup with 4 blogart elements? Is'nt sufficient with 2 blogart elements in my markup? — user2371684, Apr 18 '17 at 16:13
I’m not exactly sure what you mean about it being “sufficient with 2 blogart elements”...? The point is, if you define the grid in a flexible way, you can have as many (or as few) elements in the markup as you want, and the layout still works. — keithjgrant, Apr 19 '17 at 13:53

css grid-template-areas property not aligning grid items

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