How to recompile less files on existing project - css

So I have been using SCSS and Compass on all my projects. Super happy with it. However, just now I got an existing site built by a different team that needs to be updated and uses LESS. (The project also uses .ftl files which is also new to me)
Less syntax seems pretty similar and straight forward so I don't have an issue updating .less files, however how do I get it to "compile" to css so I can see my updates on the browser?

[You] can invoke the compiler from the command-line, as such:
$ lessc styles.less
This will output the compiled CSS to stdout. To save the CSS result to a file of your choice use:
$ lessc styles.less styles.css
To output minified CSS you can use the clean-css plugin. When the plugin is installed, a minified CSS output is specified with --clean-css option:
$ lessc --clean-css styles.less styles.min.css
source: http://lesscss.org/#using-less-command-line-usage
This is assuming that you have less installed through node. Additionally, the previous developer could have been using a gulp file to compile it, so you will want to look at that as a possibility.

If you just want to quickly convert it without installing any tools: http://less2css.org/
Personally I use http://koala-app.com/ for less, sass, compass and coffeescript. I especially like the auto compile option, just working on less files and the css file will be updated in the same folder at the same time.

Related

Setting up Sass

I've built my portfolio site off of Github Pages. Now that I'm starting portfolio 2.0, I want to use Sass.
I've used Sass in the past but didn't have to set it up directly. So far I've installed Sass using gem install sass and have my file setup, but am not sure how to compile it properly.
File Structure:
styles.css
scss/
_banner.scss
Styles.css content:
#import 'scss/_banner';
Am I missing the compiling step somewhere? It is even possible to use Sass on Github Pages?
For my solution I replaced scss/_banner.scss with styles.scss, opting to not create partial files for a single page application.
Then all you have to do is run $ sass --watch css/styles.scss:css/styles.css in the terminal and your CSS will be compiled each time you save your Sass file. This command points your computer to which file to compile and to where.
Thanks to #dommmm for directing me to the solution with the youtube video in the question comments.

Can anyone tell me how to compile sass into css automatically?

I had to rewrite this every time I want to see a live preview.
sass stylesheet.scss stylesheet.css
I use sass --watch stylesheet.scss:stylesheet.css. When saving your .scss file, it'll automatically update the .css file.
You might also consider sass --watch stylesheet.scss:stylesheet.css --style expanded --sourcemap=none to keep the .css file readable.
I'd recommend the Sass Workflow class on Udemy.
Try out Grunt or Gulp with Sass: A great tutorial: https://www.taniarascia.com/getting-started-with-grunt-and-sass/
You need something to compile it automatically. As an example, there are solutions that use node.js to automatically compile for you on your computer. One tool is Foundation for Websites by Zurb.
You can install the application which will automatically compile sass for you.
For more information, check out: http://foundation.zurb.com/sites/download.html/
you can use this code
sass --watch file.sass:file.css
or
sass --watch foldersass:foldercss
Sass can be compiled automatically using below command:
sass --watch SASS_SOURCE_PATH:CSS_BUILD_PATH --style=expanded --no-source-map
Where:
SASS_SOURCE_PATH: Path of sass file
CSS_BUILD_PATH: Path of build CSS file. Where do you want to save CSS file
--no-source-map: will not output a map file, which is not readable.
--style=expanded: will expand CSS to human readable.

"compass watch" compiles one file and not another

I have a set of SASS files and I use Compass as my pre-processor. I run compass watch in the MacOSX Terminal.
My files are structured so that all of my code gets compiled twice... once with media queries in mq.css and once without in no-mq.css. The non-media query code is meant for IE8 and browsers that won't recognize media queries.
When I make a change to any of my files, my mq.css gets compiled but very seldom does the no-mq.css. If I compass clean and then manually compass compile they both will. If I run only compass compile without a clean first, only the mq.css compiles. I can run watch all day and my mq.css will continue to get compiled.
I've upgraded, downgraded, and generally played with combinations of SASS and Compass. I am not using Susy or another SASS-related library. I do have SASS maps turned on.
My SCSS starter package can be reviewed here: https://github.com/jhogue/scss-scaffold in case I am missing something in config.rb or /sass/framework/_config.scss.
My gems are as follows:
compass (1.0.3)
compass-core (1.0.3)
compass-import-once (1.0.5, 1.0.4)
css_parser (1.3.5)
fssm (0.2.10)
libxml-ruby (2.6.0)
listen (1.1.6, 0.7.3)
sass (3.4.7)
Its not as critical as it is annoying, and I'd like to know if anyone else has encountered this or a similar issue.
I've had the same problem several times in the past, and have found it often occurs when I have partials inside of subdirectories. Calling add_import_path in the config.rb file for each subdirectory has usually fixed it:
// config.rb
add_import_path "sass/framework"
Of course a compass clean before watching/compiling is in order as well.

Does a save to a scss file automatically update the css file?

I just started working with scss a few days ago (with Webstorm), and it seem to auto generate/update the css file after saving the scss file. Unfortunately, when I save the scss file now, no changes are made to the css file. I was working on these files from a different location, so I am guessing that the Webstorm settings might be different. I thought file watchers might have something to do with it, but I am not sure what goes in the program field. I really have no idea why this is happening.
No, saving a .SCSS file does not automatically compile the final stylesheet file. What you need to do is set up a watch. There are a number of ways to do this (and a number of programs that'll do it for you).
The most straight forward is through the command line. Assuming you have the SASS gem installed (and you're in a ruby environment), do the following in the command line:
Navigate to the folder in which your .scss file/s are kept.
Run the following command: sass --watch style.scss:style.css
Note: The above assumes that both your .scss and .css files are named style, adjust accordingly if they are not. Also, if your .css and .scss files are in different directories you'll have to adjust the paths accordingly.
Remember, sass --watch then yourScssFile.scss : yourCssFile.css
Alternatively you can use an app, like LiveReload to watch the files for you. this'll take a bit of configuration, but it may be a little easier for you if you're only just getting started in the wornderful world of SCSS/SASS
Yopu can use File Watchers in WebStorm to auto-update the CSS file on changing SCSS; but this would also require installing the external SCSS compiler (SASS gem). Please refer to http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/webhelp/transpiling-sass-less-and-scss-to-css.html#d104715e458 for more information

SASS --watch command not fully working

I have a pretty basic SASS setup running, which includes the following folder structure:
css
style.css
-modules
_all.scss
_globals.scss
partials
_base.scss
_normalize.scss
_styles.scss
vendor
-empty
I am telling SASS to watch the following sass --watch modules/_all.scss:style.css --style compact.
The issue is, that one one machine a change to ANY file included in _all.scss is recorded and output properly. On another machine, completely up to date, a change to a partial file thats included in _all.scss does not record a change, and therefore no styles are output. I have to reset SASS to watch the partial _all.scss once more for the change to be recorded.
Has anyone experienced these inconsistencies before? I'm not looking to watch an entire directory as I wish to have only a single stylesheet output...
Both builds have the same version of sass, ruby and command line tools running.
It seems like the sass-cache is not being busted when you make the change. You can try disabling the cache on the broken machine to see if the problem resolves. If it does, check manually delete the cache directory and try again.
Side note, you shouldn't have to use the watch command with rails (unless you're doing something unique). Sprockets is supposed to have plugins which do this automatically when serving assets.
In fact, I suspect that this may even be a conflict between sprocket's SASS engine configuration and the sass watcher binary configuration.
See the default cache configuration for the sass binary here: http://sass-lang.com/documentation/file.SASS_REFERENCE.html#cache_location-option

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