PHP Less AutoCompiler

This package can be used to monitor file changes and trigger less compilation.
Paths are defined for analysis, and the modified timestamp of .less files are compared to the .css counterpart to determine if a new compilation is requird.

Usage

include('WebuddhaInc/LessMonitor/autoload.php');
$options = array(
  'base_path' => '/home/user/public_html/',
  'trigger_domains' => array(
    'testing.website.com'
    ),
  'watch_paths' => array(
    'themes/default/less'
    ),
  'dependency_exclude' => false,
  'compress' => false    
  );
$compiler = new WebuddhaInc\LessMonitor\Compiler($options);
$compiler->execute();

Runtime Options

The following parameters are available when calling the compiler.

• base_path [string] (optional) the base bath for the public web root
• watch_paths [array] files and folders, relative to the base_path, where less files can be found. Note: Folders will be scanned recursively.
• trigger_domains [array] (optional) hostnames that will limit the execution of the compiler.
• dependency_exclude [bool] (optional) exclude wildcard rules when a specific dependency ruleset is defined for the less file.
• compress [bool] (optional) Compress the output and remove comments.

Import Directives

The compiler does not look within less files for import requirements, rather import rules are added to a .lessrc files, created for a folder or for a specific less file. The modified timestamp for include files is examined to determine whether to recompile the less file.

Folder wide .lessrc

A .lessrc added to a folder can be used to define import requirements for all the files within that folder. The .lessrc file is expected to contain a valid json object.

The comments in the below example are not value JSON

themes/default/less/.lessrc

{

  // Array of imports for all files
  "import": [
    "../common/bootstrap/*",
    "_variables.less",
    "_mixins.less"
  ],

  // Array of rules for specific files
  "files": [

    // Wildcard Rule
    {
      "file": "*",
      "import": [
        "../common/base.less"
      ]
    },

    // File Specific Rule
    {
      "file": "template.less",
      "import": [
        "../common/fonts.less"
      ]
    }

  ]

}

Targeted .lessrc files can be created for specific less files.

themes/default/less/template.lessrc

{
  "import": [
    "_variables.less",
    "_mixins.less",
    "../common/fonts.less"
  ]
}