Automated CSS Regression Testing in Action: A Developer’s Guide

We write unit-tests tests for server-side source code and for JavaScript. Even when putting aside benefits of TDD approach it gives us a priceless thing – early problem reporting during refactoring. So you make change, you run tests and you will know at once if anything broke. What about CSS? You encapsulate a declaration set into a separate rule, look through the site pages where dependent classes used and satisfied proceed with refactoring. After finishing your work you test the site thoroughly, opening every page, every modal, drop-down and expandable. Now you find out that on the very first change you broke the styles of a component that shows only by user action so missed it back then. It turns out that refactoring decision wasnt quite good. But its late to change.

If only we could go with automated testing... In fact we can.

10 Things You Need to Know About CSS

CSS may look as a simple language. In fact it can be simple only to use, but definitely not simple to maintain.Everybody who used to work on a large-scale projects knows how hard it can be to keep constantly growing CSS sources readable and consistent, styles reusable and loosely coupled. Moreover while going responsive web design (RWD) we also deal with increasing cyclomatic complexity. Learning from own experience I collected 10 vital principles that help turning your styles into efficient and highly maintainable code.