asset-loader

Express.js view helper for including css or js tags! Supports easy syntax, plus bundle aliases for groups of files and cachebusting.

This module is focused on simplicity and flexibility for the frontend, and is backend-agnostic - use whatever tools you want to process your asset files and get them into place. The intention is to be completely decoupled from the asset preprocessors.

Installation

Load up the module in your app.js:

var assets = require('asset-loader');
assets.init(app.locals);

Configuration

By default, assets are expected to be in the /assets folder and the default asset name is 'app'.

Override like this:

assets.init(app.locals, {prefix: '/tmp', def: 'index'});

Load Single Files

All of these:

<%- assets.css() %>
<%- assets.css('app') %>
<%- assets.css('app.css') %>
<%- css('app') %>

print out this:

<link type="stylesheet/css" href="assets/app.css" />    

And all of these:

<%- assets.js() %>
<%- assets.js('app') %>
<%- assets.js('app.js') %>
<%- js('app') %>

print out this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="assets/app.js"></script>

Load Multiple Files

Both of these:

<%- assets.css('base, skin, custom') %>
<%- assets.css(['base', 'skin', 'custom']) %>

print out these:

<link type="stylesheet/css" href="assets/base.css" />
<link type="stylesheet/css" href="assets/skin.css" />
<link type="stylesheet/css" href="assets/custom.css" />  
  

Bundles

Asset Loader supports bundles, which are really just special aliases that can be mapped to whatever file(s) you want.

In development mode, load up the bundles with your uncompressed assets:

var bundleObj = {
  css: {
    app: ['base', 'skin', 'custom'],
    custom: "custom"
  },  
  js: {
    head: ['jquery', 'common'], 
    footer: ['carousel', 'modernizr', 'popup']
  }
}

In production mode, give the bundles the compressed and concat'd version, with a cachebuster too:

var bundleObj = {
  css: {
	  app: "app-kjhdky2r8ud2woidchjkwjd",
	  custom: "custom-kljhdfwiufoi3jdlknd"
  },  
  js: {
    head: "head-kjdfksjhdflsdkjsldkfj", 
    footer: "footer-kcjhidiwuhewdioune"
  }
}
 

Pass in your bundle object like this:

assets.init(app.locals, { bundles: bundleObj });	

It's up to you to take care of processing the files and naming them. Asset Loader just gets those names and takes it from there. You can pass the bundlers filenames with or without an extension.

In the views, call your bundles like other assets. All these would work:

<%- css() %>						<!-- app css bundle -->
<%- css('custom') %>				<!-- custom css bundle -->
	
<%- assets.js('head') %>			<!-- head js bundle -->
<%- js('footer.js') %>				<!-- footer js bundle -->
    

Asset Loader always checks for a bundle before it prints out the filename.

All Options

Here is the complete config option and its defaults:

{
  root: '/assets',			// default assets root
  defaultAsset: 'app'
  bundles: null,
  helperName: 'assets', 	// the name of the main view helper
  xhtml: true     			// closing slashes on link tags for xml compatibility
  rootCSS: null,			// these override root
  rootJS: null,
  defaultCSS: null,			// these override defaultAsset
  defaultJS: null     
}  

                  

Inspiration

• Sails.js and Asset Rack
• Nap
• Connect Assets
• Asset Smasher
• RequireJS

Todo

• load nconf for defaults
• override with passed in obj