gulp-css-spriter2
v0.1.0
Published
Sprite Sheet Generation from CSS source files. The best and different approach to sprite sheets.
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gulp-css-spriter
gulp-css-spriter
, a gulp plugin, looks through the CSS you pipe in and gathers all of the background images. It then creates a sprite sheet and updates the references in the CSS.
You can easily exclude/include certain background image declarations using meta info in your styles(see meta section below) and includeMode
option(see options section below) depending on your use case.
Install
Latest Version: 0.3.3
npm install gulp-css-spriter
About
gulp-css-spriter
uses spritesmith behind the scenes for creating the sprite sheet.
Usage
Basic usage
This is most likely the setup you will probably end up using.
var gulp = require('gulp');
var spriter = require('gulp-css-spriter');
gulp.task('css', function() {
return gulp.src('./src/css/styles.css')
.pipe(spriter({
// The path and file name of where we will save the sprite sheet
'spriteSheet': './dist/images/spritesheet.png',
// Because we don't know where you will end up saving the CSS file at this point in the pipe,
// we need a litle help identifying where it will be.
'pathToSpriteSheetFromCSS': '../images/spritesheet.png'
}))
.pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/css'));
});
Barebones usage
The slimmest usage possible.
var gulp = require('gulp');
var spriter = require('gulp-css-spriter');
gulp.task('css', function() {
return gulp.src('./styles.css')
.pipe(spriter())
.pipe(gulp.dest('./'));
});
Minify CSS output usage
If you want to use @meta data but are using a preprocessor such as Sass or Less, you will need to use a output style that doesn't strip comments. After piping the CSS through gulp-css-spriter
, you can then run it through a CSS minifier(separate plugin), such as gulp-minify-css
.
var gulp = require('gulp');
var spriter = require('gulp-css-spriter');
var minifyCSS = require('gulp-minify-css'); // https://www.npmjs.com/package/gulp-minify-css
gulp.task('css', function() {
return gulp.src('./styles.css')
.pipe(spriter())
.pipe(minifyCSS())
.pipe(gulp.dest('./'));
});
Options
options
: object - hash of optionsincludeMode
: string - Determines whether meta data is necessary or not- Values: 'implicit', 'explicit'
- Default: 'implicit'
- For example, if
explicit
, you must have metainclude
astrue
in order for the image declarations to be included in the spritesheet:/* @meta {"spritesheet": {"include": true}} */
- If left default at
implicit
, all images will be included in the spritesheet; except for image declarations with metainclude
asfalse
:/* @meta {"spritesheet": {"include": false}} */
spriteSheet
: string - The path and file name of where we will save the sprite sheet- Default: 'spritesheet.png'
pathToSpriteSheetFromCSS
: string - Because we don't know where you will end up saving the CSS file at this point in the pipe, we need a litle help identifying where it will be. We will use this as the reference to the sprite sheet image in the CSS piped in.- Default: 'spritesheet.png'
spriteSheetBuildCallback
: function - Same as the spritesmith callback- Default: null
- Callback has a parameters as so:
function(err, result)
result.image
: Binary string representation of imageresult.coordinates
: Object mapping filename to {x, y, width, height} of imageresult.properties
: Object with metadata about spritesheet {width, height}
silent
: bool - We ignore any images that are not found but are supposed to be sprited by default- Default: true
shouldVerifyImagesExist
: bool - Check to make sure each image declared in the CSS exists before passing it to the spriter. Although silenced by default(options.silent
), if an image is not found, an error is thrown.- Default: true
spritesmithOptions
: object - Any option you pass in here, will be passed through to spritesmith. See spritesmith options documenation- Default: {}
outputIndent
: bool - Used to format output CSS. You should be using a separate beautifier plugin. The reason the output code is reformatted is because it is easier to "parse->stringify" than "replace in place".- Default: '\t'
What we emit
gulp-css-spriter
emits the transformed CSS with updated image references to the sprite sheet as a normal Gulp vinyl file.
We also attach the binary sprite sheet image in chunk.spriteSheet
in case you want to consume it later down the pipe.
Meta info
gulp-css-spriter
uses a JSON format to add info onto CSS declarations.
The example below will exclude this declaration from the spritesheet.
/* @meta {"spritesheet": {"include": false}} */
background: url('../images/dummy-blue.png');
Please note that if you are compiling from Sass/Less and are not getting correct results, to check the outputted CSS and make sure the comments are still in tact and on the line you expect. For Sass, use multiline /* */
comment syntax and put them above declarations. This is because gulp-sass/node-sass/libsass removes single line comments and puts mult-line comments that are on the same line as a declaration, below the declaraton.
The @meta
comment data can be above or on the same line as the declaration for it to apply.
/* @meta {"spritesheet": {"include": false}} */
background: url('../images/dummy-blue.png'); /* @meta {"spritesheet": {"include": false}} */
Meta options
spritesheet
: object - hash of options thatgulp-css-spriter
will factor ininclude
: bool - determines whether or not the declaration should be included in the spritesheet. This can be left undefined if theincludeMode
is 'implicit'
What we emit
gulp-css-spriter
transforms your CSS image paths to the spritesheet appropriately then emits the CSS as a normal Gulp vinyl file.
- Gulp vinyl file. We emit the CSS you passed in with transformed image paths
Events
.on('log', function(message) { })
We emit log messages such as when a image defined in the CSS can't be found on disk.
.on('error', function(err) { })
A normal gulp error. There are a variety of errors. See source code for more details.
Testing
We have a series of unit tests. We use Mocha.
Install Mocha globally:
npm install -g mocha
Run tests with: mocha
or npm test