Lessy (Laravel4 Package)

Lessy is a simple and lean LESS compiler for Laravel.

In summary, Lessy will compile the files contained in app/less to the public/asset/css directory respecting any existing directory structure. For example: if you have app/less/admin/panel.less lessy will compile it to public/asset/css/admin/panel.css when the application receives a request. You can change the input and output directories trough configuration (see below).

The automatic compilation occurs only if the output file doesn't exist or it's an older version than the input file.

Important: Note that the automatic compilation does not occur when the application is in 'production' environment. So make sure to change the application environment to 'local' or something that is not 'production' if you need Lessy to automagically compile your LESS files.

Features

Current:

• Automagically compiles LESS files when not in production
• Respects directory structure when compiling
• Compile LESS files trough artisan lessy:compile

Quick start

Required setup

In the require key of composer.json file add the following

"zizaco/lessy": "dev-master"

Run the Composer update comand

$ composer update

In your config/app.php add 'Zizaco\Lessy\LessyServiceProvider' to the end of the $providers array

'providers' => array(

    'Illuminate\Foundation\Providers\ArtisanServiceProvider',
    'Illuminate\Auth\AuthServiceProvider',
    ...
    'Zizaco\Lessy\LessyServiceProvider',

),

You are ready to go! Your application will now compile LESS files when needed. Remember that this does not occur in production environment.

Configuration (Optional)

By default, Lessy will consider the directory app/less as the input and public/assets/css for the output. But if you wish to change these values ​​simply publish the package config files:

$ php artisan config:publish zizaco/lessy

and define the origin and destination keys in config/packages/zizaco/lessy/config.php. Example:

// config/packages/zizaco/lessy/config.php

// Paths should be relative to app folder.
'origin'        => 'mylessfiles',
'destination'   => '../public/mycss',

The automatic compilation does not occur when the application is in 'production' environment. So make sure to change the application environment to 'local' or something that is not 'production' if you need Lessy to automagically compile your LESS files.

Console usage

If for some reason you need to force the compilation of LESS files (ex: in production environment), its possible through the command:

$ php artisan lessy:compile

License

Lessy is a free software distributed under the terms of the MIT license

Aditional information

Any questions, feel free to contact me.