This little Helper converts your .less files into .css without relying on Node.js or client-side parsing. Everything is compiled on the server, cached, and served as regular css through PHP.
If you are developing your application with Git already, you can install the plugin as a submodule. In your git base folder type
git submodule add https://github.com/Hyra/less.git app/Plugin/Less
In your plugin directory type
git clone https://github.com/Hyra/less.git Less
In the plugin folder ('app/Plugins/Less') type
git submodule init
git submodule update
- Create a folder called
less
inapp/webroot/
- Create a folder called
less
inapp/tmp/cache
- Apply
chmod 777
to yourcss
folder. (The Less Helper will place all compiled css files in your css-directory)
Where you want to use LESS files, add the helper. Usually this will be your AppController
.
public $helpers = array('Less.Less');
Next, simply add the less files to your views:
echo $this->Less->css('yourfile');
or if the less file is located in the webroot of a plugin
echo $this->Less->css('yourfile',array('plugin' => 'PluginFolderName'));
or
echo $this->Less->css(array(
'bootstrap/bootstrap',
'prettify',
)
);
It doesn't matter if you link to stolen .css files directly, the Helper will check for the existance of a .less version first, and fall back if it doesn't find one.
If it does find a corresponding .less file with the same name in your less directory, it will compile it to css and place it in your css directory