RapperLite

RapperLite is a bare-bones static asset packager and compressor. It currently supports CSS, JavaScript, and CoffeeScript. It uses MD5 versioning to avoid re-compressing packages that don't need to be re-compressed. RapperLite can be set up with a single config file so that you don't have to wrangle wacky comment DSLs in your source code just to join and compress a few files.

Configuring

Create a YAML file (say, "rapper.yml") that defines your static asset packages like so:

--- !omap
- root: public/src/
- destination: public/assets/
- compress: true
- css: !omap
  - base: !omap
    - files:
      - reset
      - layout
      - typography
      - colores
    - version: 683e
- js: !omap
  - mootools: !omap
    - files:
      - mootools-core
      - mootools-more
    - version: f3d9
  - base_combined: !omap
    - files:
      - preloader
      - +mootools
      - widgets
    - version: ccfc

(Why the excessive use of omap? I'm doing this to ensure that the line order is maintained when I write updated version strings to the file. Why maintain order? Two words: merge conflicts.)

The above configuration will create the following compressed asset packages when RapperLite is run:

* `public/assets/base.css`
* `public/assets/mootools.js`
* `public/assets/base_combined.js`

Component files can be nested in subfolders:

...
- base: !omap
  - files:
    - mootools-core
    - extras/mootools-more
    - extras/crazybox
  - version: f3d9
...

The "css" and "js" nodes of the config can override the "root" and "destination" config variables:

--- !omap
- destination: public/assets/
- compress: true
- css: !omap
  - root: public/stylesheets/
  - base: !omap
    ...
- js: !omap
  - root: public/javascripts/
  - base: !omap
    ...

Packaging assets

You can run RapperLite from the command line:

$ rapper_lite path/to/config.yml
or:
$ rapper_lite --watch path/to/config.yml

If no config file is passed in, RapperLite will search for the config file at:

    ./rapper.yml
    ./assets.yml
    ./config/rapper.yml
    ./config/assets.yml

You can also run RapperLite from Ruby:

require "rapper_lite"
RapperLite::Engine.new( "config/rapper.yml" ).package

Or use the included Rake tasks by adding this to your Rakefile:

Rapper::Tasks.new do |config|
  config[:path] = "config/assets.yml"
end

You can specify a custom namespace, if you want:

Rapper::Tasks.new( :assets ) do |config| ...

CoffeeScript

RapperLite transparently supports CoffeeScript. You don't have to do anything. Refer to the file in your config like you would any regular ol' JavaScript file.

Development

Rapper's got a Gemfile. You know what to do.

bundle package
bundle exec rake spec

Version history

0.2.1 - Add Sass to watch list.
0.2.0 - Add Sass support.
0.1.4 - Prevent premature unlinking of temp files used when processing CoffeesScript files. Bad GC, bad!
0.1.3 - Don't crash when errors are raised while watching for changes.
0.1.2 - Update Gemfile, add "rapper-lite" command.
0.1.1 - Turns out you can only release master, which jeweler doesn't tell you. Oops.
0.1.0 - Add CoffeeScript support. Re-write rapper_lite command to allow watching for changes. Add watch support to Rake task.
0.0.2 - Fix gem homepage link.
0.0.1 - Initial release.

Contributing to rapper_lite

Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn't been implemented or the bug hasn't been fixed yet
Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn't requested it and/or contributed it
Fork the project
Start a feature/bugfix branch
Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution
Make sure to add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.