Material Design Lite grid with tables

Question

I am experimenting with the recently released MDL kit and trying to use the grid layout with cards and tables.

what I found was the MDL grid is not as flexible as the Bootstrap grid for nested columns (probably 'cos I don't know enough about it yet). So in my 3 column layout I use cards and tables side-by-side to present the data I have.

But unfortunately the card does not span the whole width of a column unless I apply width=100% manually. But as soon as I do it the table is not responsive and overlap with cards around in when the screen size reduces.

JSFiddle

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this issue.

<body>
    <main class="mdl-layout__content">
    <div class="page-content">
        <div class="demo-grid-1 mdl-grid">
            <div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--4-col ">
                <div class="mdl-card mdl-shadow--4dp demo-card-wide">
                    <div class="mdl-card__media">
                        <img src="http://www.gaynz.com/articles/uploads/2/Auckland-at-night.jpg" width="173" height="157" border="0" alt="" style="padding:10px;">
                    </div>
                    <div class="mdl-card__supporting-text">Auckland Sky Tower, taken March 24th, 2014</div>
                    <div class="mdl-card__supporting-text">The Sky Tower is an observation and telecommunications tower located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is 328 metres (1,076 ft) tall, making it the tallest man-made structure in the Southern Hemisphere.</div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--4-col">
                <table class="mdl-data-table mdl-js-data-table mdl-data-table--selectable mdl-shadow--2dp mdl-cell--4-col" style=" width: 100%">
                    <thead>
                        <tr>
                            <th class="mdl-data-table__cell--non-numeric">Material</th>
                            <th>Quantity</th>
                            <th>Unit price</th>
                        </tr>
                    </thead>
                    <tbody>
                        <tr>
                            <td class="mdl-data-table__cell--non-numeric">Acrylic (Transparent)</td>
                            <td>25</td>
                            <td>$2.90</td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td class="mdl-data-table__cell--non-numeric">Plywood (Birch)</td>
                            <td>50</td>
                            <td>$1.25</td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td class="mdl-data-table__cell--non-numeric">Laminate (Gold on Blue)</td>
                            <td>10</td>
                            <td>$2.35</td>
                        </tr>
                    </tbody>
                </table>
            </div>
            <div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--4-col">
                <div class="mdl-card mdl-shadow--2dp demo-card-wide">
                    <div class="mdl-card__title">
                         <h2 class="mdl-card__title-text">Welcome</h2>

                    </div>
                    <div class="mdl-card__supporting-text">
                        <div class="demo-grid-1 mdl-grid">
                            <div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--3-col mdl-cell--2-col-tablet mdl-cell--1-col-phone small-cell">this is a text</div>
                            <div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--3-col mdl-cell--2-col-tablet mdl-cell--1-col-phone small-cell">another text</div>
                            <div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--3-col mdl-cell--2-col-tablet mdl-cell--1-col-phone small-cell">30/05/2015</div>
                            <div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--3-col mdl-cell--2-col-tablet mdl-cell--1-col-phone small-cell">3999.34</div>
                        </div>
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </main>
</body>

It seems like the tables aren't really responsive at all, using the [example from their site](http://codepen.io/anon/pen/EjLraY) it doesn't respond to width change at all. Also, please provide sample code of only your issue and not any surrounding code (like the nav-bar and stuff), as well as separating the css from html (makes it more clear what styles you applied), like [so](https://jsfiddle.net/x9gj73y7/2/). I'm afraid I don't know if there's a fix. — jdepypere, Jul 11 '15 at 23:06
@jdepypere sorry about all the non-essential stuff. I cleaned up it a bit. — Ishan Hettiarachchi, Jul 12 '15 at 07:30
@jdepypere is correct about tables not being responsive. There is no Material Design guidance for that and doing that is a pain regardless of UX guidance. You can use cell widths on the table itself to change its width, but that is the extent of it (and it may cause some alignment glitches that then need to be worked on.) — Garbee, Jul 13 '15 at 00:10
@Garbee thanks for your comments. I have given up on making the table responsive. Instead I am trying to make the grid columns behave like a table. But that is not a easy task either :( — Ishan Hettiarachchi, Jul 13 '15 at 16:28

Jacob Norton · Answer 1 · 2015-10-12T15:47:07.387

Let's see if I can help you with each problem:

First, the cards not taking up the whole column. The issue is the nested divs. If you make the column like this:

<div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--4-col mdl-card mdl-shadow--2dp">

rather than putting the card within the column, then it will take up the whole column. See the updated JSFiddle here.

Next, for nested columns, you need to have nested grids, like this:

<main class="mdl-layout__content">
    <div class="mdl-grid">
        <div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--4-col mdl-card mdl-shadow--2dp">
            <div class="mdl-card__supporting-text">
                <main class="mdl-layout__content">
                    <div class="mdl-grid">
                        <div class="mdl-card mdl-shadow--2dp mdl-cell mdl-cell--4-col">

See the JSFiddle here.

It sounds like you've changed your goal a bit, but hopefully you can put these two together to fix your problem.

Ronnie Royston · Answer 2 · 2016-07-17T19:19:30.057

Here's how to do it:

.mdl-data-table {
    table-layout:fixed;
    width:100%; 
}
#my-table td, th {
  width: 100%;
  white-space: nowrap;
  overflow: hidden;
  text-overflow: ellipsis;
  -o-text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

/* unrelated to responsive table css */
#my-table{
  margin-top:24px;
}
.material-icons {
  vertical-align: -25%;
}

<meta name="description" content="Responsive Material Design Lite Table" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/icon?family=Material+Icons">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://code.getmdl.io/1.1.3/material.green-light_green.min.css" />
<script defer src="https://code.getmdl.io/1.1.3/material.min.js"></script>

<section class="mdl-grid" id="my-table">
  <div class="mdl-layout-spacer"></div>
  <div class="mdl-cell mdl-cell--6-col-tablet mdl-cell--10-col-desktop mdl-cell--stretch">

    <table class="mdl-data-table mdl-js-data-table mdl-shadow--2dp">
      <thead>
        <tr>
          <th>Key</th>
          <th>Description</th>
          <th>Run</th>
          <th><i class="material-icons">timer</i></th>
          <th>Work</th>
          <th><i class="material-icons">timer</i></th>
          <th>Play</th>
          <th><i class="material-icons">timer</i></th>
          <th>Study</th>
          <th><i class="material-icons">timer</i></th>
          <th>Assumptions</th>
          <th>Climb Mountain</th>
          <th>Fly Kite</th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr>
          <td>ABC-1234</td>
          <td>asdf asdf asdf asdf</td>
          <td>asdf asdf asdf asdf</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>qwer qwer qwer</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>sdfgs sdf sdgf</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>lkjhlk lkhjh</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>bvnfhf hffjj hdgdh</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>bjh jbh kjb bkjb</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>XYZ-1234</td>
          <td>dfdf asdf asdf asdf</td>
          <td>bgbgdf asdf asdf asdf</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>qwer qwer qwer</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>sdfgs sdf sdgf</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>lkjhlk lkhjh</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>bvnfhf hffjj hdgdh</td>
          <td>25</td>
          <td>bjh jbh kjb bkjb</td>
        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>
  </div>
  <div class="mdl-layout-spacer"></div>
</section>

Cool. Thanks Ron. This answer was perfect for me! It's also handy to not show all columns on mobile. Thanks for your effort in providing a quality answer. — Dave Fisher, Sep 29 '16 at 03:06
Unfortunately if a column's content is long it doesn't auto-wrap it. — Avamander, Nov 30 '18 at 12:42

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 15 '15 at 02:02

-1

To have your table adapt to the size of its container and respond to any change in size you can set its width attribute to a certain percentage.

<table class="mdl-data-table mdl-js-data-table" style="width:100%;">
  ...
</table>

answered Jul 15 '15 at 02:02

Gabriel

1

Material Design Lite grid with tables

3 Answers3