Sass and SCSS in Compass Applications

Before you start

Download and install Ruby.
Install and enable the File Watchers repository plugin on the Plugins page as described in Managing Plugins.

Installing Compass

Open the embedded Terminal (View | Tool Windows | Terminal or Alt+F12) and type gem install compass at the command prompt. Compass is installed in the folder where Ruby executable file and the gem.bat file are stored.

Starting with a Compass application in IntelliJ IDEA

If you have no Compass application yet, you can create it or add Compass support to an existing IntelliJ IDEA project. In either case, a conf.rb configuration file is generated.

To create a new Compass application

Open the embedded Terminal (View | Tool Windows | Terminal or Alt+F12), and type compass create <the name of the application to be created> at the command prompt.

To add Compass to en existing IntelliJ IDEA project

Open the folder with the code where you want to use Compass (click Open on the Welcome screen or choose File | Open on the main menu)..
Open the embedded Terminal (View | Tool Windows | Terminal or Alt+F12), and type:
cd <application folder> compass init

To open the application sources that are already on your machine

Click Open on the Welcome screen or choose File | Open on the main menu. In the dialog that opens, select the folder where your sources are stored.

To check out the application sources from your version control

Click Check out from Version Control on the Welcome screen or choose VCS | Check out from Version Control on the main menu.
Select your version control system from the list.
In the VCS-specific dialog that opens, type your credentials and the repository to check out the application sources from.

To activate Compass-aware support in your application

Open the Compass page:
- In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), and click Stylesheets under Languages and Frameworks, and then click Compass.
- Alternatively:
  Open a .sass or .scss file, click the red bulb next to the @import 'compass' statement or press Alt+Enter, and then choose Configure Compass from the suggestion list.
Select the Enable Compass support checkbox, and specify the paths to the Compass executable file and to the conf.rb configuration file.

Compiling Sass and SCSS

To compile your code on the fly, you need to configure the compiler as a IntelliJ IDEA File Watcher.

To create a File Watcher

In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), and then click File Watchers under Tools. The File Watchers page that opens, shows the list of File Watchers that are already configured in the project.
Click or press Alt+Insert. Depending on the tool you are going to use, choose the compass sass or compass scss predefined template from the list. The New Watcher dialog opens.
In the Program text box, specify the path to the executable file:
- compass.bat for Windows
- compass for Unix and macOS
In the Arguments text box, type one of the following depending on the operating system used:
- For macOS:
  - compile $ProjectFileDir$ to process an entire directory
  - compile $ProjectFileDir$ $FilePath$ to process a single file
- For Windows:
  - compile $UnixSeparators($ProjectFileDir$)$ to process an entire directory
  - compile $UnixSeparators($FilePath$)$ to process a single file
- For Linux (Ubuntu):
  - compile $ProjectFileDir$ to process an entire directory
  - compile $ProjectFileDir$ $FilePath$ to process a single file
Proceed as described on page Using File Watchers.

Compiling the code

When you open a file, IntelliJ IDEA checks whether an applicable file watcher is available in the current project. If such file watcher is configured but disabled, IntelliJ IDEA displays a pop-up window that informs you about the configured file watcher and suggests to enable it.

If an applicable file watcher is configured and enabled in the current project, IntelliJ IDEA starts it automatically upon the event specified in the New Watcher dialog.

If the Auto-save edited files to trigger the watcher checkbox is selected, the File Watcher is invoked as soon as any changes are made to the source code.
If the Auto-save edited files to trigger the watcher checkbox is cleared, the File Watcher is started upon save (File | Save All, Ctrl+S) or when you move focus from IntelliJ IDEA (upon frame deactivation).

IntelliJ IDEA creates a separate file with the generated output. The file has the name of the source Sass or SCSS file and the extension css. The location of the generated files is defined in the Output paths to refresh text box of the New Watcher dialog. However, in the Project Tree, they are shown under the source file which is now displayed as a node.

IntelliJ IDEA 2018.2 Help