Blot

Tired of all those tables in those emails? Blot is a DSL that lets you create them with ease and optimize with the Ink email framework.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'blot'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install blot

Usage

Layout

The layout is used to set up a boilerplate for you. Styles can be added to the header to make even more powerful.

Boilerplate Layout

This is the simpliest layout that you can create. Notice that it has no styles inside of it. Its just a raw boilerplate for you to work with.

layout { '<!-- Email Content -->' }

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" />
    <meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" />
  </head>
  <body>
    <table class="body">
      <tr>
        <td align="center" class="center" valign="top">
          <center>

          <!-- Email Content -->

          </center>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table>
  </body>
</html>

Styled Layout

Most developers want to style their emails. The ink option is used to specify where your ink.css file is located. This is usually in the vendor folder, but Rails will search for it for you. The styles option is used for you identify the custom styles that you use to modify Ink.

layout(ink: 'ink.css', styles: ['typography.css', 'colors.css'])

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" />
    <meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" />
    <style rel="text/css">
      Ink Styles!
    </style>
    <style rel="text/css">
      Typography Styles!
      Color Styles!
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <table class="body">
      <tr>
        <td align="center" class="center" valign="top">
          <center></center>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table>
  </body>
</html>

Grid

The grid in Blot matches Ink very well. It is able to produce rows, sub-grids, columns, block-grids, and panels. Here's some examples to learn from:

Rendering Two Rows: Twelve and Six by Six

container do
  row do
    wrapper(class: 'last') do
      columns(:twelve, class: 'panel') { '.twelve.columns' }
    end
  end
  row do
    wrapper do
      columns(:six, class: 'panel') { '.six.columns' }
    end
    wrapper(class: 'last') do
      columns(:six, class: 'panel') { '.six.columns' }
    end
  end
end

<table class="container">
  <tr>
    <td>

      <table class="row">
        <tr>
          <td class="wrapper last">

            <table class="twelve columns">
              <tr>
                <td class="panel">.twelve.columns</td>
                <td class="expander"></td>
              </tr>
            </table>

          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>

      <table class="row">
        <tr>
          <td class="wrapper">

            <table class="six columns">
              <tr>
                <td class="panel">.six.columns</td>
                <td class="expander"></td>
              </tr>
            </table>

          </td>
          <td class="wrapper last">

            <table class="six columns">
              <tr>
                <td class="panel">.six.columns</td>
                <td class="expander"></td>
              </tr>
            </table>

          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render Centered Content

row do
  center do
    'Content'
  end
end

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td align="center" class="center">
      <center>

        Content

      </center>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render Centered Content from Columns

row do
  wrapper do
    columns(:six, class: 'center panel') { 'Centered content' }
  end
  wrapper(class: 'last') do
    columns(:six, class: 'center panel') do
      image_tag 'http://placehold.it/125x125&text=Centered%20Image', class: 'center', alt: 'centered image'
    end
  end
end

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td class="wrapper">

      <table class="six columns">
        <tr>
          <td class="center panel">
            <center>Centered content</center>
          </td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
    <td class="wrapper last">

      <table class="six columns">
        <tr>
          <td class="center panel">
            <center><img alt="centered image" class="center" src="http://placehold.it/125x125&amp;text=Centered%20Image" /></center>
          </td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render Offset Content

row do
  wrapper(class: 'offset-by-four') do
    columns(:eight, class: 'panel') { 'Offset Content' }
  end
end

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td class="wrapper offset-by-four">
    
      <table class="eight columns">
        <tr>
          <td class="panel">Offset Content</td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render Text-Padding

row do
  wrapper do
    columns(:four, class: 'left-text-pad') { 'Text' }
  end
  wrapper do
    columns(:four) { 'Text' }
  end
  wrapper(class: 'last') do
    columns(:four, class: 'right-text-pad') { 'Text' }
  end
end

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td class="wrapper">

      <table class="four columns">
        <tr>
          <td class="left-text-pad">Text</td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
    <td class="wrapper">

      <table class="four columns">
        <tr>
          <td>Text</td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
    <td class="wrapper last">

      <table class="four columns">
        <tr>
          <td class="right-text-pad">Text</td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render Full-Width Rows

row do
  center do
    container(class: 'wrapper last') do
      columns(:twelve) { 'Content' }
    end
  end
end

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td align="center" class="center">
      <center>

        <table class="container">
          <tr>
            <td class="wrapper last">

              <table class="twelve columns">
                <tr>
                  <td>Content</td>
                  <td class="expander"></td>
                </tr>
              </table>

            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>

      </center>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render a Sub-Grid

row do
  wrapper do
    columns(:eight, sub_columns: true) do
      sub_columns(:eight) { '.eight.sub-columns' } +
      sub_columns(:four, class: 'last') { '.four.sub-columns' }
    end
  end
  wrapper(class: 'last') do
    columns(:four) { '.four.columns' }
  end
end

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td class="wrapper">

      <table class="eight columns">
        <tr>
          <td class="eight sub-columns">.eight.sub-columns</td>
          <td class="four sub-columns last">.four.sub-columns</td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
    <td class="wrapper last">

      <table class="four columns">
        <tr>
          <td>.four.columns</td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render a Block-Grid

container do
  block_grid(up: :two) do
    content_tag(:td) { 'Column #1' }
    content_tag(:td) { 'Column #2' }
  end
end

<table class="container">
  <tr>
    <td>

      <table class="block-grid two-up">
        <tr>
          <td>Column #1</td>
          <td>Column #2</td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render a Sidebar

row do
  wrapper do
    columns(:eight) { 'Main content' }
  end
  wrapper(class: 'last') do
    columns(:four, class: 'panel') { 'Panel content' }
  end
end

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td class="wrapper">

      <table class="eight columns">
        <tr>
          <td>Main content</td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
    <td class="wrapper last">

      <table class="four columns">
        <tr>
          <td class="panel">Panel content</td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render a Panel with a Sub-Grid

columns(:twelve, class: 'panel sub-grid', sub_columns: true) do
  panel_sub_grid do
    sub_columns(:six) { 'Left Sub-Column' }
    sub_columns(:six) { 'Right Sub-Column' }
  end
end

<table class="twelve columns">
  <tr>
    <td class="panel sub-grid">

      <table>
        <tr>
          <td class="six sub-columns">Left Sub-Column</td>
          <td class="six sub-columns">Right Sub-Column</td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
    <td class="expander"></td>
  </tr>
</table>

Visibility

The visibility mimics Ink's vocabulary for showing and hiding tags on small devises.

Show for Small

show_for_small

<!--[if !mso]><!-- -->
  <table class="show-for-small">
    <tr>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
  </table>
<!--<![endif]-->

Hide for Small

hide_for_small

<table class="hide-for-small">
  <tr>
    <td></td>
  </tr>
</table>

Render Visibility for Columns

row do
  wrapper(class: 'last') do
    show_for_small do
      columns(:twelve, class: 'panel') { '.show-for-small' }
    end
    hide_for_small do
      columns(:twelve, class: 'panel') { '.hide-for-small' }
    end
  end
end

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td class="wrapper last">

      <!--[if !mso]><!-- -->
        <table class="show-for-small">
          <tr>
            <td>

              <table class="twelve columns">
                <tr>
                  <td class="panel">.show-for-small</td>
                  <td class="expander"></td>
                </tr>
              </table>
              
            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
      <!--<![endif]-->

      <table class="hide-for-small">
        <tr>
          <td>

            <table class="twelve columns">
              <tr>
                <td class="panel">.hide-for-small</td>
                <td class="expander"></td>
              </tr>
            </table>

          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Buttons

The buttons in Blot are rendered through the simple button method. Examples below:

Simple Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :button

<table class="button">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Tiny Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :tiny

<table class="tiny-button">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Small Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :small

<table class="small-button">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Medium Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :medium

<table class="medium-button">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Large Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :large

<table class="large-button">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Primary Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :button, color: :primary

<table class="button primary">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Secondary Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :button, color: :secondary

<table class="button secondary">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Alert Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :button, color: :alert

<table class="button alert">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Success Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :button, color: :success

<table class="button success">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Radius Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :button, radius: :radius

<table class="button radius">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Round Button

button 'Button Label', '#', size: :button, radius: :round

<table class="button round">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">Button Label</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Components

Components are used to create portions of the ink framework fast.

Section

section

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td class="wrapper last"></td>
  </tr>
</table>

Panel Section

panel_section

<table class="row">
  <tr>
    <td class="wrapper last">

      <table class="twelve columns">
        <tr>
          <td class="panel center">

            <center></center>

          </td>
          <td class="expander"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Contributing

Fork it ( https://github.com/[my-github-username]/blot/fork )
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create a new Pull Request

blot

Development

Runtime