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ASPA

NPM version

ASPA is a simple opinionated web application asset packager for Node.js.

End of Life Notice - January 2014

If you like using this package, please consider switching to ASPAX for cleaner YML syntax, a smart plugin system to handle various source file types, and automatic watching of included files (i.e. Stylus @imports). Have a look at aspax.github.io for more information.

ASPA will remain in the npm repository, but it will no longer be maintained/updated.

Make sure to check ASPA-Express ( github | npm ) for using packaged assets with Express.

ASPA

Why?

There are certainly a number of other similar tools available in the Node.js ecosystem. However, in my opinion:

While certainly not aiming to be a silver bullet, ASPA tries to address the above issues by providing a little a command-line utility which you can run during development or before deployment. The configuration is centralized in a single YML map file (aspa.yml) residing in the root of your folder.

Features

Installation

npm install aspa

Usage

I. Keep your asset files in a separate folder outside your main web application directory.

Warning: Don't put anything directly in the public web folder, as it will be overwritten during the build process!

Sample folder structure:

/work/server                    -> web application root folder
/work/server/public             -> publicly-visible folder

/work/client                    -> root of the asset folder
/work/client/lib                -> various libraries, such as...
/work/client/lib/select2        -> ...select2
/work/client/templates          -> client-side jade templates
/work/client/scripts            -> script files
/work/client/styles             -> styleheet files

II. Create aspa.yml map file in the root of the asset folder (/work/client in the example above), describing the structure of your deployment.

Sample aspa.yml file (syntax should be quite self-explanatory):

js/main.js:
  from:
    lib/underscore.js               : ~
    lib/backbone.js                 : ~
    lib/select2.js                  : ~
    lib/iced-runtime.js             : ~
    lib/jade-runtime.js             : ~
    scripts/jst-namespace.coffee    : { bare: true }
    templates/item.jade             : ~
    templates/collection.jade       : ~
    scripts/main.coffee             : ~

css/main.css:
  from:
    lib/fontello/css/fontello.css   : ~
    styles/main.styl                : { nib: true }
    styles/item.styl                : { skip: true }

fonts/fontello.eot                  : { from: lib/fontello/font }
fonts/fontello.svg                  : { from: lib/fontello/font, compress: true }
fonts/fontello.ttf                  : { from: lib/fontello/font, compress: true }
fonts/fontello.woff                 : { from: lib/fontello/font }
images/sprite.png                   : ~
images/sprite@2x.png                : ~
favicon.ico                         : { raw: true }

A few observations:

III. Run the aspa utility in the assets root folder to build and deploy.

During development:

aspa -r ../server Build for development, deploying to ../server/public (/public is the default).

aspa -r ../server -p pub Build for development, deploying to ../server/pub.

aspa -r ../server cleanup Clean-up ../server/public and ../server/aspa.json.

aspa -r ../server watch Watch the asset folder and rebuild automatically when a source file changes. Use this during development.

For production:

aspa -r ../server -m production Build for production, deploying to ../server/public.

Note: Building for production also:

Running aspa -r ../server in the above context will generate the following output:

    /work/server/public/js/main.js
    /work/server/public/css/main.js
    /work/server/public/fonts/fontello.eot
    /work/server/public/fonts/fontello.svg
    /work/server/public/fonts/fontello.ttf
    /work/server/public/fonts/fontello.woff
    /work/server/public/images/sprite.png
    /work/server/public/images/sprite@2x.png
    /work/server/public/favicon.ico

...while running aspa -r ../server -m production could produce this:

    /work/server/public/js/1361917868718.main.js.gz
    /work/server/public/css/1361917868718.main.js.gz
    /work/server/public/fonts/1361917868718.fontello.eot
    /work/server/public/fonts/1361917868718.fontello.svg.gz
    /work/server/public/fonts/1361917868718.fontello.ttf.gz
    /work/server/public/fonts/1361917868718.fontello.woff
    /work/server/public/images/1361917868718.sprite.png
    /work/server/public/images/1361917868718.sprite@2x.png
    /work/server/public/favicon.ico
    /work/server/aspa.json

Notes

ASPA was written almost entirely in IcedCoffeeScript, a superset of CoffeeScript adding await and defer keywords to simply and powerfully streamline asynchronous control flow.

Contributing

If you find a bug or have an idea about a new feature, please don't be shy, just issue a pull request.

Endorsing the author

If you find this module useful, please endorse me on Coderwall using the link below! Thanks :-)

endorse

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2013 Ionut-Cristian Florescu <ionut.florescu@gmail.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.