Minifying CSS
AppCode integrates with the YUI Compressor CSS minification tool. The term minification or compression means removing all unnecessary characters, such as spaces, new lines, comments without changing the functionality of the source code. At the development and debugging stage, these characters improve the code readability. However at the production stage, they become unnecessary for code execution but only increase the size of code to be transferred.
Before you start
- Install Node.js.
- Install and enable the NodeJS repository plugin on the Plugins page as described in Managing Plugins.
Installing and configuring the YUI Compressor
- Open the embedded Terminal ( or ⌥F12), and type
npm install yuicompressorat the command prompt.
Compressing the CSS code
To compress your code on the fly, you need to configure the compressor as a AppCode File Watcher.
To create a File Watcher
- In the Settings/Preferences dialog (⌘,), 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 the
or press ⌘N and choose the YUI Compressor CSS predefined template from the list. - In the Program text box, specify the path to the
yuicompressor-<version>.jarfile. If you installed the tool through the Node Package Manager, AppCode locates the required file itself and fills in the field automatically. Otherwise, type the path manually or click
and choose the file location in the dialog box that opens.
Minifying the code
When a minification File Watcher is enabled, minification starts automatically as soon as a CSS file in the File Watcher's scope is changed or saved.
AppCode creates a separate file with the generated output. The file has the name of the source CSS file and the extension min.css. The location of the generated file is defined in the Output paths to refresh text box of the New Watcher dialog. However, in the Project Tree, by default it is shown under the source CSS file which is now displayed as a node. To change the default presentation, configure file nesting in the Project tool window.