less-toolkit

This is a bundle of Node.JS developer utilities for working with LESS files.

The utilities included:

• CLI
• File Watcher
• Middleware
• Processor Library

CLI

A simple command-line interface for processing less files. It can take a file or path and output CSS in a target directory. The options for compilation are read from a configuration file.

Usage:

$ node cli /path/to/input.less /path/to/output.css options.js

The inputs and outputs can be any the following variations:

inputfile.LESS -> outputfile.CSS
inputfile.LESS -> /output/path
/input/path -> /output/path

The optional fourth argument specifies an options file (for example, development)

Options:

• "debug": Enables debugging output
• "force": Forces overwrite of any existing CSS files
• "less" : An object passed directly to the less Parser.

Source documentation

File Watcher

A simple file watching daemon.

Usage:

$ node watcher /input/path /output/path /includes:/includes/subdir options.js &

The inputs and outputs can be any the following variations:

inputfile.LESS -> outputfile.CSS
inputfile.LESS -> /output/path
/input/path -> /output/path

The optional third argument is a colon-delimited list of other directories to watch (typically for LESS includes)

The optional fourth argument specifies an options file (for example, development)

Options:

• "watcher_match_pattern": filter for file names
• "debug": Enables debugging output
• "force": Forces overwrite of any existing CSS files
• "less" : An object passed directly to the less Parser.

Source documentation

Middleware

A simple Express-compatible middleware.

Usage:

...
app.use(require("less-toolkit").middleware({ "less": { "compress": true } }));
...

Options:

• "debug": Enables debugging output
• "force": Forces overwrite of any existing CSS files
• "less" : An object passed directly to the less Parser.
• "middleware_match": a function that returns true if the given URL should be handled by the middleware

    function(raw_url) {
        return /\.css$/.test(url.parse(raw_url).pathname);
    }

• "middleware_map": a function that defines pairs of input / output for the given URL

    function(raw_url, pathname) { 
        return { 
            "input": path.join(__dirname, pathname).replace(/\.css$/, ".less"), 
            "output":  path.join(__dirname, pathname)
        }
    }

Source documentation

Processor library

A simple wrapper around the core Less parser. It takes an input, output, compilation options, and callback function. This library is re-used by the CLI, File Watcher, and Middleware.

Source documentation

License

MIT