I use WinSCP to download and edit .scss files and sass on Linux (on the server) to compile them to .css.
After saving the file, I use: sass scss/style.scss css/style.css, which successfully replaces the css file with the compiled sccs.
The problem
I want to skip the part where I return to the command line after editing the scss file, for the sake of automation and saving time.
But, if I use the watch command: sass --watch scss/style.scss:css/style.css to synchronize the two files, alerts about nonexistent css errors pop up:
Change detected to: scss/style.scss
error scss/style.scss (Line 232: Invalid CSS after "...ht: bold; line-": expected "{", was "")
Note that when the file uploads quicker than usual (sometimes it happens) the watch command does its job, with no errors.
This is because, when the file upload takes time, sass compiles the scss file (on the server) before it is fully uploaded to the remote folder. Thus, it only compiles part of the file, resulting in css errors.
Is there a way to set a timer to the watch command so that it waits a few seconds after it detects changes and before compiling?
Any other way to overcome this is, of course, accepted!!
For the one in a billion facing the same problem (I know you are out there), time to answer to my tumbleweed:
The Solution is simple
Do the exact opposite:
Install ruby and then sass on your pc.
Tell sass to watch for changes between scss/css files locally with:sass --watch scss/style.scss:css/style.css
Set WinSCP local dir on the css folder which is watched by sass.
Set the WinSCP remote dir on the css folder you want to edit.
Set WinSCP to keep remote dir up to date from the Commands > Keep remote directory up to date menu.
That's it.
If you edit and save your local scss file, sass will compile it into css, then WinSCP will detect the change on the css and automatically upload it to the remote folder.
Related
I'm a complete beginner with SASS!
I have a custom built WP site which uses SASS.
When I try to edit any styles inside the .SCSS files these changes do not show on the frontend.
I'm using VS Code editor with the "Live SASS compiler" add-on but still when I make changes they do not reflect on the front end.
I'm clearly missing something here but really don't know where to start.
All I want to do is make changes to the styling of the site!
Thanks
You will need to ensure that SASS is installed on your machine - check out the offical install link.
Once SASS is installed, the rest of this answer will involve using the command line with some basic commands.
Lets assume your CSS and SCSS/SASS folders are arranged like so:
C:/Users/Me/development
/wordpress/wp-content/themes/my-theme/assets/css
/wordpress/wp-content/themes/my-theme/assets/scss
Open up your preferred command line interface - like PowerShell or Command Prompt. First of all, check SASS is installed by typing the following command and hitting enter:
sass --version
You should get a number back - if not, you will need to run over the installation instructions again and make sure you did everything correctly.
If that's working as expected, you will now need to navigate to the directory containing your assets. When you load your command line interface, you should be inside your user or home directory - in this example that will be C:/Users/Me. If using PowerShell, you will see your current working directory before the flashing caret.
You can use the change directory command - cd - to navigate to your themes assets folder. Using the above example filepath:
cd development/wordpress/wp-content/themes/my-theme/assets
Once inside this directory, you can run the SASS --watch command to watch the directories for changes and compile upon save:
sass --watch scss:css
The above watches the SCSS folder and puts the compiled CSS in the CSS folder. Once you're done editing, hit CTRL/CMD + C inside your terminal (command line) and then Y to stop watching the SCSS files for changes.
I need to compile multiple sass files in one directory into multiple corresponding css files in another directory. Eg:
src/folder1/file1.scss --compiles to-- public/file1.css
src/folder2/file2.scss --compiles to-- public/file2.css
Here is the command I am using:
./src/*/*.scss ./public
Prior to attempting this, I was compiling all .scss files in place using just ./src/*/*.scss, and was getting the corresponding .css files in their respective directories. Trying to dump these in a different directory, however, is not working. What is happening instead is that one of the .scss files imports a .scss partial an import statement into the .scss file itself, a .scss.map file is created, and nothing else happens after that.
Does SASS even have this capability? I've tried different variations of the above command and occasionally I'll see an error saying that 'public' is a directory, which leads me to believe SASS doesn't allow a directory as the output. In fact, the documentation only provides a single output file as the example for compiling SASS (i.e. sass input.scss output.css).
I'm using NPM scripts as a build tool so please no Grunt, Gulp, etc.
*One other thing to note. I just tried using sass --watch instead of the normal compile command, and it sort of does what I need it to:
sass --watch src:public
The only issue I'm having with this is that it does not create only css files in public. Instead it creates a folder and a .css and .css.map file in the folder. It seems SCSS will add a path for each .scss file respective to the relative path traversed by watch. This solution would be ideal if it would not create this extra folder.
You can compile multiple sass files into multiple css files by specifying multiple source:output separated by a space like this:
sass --watch src/file1.scss:dist/file1.css src/file2.scss:dist/file2.css
You can change the src or output paths as needed.
You have to tell the sass watch what file you want it to output, just like this:
sass --watch style.scss:style.css
You can even set it to output a compressed css file (the .map file happens automatically for each css):
sass --watch style.scss:style.css --style compressed
I usually go to one file, but theoretically you can watch different scss files and compile them to separate css files, not sure why you'd want to?, but it can be done.
For anything you want to group, import the related files to a scss file then compile it down to one file, then repeat these steps.
(Note: I'm running the sass gem for the above commands in Node.)
Attempting on a Mac with the latest version of Yosemite
I'm using the latest version of sass to refactor my site. I'm setting up watch command via the command line. my directory setup has a scss folder with the main css stylesheet cloned as .scss. and no css folder.
When I attempt the sass --watch scss:css command while in the main project directory folder, I've been told that, if there isn't one present, a css folder should be generated and a cloned .css file should be created along with a map file. Command line tells me >>> Sass is watching for changes. Press Ctrl-C to stop. however, changes are not being recorded.
I've tried updating my gems and uninstalling/ reinstalling sass, but nothing seems to be working.
Just tried this - the css folder doesn't get autogenerated. You need to generate it yourself. From there on, you should be good to go.
So if you are in the main project folder with subfolders called scss and css and you have, for example, a main.scss file in the scss directory, you can run the command exactly as you specified and everything should work as specified.
Please don't shoot me if this is a stupid question. My sass workflow looks like this. I navigate to the directory I'm working in and use the command sass --watch . to get it to watch the current directory. Then I usually separate my files into partials and import them into a main file. Once I'm happy with the changes I upload everything to the server.
Now however, I find myself in a situation where I want to make a quick visual change to something on my live site. Normally in CSS I would just download the style.css file make the change and re-upload it. The only way I could see this working in SASS is downloading all my scss files, typing in the sass --watch . command again, making that small change and then re-uploading everything via FTP.
Is this the only way? Is there an easier solution?
Are you just using sass to generate a css file in the command line? If so, you don't even really need to upload the sass files to your server. You can just upload the css file that sass --watch generates.
If you do want the sass files on your server though, you only need to upload the changed sass file(s) and any updated css file(s) that is generated.
If your main file imports _a.sass, _b.sass, and _c.sass and you only make changes to _b.sass, you would only need to upload _b.sass and the css that is generated, but make sure you have fresh copies of _a.sass and _c.sass locally before you make edits.
I just installed Sass using Ruby Gems, although my project is in NodeJS in Webstorm. To enable the SASS file watcher in Webstorm. When I run "sass styles.scss" from the commandline, I get a .sass-cache folder but not the actual compiled CSS file. Webstorm does not show any errors in my SASS file. I need the file to compile to a .css file.
I am also trying to setup a filewatcher in Webstorm that is not compiling the scss file. My SCSS executable path in the filewatcher in Webstorm is this. C:\Ruby200-x64\bin\sass.bat.
Here are the filewatcher settings.
The error Webstorm shows in the console, when the .scss file is saved is (which is when the file watcher should be triggered), is this:
C:/Ruby200-x64/bin/sass.bat --no-cache --update styles.scss:styles.css
'"ruby.exe"' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
The full argument to the file watcher that cant be entirely seen in the image above is this:
--no-cache --update $FileName$:$FileNameWithoutExtension$.css
Here it is:
Didn't numerate but from top to bottom,
Select you watcher, you can make presets for various situations (Maybe try to make a new one)
Path to my 32bit sass.bat (not 100% sure but I think that even scss.bat worked)
Output, you can see in screenshot below how it should work/look.