Bixbite Project Initializer
Bixbite is a Ruby gem that creates a project structure optimal for client-side development.
- Downloads the latest versions of Google Ajax API Libraries
- Uses LABjs for parallelized script management
- Allows full use of server-side includes for shared module management
- Bundles a customized PHP Minify package using Google's Closure Compiler for on-the-fly compression tests
- Dynamic to static publishing eliminates server-side dependencies on delivery
Additionally, Bixbite includes rake tasks to automatically:
- Create new page templates & associated JS/CSS files
- Prepare files for deployment
- Generate NaturalDocs-compliant documentation
- Compress PNG files using PNGout
- Gracefully degrade 24-bit PNG files for Internet Explorer 6
- Deliver compressed versions of CSS & JavaScript files using Google's Closure Compiler & YUI Compressor
- Add new files, remove outdated files from Subversion
- Generate diff reports for each delivery
Bixbite can be fully customized to fit your personal development tastes.
Links
Installing
Install the gem:
gem install bixbite
Usage
Generating a Bixbite template
Run the Bixbite gem to generate a new template:
bixbite "The Foo Project" FOO
This command will generate a template with a project name of "The Foo Project" and support files (JS/PHP) using the FOO namespace.
You may also specify arguments when invoked. Via bixbite --help
:
- --js-lib [ARG]: use specified JavaScript library (options: jQuery, YUI, MooTools)
- --source-directory [ARG]: override bundled template with user-defined template
Quick Examples
See Rake tasks for more information.
Creation
Create "Example Project" with EXAMPLE namespace
bixbite "Example Project" EXAMPLE
Create "Example Project" with EXAMPLE namespace using MooTools
bixbite "Example Project" EXAMPLE --js-lib MooTools
Create "Example Project" with EXAMPLE namespace using a custom template
bixbite "Example Project" EXAMPLE /path/to/custom-template
Use a custom template by default
bixbite --source-directory /path/to/custom-template
Bundled Rake Tasks
Publish deployable files, generate documentation, perform Subversion tasks
rake prep
Create new page template
rake bixbite:page
Publish compressed files to deploy folder
rake files:compress
Compress PNGs
rake png:compress
Wiki
See the Bixbite wiki for details on how to utilize the generated template. It also contains details on how to use a customized template if you so wish.