Readers’ Poll: Do You Use Boilerplates in Your Projects?

Readers’ Poll: Do You Use Boilerplates in Your Projects?

on Feb 21st 2012 with 27 comments

During the last year we’ve seen more and more Boilerplates cropping up to save you time when kicking off a new web project. Do you use them? Do you have a favorite? Have you tried, but find your own bespoke setup more efficient? Let’s hear what you have to say about them..

Thumbnail image courtesy of Boilerplate: Mechanical Marvel of the 20th Century

Boilerplates

Twitter’s Bootstrap has been topping the charts at GitHub for a while now, which says something about the way people want to build websites these days. Why reinvent the wheel, when there’s a fully functional framework which does all the mundane groundwork for you?

There are loads of examples, from Paul Irish’s HTML5 Boilerplate (which recently turned 3.0), HTML5 Reset, Bootstrap, Skeleton, even CSS grids like the Golden Grid System are essentially Boilerplates to work from and alter as you see fit.

The chances are that you have some basis from which you launch every new web project you embark on. Maybe you’ve pulled together a few of your own files and resources, maybe you’ve taken bits from various 3rd party examples, maybe you like to start from a clean sheet every time, let’s hear what you prefer!

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  • http://www.tajfa.com Ivo

    Frameworks are absolutely time savers, but its better if you already know how to build the same project without framework… than your a knowledge saver :)

  • Florian

    I use my very own boilerplates. For example I have a small one for CSS with a reset, some basic typography, browser fixes and helper classes.

    I prefer using my own code where it makes sense.

    • Kevin

      I was thinking the exact same thing as Florian. I prefer to use my own boilerplate where it will agree with how my mind works.

  • Connor Crosby

    I’m not a fan of using other people’s frameworks. I use my own instead :)

  • http://redstarwebdevelopment.com Dave

    Boilerplates and framework are great for efficiency once you’ve learned to build without one. Skipping that is like keeping the training wheels on your bike way longer than necessary.

  • http://www.equotemd.com/ Michael

    I believe that it all depends on the scope of the project. I try to create my own frameworks to use, but I get ideas from what others do to make their workflow more efficient.

    For larger projects, I like to use some sort of framework or boilerplate to help streamline the work.

    Smaller projects, it is usually easier for me to just hand-code the entire site.

  • http://www.nicksolly.co.uk Nick Solly

    I have been experimenting with a variety of frameworks as a great starting point when trying to teach myself. I’ve used a few some of which are zurb’s foundation, html5boilerplate, wordpress toolbox and latterly twitter bootstrap.

    I have found them really useful for getting a basic structure up and running quickly alowing me then to fiddle around with them to creat the effects and teach myself new tricks. I feel I am at an intermediate level, so understand how they work, but would caution against relying on them at my level, as my next step is to build my own site from the bottom up (using the parts of the frameworks as inspiration!)

  • Pingback: Readers’ Poll: Do You Use Boilerplates in Your Projects? | Shadowtek | Hosting and Design Solutions

  • David

    The only reason to not use a boilerplate is for a college project. Other than that you are just wasting money coding everything yourself.

  • http://www.referencemoi.ca Nima

    You should only use frameworks once you know how to develop it without one.
    Other than that, i strongly suggest using one , they are huge time savers for repetitive tasks!

  • http://www.paulund.co.uk Paul

    Started using HTML5 boilerplate on new projects, makes development so much quicker.

  • http://www.inspiringapps.com/ Jamie Jo Vittetoe

    We create our own frameworks, but we are always interested to explore other frameworks. Twitter Bootstrap has been of interest lately, and one of our developers wrote a blog post about his first impressions of the toolkit. http://blog.inspiringapps.com/first-impressions-of-twitter-bootstrap/

  • http://terencedevine.com Terence

    I have a slightly edited version of the HTML5 Boilerplate that I work off of… otherwise you spend a good hour+ setting up the file structure / head / etc of your site when it is going to be exactly the same every time.

    I stopped using CSS Frameworks a while ago tho, I used to use 960gs but I don’t like to be restricted by css frameworks, esp now when working with responsive designs. Haven’t seen any responsive frameworks that I love yet, and CSS is easy enough anyways.

    HTML5 Boilerplate is a must tho, Paul Irish rocks!

    • Wesley Shynes

      getskeleton.com

      • http://lenindcruz.deviantart.com Lenin

        I realised GetSkeleton is designed in ‘px’ instead of ‘% or em’. So the site itself (which I am guessing is made in *getSkeleton* doesn’t increase in fontsize when I CTRL+scroll in Google Chrome.

        So I am looking at *Foundation* and the likes.

  • http://www.danilobittorf.com mono

    Love the ZURB Foundation framework, used it a lot in my last projects. It has some edges and things that I don’t really like about it, but it’s a real timesaver. Nice stuff!

    Twitter Bootstrap is also something I can recommend, using it for the first time at the moment, i’m really pleased.

  • Steve

    Would like to see an option ‘No, but I’d like to’ since I’m currently in that category. Been meaning to look at what would work best for me for a while, just haven’t had the time.

  • http://www.keenpixel.com Ryan

    I agree with the others about using boilerplates to save valuable time, but only once you’ve learned how to code things from scratch and therefore how it all works together. I have used various standard frameworks and adapted them to suite my needs. My favorite thing about a good boilerplate? No back-tracking to get IE to behave!

  • http://www.fhcb.net Florian Hamberger

    I’ve started using a boilerplate one year ago. Woudn’t I have found a compact one I would have created one on my own for my needs. So I also strongly recommend to use frameworks as timesavers, but choose carefully as some of them are quite overloaded.

  • http://nionwebdesign.com Niels Pilon

    I’m always using the HTML5 (mobile) Boilerplate for my projects. It’s a great foundation for every project and a huge timesaver. I’ve been using bootstrap as well but it took me more time to dig into the CSS and modify it to my needs. Bootstrap is a great tool for rapid prototyping but not for a full project.

  • http://www.kieru.com Rob

    I love Twitter’s Bootstrap but in many ways for me it crosses over a boundary line between being a framework and starting to really be a sites design. I picked it up for a re-design / re-coding of a recent project and my end solution was to gut Bootstrap and remove / alter elements that I felt were more the purview of design than framework.

    All in all it’s working out well. I think elements like the alert box system lend itself perfectly to almost any website project. It’s just things like the Navbar, Tabs and Media area that seem to me to be outside the definition I wrap around ‘framework’

  • http://route19designs.com Dan Excel

    I prefer to roll my own. It makes more sense to me, but I still look over others for comparison and new ideas.

  • http://www.model-kartei.de/sedcard/bildbearbeiter/197278/ cythux

    yes, i use since H5BP ver 0.95 and i like it

  • http://www.paul-ferguson.co.uk Paul

    They are great resources, and a solid base for useful snippets. I often take bits and bobs to the point that I now have my own boiler plate just how I like it.

  • http://www.twitter.com Heri Setiawan

    I use hb5p and modified it to my own custom needs. I have three different types of customized boilerplates. They are for the typical websites, facebook fan pages, and the one that i have combined with 960.gs CSS Framework.

  • http://fresh-off.com Brendan

    I’ve always used my own. As I’m getting up to speed with responsive design however, I’ve started checking out some of the publicly available ones. On a sidenote – is that Black Jack Johnson fighting a robot in the Article pic? thats funny, I’ll have to do a google image search on that one..

  • nXqd

    Currently, I use skeleton for my css. But I customize it a little bit to use the benefit of h5bp :)

  • http://www.upgradedtutorials.info/ Wilbert Santos

    Here are great list of Best Front End Boilerplates for Fast and Rapid Development on Web Designs http://www.upgradedtutorials.info/web-design/best-front-end-boilerplates-for-fast-and-rapid-development/