Twitter's Bootstrap 2.0 tied up

Bootstrap's own page is laid out with Bootstrap Twitter has announced the release of the second major version of its Bootstrap web framework of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Bootstrap allows web developers to get a head start on creating sites and applications by providing popular components and interaction styles in one package. The original Bootstrap release became one of the most popular projects on Github with over 16,000 watchers and 3,000 forks for the project, including users such as code.nasa.gov and MSNBC's Breaking News.

Bootstrap 2's design gives developers a new 12-column grid system to lay out their content. The new grid is described as responsive, and allows projects to "virtually work out of the box" on smartphones, tablets and other newer screen form factors. The content within the grid layout can include the new table styles with improved compatibility with other tools and new form styles with "smarter defaults". There are also new "smarter" navigation components, buttons, button groups and button drop downs, and simpler alert messages.

New JavaScript plugins added include carousel, for interactive "merry-go-round" slideshows, typeahead, for creating better form text input, and collapse, for creating accordions or collapsing navigation. The software's documentation has been completely overhauled and new CC-licensed icons added. A new Customize page allows users to check-box select which elements of Bootstrap 2 they want so that they only get the bits they need and it also allows them to fill in form fields to change a wide range of variables in Bootstrap.

Bootstrap 2 is available from the project's github repository or can be downloaded in its entirety. Users upgrading from Bootstrap 1.4 should refer to the upgrading page for details of changes. Bootstrap has been developed by Twitter's Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton and is licensed under Apache 2.0 with documentation under CC BY 3.0.

(djwm)