Twitter Bootstrap Customization Best Practices [closed]

Question

My solution is similar jstam's, but I avoid making changes to the source files when possible. Given that the changes to bootstrap will be frequent, I want to be able to pull down the latest source and make minimal changes by keeping my modifications in separate files. Of course, it's not completely bullet proof.

1. Copy the bootstrap.less and variables.less to the parent directory. Rename bootstrap.less to theme.less or whatever you want. Your directory directory structure should look like this:

   /Website            
        theme.less
        variables.less
        /Bootstrap
        ...
   

2. Update all the references in theme.less to point to bootstrap sub-directory. Ensure that your variables.less is referenced from the parent and not the bootstrap directory like so:

   ...
   // CSS Reset
   @import "bootstrap/reset.less";
   
   // Core variables and mixins
   @import "variables.less"; // Modify this for custom colors, font-sizes, etc
   @import "bootstrap/mixins.less";
   
   // Grid system and page structure
   @import "bootstrap/scaffolding.less";
   @import "bootstrap/grid.less";
   @import "bootstrap/layouts.less";
   

   ...

3. Add your CSS overrides in the theme.less file immediately after where they are included.

   ...
   // Components: Nav
   @import "bootstrap/navs.less";
   @import "bootstrap/navbar.less";
   
   // overrides
   .navbar-fixed-top .navbar-inner, .navbar-fixed-bottom .navbar-inner {
       border-radius: 0 0 0 0;
       padding: 10px;
   }
   
   .nav-tabs, .nav-pills {
       text-transform: uppercase;
   }
   
   .navbar .nav > li > a {
       text-shadow: none;
   }
   
   ...
   

4. Link to theme.less instead of bootstrap.less in your HTML pages.

Whenever a new version comes out, your changes should be safe. You should also do a diff between your custom bootstrap files whenever a new version comes out. Variables and imports may change.

This is something I've struggled with as well. On the one hand I want to highly customize the variables.less file with my own colors and settings. On the other hand, I want to change the Bootstrap files a little as possible to ease the upgrade process.

My solution (for now) is to create an addon LESS file and insert it into the bootstrap.less file after the variables and mixins have been imported. So something like this:

...

// CSS Reset
@import "reset.less";

// Core variables and mixins
@import "variables.less"; // Modify this for custom colors, font-sizes, etc
@import "mixins.less";

// Custom Addons
@import "addon-file.less"; // <--- My custom LESS addon

// Grid system and page structure
@import "scaffolding.less";

...

This way if I want to reset Bootstrap colors, fonts or add additional mixins I can. My code is separate yet will be compiled within the rest of the Bootstrap imports. It's not perfect, but it's a stopgap that's worked well for me.

From my side, I just have a file named theme.less with an import of boostrap.less in it, and just below I override (even if it seems to be bad using LESS, but well, it's easier to maintain) the variable value I wan't to update.

This works well for having custom values for variables in variables.less

After that I compile my theme.less file instead off bootstrap.less

Example theme.less:

@import "path/to/my/bootstrap.less";  
@linkColor: #MyAwesomeColor;  

A far better (IMHO) approach is to take cue from the Bootswatch github project called swatchmaker. This project is specifically tailored for building and managing the dozens of Bootstrap themes on the website.

The Makefile in the project builds swatchmaker.less (you can rename it to something like customizations.less). This file contains a bunch of imports:

@import "bootstrap/less/bootstrap.less";
@import "swatch/variables.less";
@import "swatch/bootswatch.less";
@import "bootstrap/less/utilities.less";

You can rename the swatch folder and bootswatch.less files to whatever you find appropriate.

This makes sense since you can upgrade Bootstrap without affecting your own files. In fact, the Makefile also contains commands to fetch the latest version of Bootstrap. See the README on the project page for more.

As a bonus, the README also suggests that you install the watchr gem which will automatically build the project when a .less file changes.