CodeKit alternative on Node.JS
npm install node-codekitNodeKit
==============
1. Intro
2. Features
3. How to Use
4. Credits
An attempt at replicating some of the awesome power in CodeKit.
Thank you, incident57 for providing the inspiration!
>PLEASE NOTE: This has not been thoroughly tested! This is a prototype!
>
> I do not take responsibility for ruining your working directory, use with caution...
>
> Make sure to backup any directory before starting the Node Server!
Features
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1. Live Browser Reloads
Place a small snippet of code into your "views":
... and everytime you create or change a file in your project directory, NodeKit
will instruct every instance of your page to refresh, ensuring every device is
in sync. (it's compatible with:- Chrome, Safari, Firefox on Mac, Windows or Unix and
Android and iOS devices)
2. CSS Wizardry
We've all been there, you just can't get the site to look quite right, you're
playing with rules, and sometimes it's not convenient to do it in Debugging
Tools, or maybe you're designing for a tablet or mobile device and don't have such luxuries.
Well with NodeKit, everytime a Stylesheet changes, it instructs all your
browsers/displays (inc. Mobiles/Tablets) to reload the stylesheets, no refresh of the page needed!
3. LESS Compiler
Working with LESS? These will be compiled automatically for you!
example: style.less => style.less.css
4. CSS & JS Minifier/Compressor
Using a YUI library, it compresses all of your CSS and Javascript files, to ensure
peak performance on your webpage.
example: style.less.css => style.less-min-yui.css
example: jquery.js => jquery-min-yui.js
5. Cross-Platform
Using only NodeJS and Node libraries (npm modules); it is truely cross platform;
all you need is NodeJS and you're ready to go!
(coming soon as a NPM Module, you can install globally)
How to Use
--------
> (for testing purposes - this is not ready for a development environment - once in beta you will use as a global npm module)
1. Clone the Repo
2. Install dependancies
node-minify requires the Java Runtime Environment or JRE
NodeKit requires a few modules available via NPM:
- watchr
- socket.io
- less
- node-minify
Run the following command in the directory you cloned the repo to:
npm install watchr socket.io less node-minify
3. CONFIGURE THE SERVER
At this stage there is some manual configuration to be done before you're ready to go, this will be superseeded once NodeKit is an npm module, for now simply follow these steps:
- Open server.js in your text editor
- configure the server options on lines 14-25:
(it should look like this)
14. var config = {
15. color : true,
3. START THE SERVER
Run the following command in the directory you cloned the repo to:
node server.js
4. LAUNCH EXAMPLE PAGE
Open up client/example.html on your browser
Make some changes to the file
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| email: alex@alexscotton.com | www: www.alexscotton.com |