basisjs-tools

Developer tools for basis.js framework.

Getting Started

Requirements

• node.js (0.8.0 or later)
• npm

Install

• With npm

    $ npm install basisjs-tools
  

After that basis should be available in command line.

NOTE: If you are on Windows make sure path/to/nodejs/node_modules/.bin is presented in PATH

Common

basis.config

Basis tries to find and use basis.config file by default. It attempts to find basis.config at the current working directory. If it is not found there, then it moves to the parent directory, and so on, until the root of the tree is reached.

If basis.config found, it's content parses as json. This file should contains a javascript object, where key is command name and value is setting for this command. Actually file can contains empty object, and it's not required specify setting for all commands.

basis.config file and it's directory using as relative point for path resolving, for cases when other is not defined. Most properties treats as corresponding command flags, and could be overridden by flags in command line.

Any command's flag could be put in config, as it's long name. If name contains - (dash) it should be camelize, i.e. --css-pack becomes cssPack. If flag contains '-no-', it must be ignored, i.e. --js-no-single-file becomes jsSingleFile.

You can disable basis.config usage by -n (--no-config) flag or specify your own file with -c (--config-file) argument.

Config file useful to set up command's defaults values.

Example of basis.config at /path/to/config:

  {
    "build": {
      "file": "app.html",
      "output": "build"
    },
    "server": {
      "port": 8123
    }
  }

With this basis.config no difference at what directory you run basis build - /path/to/config/app.html will be built and result will be at /path/to/config/output directory. But you still able to override settings, for example, if you run basis build -o temp at /path/to/config/foo/bar - /path/to/config/app.html will be built and result will be at /path/to/config/foo/bar/output.

Use basis --help for more help.

Relative path solving

Basis works with many various paths, and often it is relative paths. There are two general rules for relative path resolving.

• if path defined in config file (basis.config) it resolves to config file directory

• if path defined in command line it resolves to current working directory

Tools

Server

Server is a lightweight http server, which allow you run basis.js apps locally. Use follow command to launch server:

    $ basis server

After that current folder become a base for path resolving (you can change it using --base flag). You also can set listening port with --port flag.

Server caches files you access for and inject it into html page (via window.__resources__) when send it to client. This approach speeds up loading of page with many files.

Also it watches for files changes and send new file content to client if neccessary (using socket.io and basis.js infrastructure). When you use server you don't need to refresh page when you change .tmpl, .css or l10n (.json) files.

For more help use:

    $ basis server --help

Builder

Builder makes a build version of your app. Use follow command on certain path:

    $ basis build

Builder search for index file (index.html in current folder by default, but use can use --file flag to specify file) and use it as start point. It scan files and search for linked files, processing it and put result in build folder. As a result you get all used by application files in one folder.

Optionally builder may merge, optimize, pack etc. Use --help option to get more info:

    $ basis server --help

License

Dual licensed under the MIT or GPL Version 2 licenses.