LESS Helper
This little Helper converts your .less files into .css without relying on Node.js or client-side parsing.
Everything is compiled on the server, cached, and served as regular css through PHP., (*1)
Installation
Get the files in place
Composer
If you are using composer, simply add, (*2)
"dakota/cakephp_less": ">=2.0.0"
to your composer.json file., (*3)
Git submodule
If you are developing your application with Git already, you can install the plugin as a submodule. In your git base folder type, (*4)
git submodule add https://github.com/dakota/less.git Plugin/CakephpLess
Git clone
In your plugin directory type, (*5)
git clone https://github.com/Dakota/less.git CakephpLess
Initialize lessphp submodule and download files
If you are using Composer, you can skip this step., (*6)
In the plugin folder ('Plugins/CakephpLess') type, (*7)
git submodule init
git submodule update
Create cache and less folders
- Create a folder called
less in app/webroot/
- Create a folder called
less in app/tmp/cache
- Apply
chmod 777 to your css folder. (The Less Helper will place all compiled css files in your css-directory)
Usage
Where you want to use LESS files, add the helper. Usually this will be your AppController., (*8)
public $helpers = array('CakephpLess.Less');
Next, simply add the less files to your views:, (*9)
echo $this->Less->css('yourfile');
or if the less file is located in the webroot of a plugin, (*10)
echo $this->Less->css('yourfile',array('plugin' => 'PluginFolderName'));
or, (*11)
echo $this->Less->css(array(
'bootstrap/bootstrap',
'prettify',
)
);
It doesn't matter if you link to stolen .css files directly, the Helper will check for the existance of a .less version first, and fall back if it doesn't find one., (*12)
If it does find a corresponding .less file with the same name in your less directory, it will compile it to css and place it in your css directory, (*13)
Wallogit.com
