WebStorm 2018.2 Help

Sass and SCSS in Compass Applications

WebStorm integrates with the Compass framework so your Sass or SCSS stylesheets in Compass applications are compiled into CSS on the fly.

Before you start

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 WebStorm

If you have no Compass application yet, you can create it or add Compass support to an existing WebStorm 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 WebStorm project

  1. 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). Learn more from Opening, Reopening, and Closing Projects.

  2. 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

  1. Click Check out from Version Control on the Welcome screen or choose VCS | Check out from Version Control on the main menu.

  2. Select your version control system from the list.

  3. 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

  1. 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.

  2. 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 WebStorm File Watcher.

To create a File Watcher

  1. 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.

  2. Click Add button 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.

  3. In the Program text box, specify the path to the executable file:
    • compass.bat for Windows

    • compass for Unix and macOS

  4. 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

  5. Proceed as described on page Using File Watchers.

Compiling the code

When you open a file, WebStorm checks whether an applicable file watcher is available in the current project. If such file watcher is configured but disabled, WebStorm 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, WebStorm 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 WebStorm (upon frame deactivation).

WebStorm 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.

Last modified: 19 November 2018

See Also