Watching SASS files with NPM node-sass - css

Question

I have node-sass installed and have set the options as in the bottom response on Using node-sass watch option with npm run-script, however, it just doesn't seem to work for me.
This is my package.json file with my latest attempt:
{
"name": "linkup-paints",
"description": "NPM for Linkup Paint Supplies website for 2019",
"version": "1.0.2",
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"start": "run-script-os",
"start:win32": "browser-sync start --server --files '**/*.css, **/*.html, **/*.js, !node_modules/**/*, !styles/**/*' --directory --port 7777 --browser \"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Developer Edition\\firefox.exe\"",
"build-sass": "node-sass styles/main.scss css/main.css",
"watch-sass": "node-sass -w styles/main.scss css/main.css"
},
"author": "dpDesignz",
"license": "ISC",
"devDependencies": {
"browser-sync": "^2.26.3",
"run-script-os": "^1.0.3",
"node-sass": "^4.9.4"
}
}
So I've tried:
"build:sass": "node-sass -r --output-style compressed styles/main.scss -o css/main.css",
"watch:sass": "npm run build:sass && npm run build:sass -- -w"
and:
"css": "node-sass styles/main.scss -o css/main.css",
"css:watch": "npm run css && node-sass styles/main.scss -wo css/main.css"
and:
"scss": "node-sass --watch styles/main.scss -o css/main.css"
and (as suggested by sidthesloth):
"build-sass": "node-sass styles/main.scss css/main.css",
"watch-sass": "node-sass -w styles/main.scss css/main.css"
I run npm i, and once that's complete I run npm start. The browser-sync starts, and watches the file changes, but my css/main.css doesn't compile, or update when I change an .scss file.
I've only just started/learnt how to use NPM, so any help would be much appreciated. I've poured over tutorials and answers (including Using node-sass, Watch and Compile Sass in Five Quick Steps, and Using node-sass to compile Sass files in an npm script) for the past 2 hours with no luck.
How can I get my watch and build to work?
Update
So just an update for anyone looking for this in the future, I didn't understand how scripts worked and didn't realise that my scripts weren't being run parallel to each other. I thought npm start trigerred all my scripts to run, I didn't realise that you had to call all of them. My final package.json file is as follows:
{
"name": "linkup-paints",
"version": "1.0.3",
"description": "NPM for Linkup Paint Supplies website for 2019",
"main": "index.js",
"directories": {
"lib": "lib"
},
"scripts": {
"start": "npm-run-all --parallel browser-sync build-sass watch-sass",
"browser-sync": "browser-sync start --server --files '**/*.css, **/*.html, **/*.js, !node_modules/**/*' -w --directory --port 7777 --browser \"C:\\Program Files\\Firefox Developer Edition\\firefox.exe\"",
"build-sass": "node-sass styles/main.scss css/main.css",
"watch-sass": "node-sass -w styles/main.scss css/main.css"
},
"keywords": [
"linkup",
"2019"
],
"repository": {},
"author": "dpDesignz",
"license": "ISC",
"devDependencies": {
"npm-run-all": "^4.1.3",
"browser-sync": "^2.26.3",
"node-sass": "^4.9.4"
},
"bugs": {
"url": "http://support.dpdesignz.co"
},
"homepage": "http://www.dpdesignz.co"
}
I ended up adding the npm-run-all script and changing my start args to npm-run-all --parallel browser-sync build-sass watch-sass as I don't need cross-os compatability with the old run-script-os args I had previously. I also put the -w (--watch) arg in the browser-sync line to cause the created .css files to trigger a sync as the build actually replaces the .css file, not "changes" it as required by browser-sync by default.

Answer 1

These are the two NPM scripts that I use to either build or watch SCSS files using node-sass:
"build-sass": "node-sass src/public/css/main.scss dist/public/css/main.css"
"watch-sass": "node-sass -w src/public/css/main.scss dist/public/css/main.css"
Hope this works for you