TWE: Dev: Design System: Create Dropdowns according to Material

[revforyou]

Overview

We need to create Design System Dropdowns Component HTML and SASS / connect Figma design to finished code, and build a microsite page so that developers can see and easily change component examples, states, code, and location.

Assumptions

• You have read the CONTRIBUTING.md in the Design System repo
  • You have set up your development environment for working with the Internship Design System Repository: https://github.com/hackforla/internship-website-design-system
  • You will continue to follow the instructions in the CONTRIBUTING.md file

Action Items

• Review the Microsite page mockup you will be working from (Resource 1.01)
• Review the Material Design Kit and identify the relevant component, variants, and states (Resource 1.13)
• Review Code Standards before starting implementation
• Name the Branch you create Dropdowns
• Determine if any JavaScript needs to be included to style this component (see Resource 1.02 for examples of included JavaScript). If you do need to use JS, don't forget to update the wiki page
• Include necessary files in the /docs folder (Resource 1.03) and project config file mkdocs.yml (Resource 1.04)
• Determine what tokens are needed for this component
  • Reuse existing tokens where possible
  • Add new tokens only if necessary
• Code Microsite component page
  • file locations
    • md file goes into the /docs folder (Resource 1.03)
    • SASS file goes into the /docs/components/sass/components folder (Resource 1.06)
  • Create tokens as necessary, reusing existing tokens where possible; add new color tokens only if required and name them using HTML Color Code conventions (Resources 1.07, 1.08)
  • Create component classes and states within the page
  • Include Files via code snippets to create the code section (see Resource 1.09 for details)
  • Add links to SASS and Markdown files below the code (see examples in Resource 1.10)
• Review template frontend for errors
• Make a PR
• Once PR is merged
  • connect component in Figma to GitHub Files (Resource 1.10)
  • Add links to Resources gathered during the completion of this issue section
    • 2.01 MD file(s) created
    • 2.02 SASS file(s) created
    • 2.03 link to Header Microsite page on live site: If the site is live when this issue is worked on.

Resources

Resources for working on this issue

• 1.01 Design Reference
  • [Figma, Dropdowns Microsite page]
  • Design Systems Figma
• 1.02 WIKI: Design system microsite JavaScript
• 1.03 MKdocs folder: /docs on repo
• 1.04 MDdocs config file: mkdocs.yml on repo
• 1.05 variables file: /docs/components/sass/abstracts/_variables.scss on repo
• 1.06 SASS file folder: /docs/components/sass/components
• 1.07 Variables SASS Sheet: /docs/components/sass/abstracts/variables.sss
• 1.08 HTML Color Code Names: HTMLColorCodes.com
• 1.09 WIKI: How to Create a Design System Microsite Page using Snippets
• 1.10 Naming conventions:
  • below the CSS tab, it would say CSS: https://github.com/hackforla/internship-website-design-system/blob/main/docs/components/sass/components/_Dropdowns.scss
  • below the HTML tab, it would say HTML: https://github.com/hackforla/internship-website-design-system/blob/main/docs/Dropdowns.md
• 1.11 Connect component in Figma to GitHub Files
• 1.12 Original Design Issue: [Replace with LINK TO DESIGN ISSUE FROM EPIC]
• 1.13 Material Design Kit (Figma)
• Microsite Epic Issue with list of design issues: Develop Design System Microsite based on Material for MKDocs #455 (comment)

Resources gathered during the completion of this issue

• 2.01 MD file(s) created: Dropdowns.md - link the name to the file in the repo
• 2.02 SASS file(s) created: Dropdowns.scss - link the name to the file in the repo
• 2.03 link to Header Microsite page on live site:

[revforyou]

Update: Over the past two weeks, I reworked the dropdown component from scratch to align with the Material baseline. The original implementation didn’t map well to Material’s structure and behavior, so I rebuilt it to match the expected interaction patterns and visual hierarchy while keeping our design system constraints in place.

Last week, the main blocker was styling conflicts, specifically with menu item padding and existing global styles interfering with the dropdown menu. To resolve this, I scoped and tokenized the component more thoroughly, ensuring consistent spacing, states, and isolation from other styles.

The dropdown component is now functionally and visually complete. I’ll be putting up a pull request today.