Include Foundation Variables in Multiple SCSS Files - ruby-on-rails

I am trying to use Foundation 5 in a Rails 4 app. The problem I am having is I would like to have some custom CSS in addition to Foundation. In my CSS I would like to use some of the variables from Foundation. To use them I did added the following to the top of my scss file
$include-html-classes: false;
#import "foundation/components/global";
This works great except there is some junk still included on each page. According to https://github.com/zurb/foundation/issues/1629 this shouldn't happen.
If you look at the source here https://github.com/zurb/foundation/blob/master/scss/foundation/components/_global.scss then you can see that the meta stuff starting at line 284 will be included.
This is a problem since it will be included on every page that I want to use the variables/mixins on. Rails 4 combines all the css files into one which will have this same code over and over again...
Is there any way to include this file without it including any text?

I just discovered that using
#import "foundation/functions";
#include exports("global") {}
#import "foundation/components/global";
will include all the variables and mixins but won't add anything to your scss file!
I believe this is because the exports function is there to prevent css from being duplicated every time the global file is included. By having the fake exports function call it thinks it's already added the css.

Related

Customizing Bootflat in Rails

I have installed bootflat using bower. The instaltion location was set up as "vendor/assets/components/Bootflat". I have also included the relevant files in my application.scss, application.js and application.haml files. I assume that it's being included correctly because everything is working as expected.
My question now is, how do I customize scss variables used in Bootflat? Here is my current code in application.scss (app/assets/stylesheets):
$alert-primary:red !important;
#import "Bootflat/bootflat/scss/bootflat";
"$alert-primary" is a variable that's already used by Bootflat and I want to redefine it. How/Where would I redefine this? I get that what I'm doing above is probably not right as the variable is defined by a Bootflat file, which would mean that my definition above is overwritten. But I also do not want to change the scss code in the origin files? What is the best solution? Will it be to copy and paste the code for a specific component into my app's stylesheet and then redefine a component after importing bootflat (this should overwrite the original definition by Bootflat)?

Is this required to use Bootstrap mixins?

I'm new to LESS and Bootstrap and I'm confused at the outcome of my css file.
My basic goal is to use the mixins and variables in bootstrap in my own css files.
From my understanding the process would be, get the less files, import them into the project, and import the bootstrap reference. So at this point I can now use the mixins in my own css file.
Example:
#import "less/bootstrap.less";
.myRow{
.make-row();
}
However now I have a 7400+ lines of styling in myCustomStyles.css. Is this "correct"? I don't understand why it actually imports all the styles. My understanding is... that I have a reference to bootstrap.min.css CDN or local. Then myCustomStyles.css will be included AFTER that and override the default values.
I guess I'm confused at how do I take advantage of a CDN and still use the mixins and variables in bootstrap?
I've used the following two articles as a reference:
http://www.helloerik.com/bootstrap-3-less-workflow-tutorial
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/594098/How-to-customize-Twitter-Bootstrap-to-fit-your-web
Bootstrap.less is the full bootstrap implementation. It is going to have all the variables and mixins to build the entire CSS for bootstrap. If you don't want this, then you should probably pick and choose which LESS files to include instead. You probably want variables and mixins, so you could maybe get by with only importing variables.less and mixins.less?
If you look at bootstrap.less it looks like this:
// Core variables and mixins
#import "variables.less";
#import "mixins.less";
// Reset
#import "normalize.less";
#import "print.less";
// Core CSS
#import "scaffolding.less";
#import "type.less";
#import "code.less";
#import "grid.less";
#import "tables.less";
#import "forms.less";
#import "buttons.less";
// snip...
It is nothing but a bunch of imports to other .less files. Each file is sort of specific to what it is doing. At a minimum I think you would need variables and possibly mixins. Normalize does a CSS reset. Grid defines the grid classes, etc.
Possible Since LESS 1.5
You can specify that you want the code only as a reference like so:
#import (reference) "less/bootstrap.less";
.myRow{
.make-row();
}
The addition of the (reference) tells LESS to import it by not compile the code to CSS. This allows you to use the entirety of bootstrap for mixin reference purposes, but avoids adding all the code in. Of course, one needs to know how this may affect the implementation, as there are parts of bootstrap that expect certain code to be in place to work properly. But that this a whole other thing.

SCSS import relative to an imported stylesheet?

I've installed foundation-rails in my Rails app and run rails g foundation:install. The project-specific file(s) (mostly foundation_and_overrides.scss) are properly installed. The gem is there and it had no trouble installing, and the dependencies (SASS, Compass) are also there. But I'm getting:
Error compiling CSS asset
SASS::SyntaxError: File to import not found or unreadable: global.
Originating from:
/Users/local/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p353/gems/foundation-rails-5.0.2.0/vendor/assets/stylesheets/foundation/components/_accordion.scss:1
After investigating, I've discovered that _accordion.scss was #imported in the main foundation.scss file, located two directories up in stylesheets/:
#import 'foundation/components/accordion'
The "missing" file, _global.scss, meanwhile, is in that same directory. If I then change the #import code in _accordion.scss from #import 'global' to #import 'foundation/components/accordion', it clears and moves on to the next error (there are a lot of sub-imports here).
It's clear that what's happening is SASS is looking for _global.scss relative to the top stylesheet, foundation.scss, and not relative to the imported stylesheet asking for it (_accordion.scss).
I can't imagine this is a bug in Foundation/Foundation-Rails – this gem wouldn't work for anyone – and I don't want to modify the gem's contents myself.
So my question: do I have to change some SASS settings to allow #import relative to an imported stylesheet? I don't want to modify this gem to make it work (I'd like to allow for future updates to the gem).
Edit
Clarification of directory structure within the gem's vendor/assets/stylesheets directory:
foundation.scss
foundation/components/_accordion.scss
foundation/components/_global.scss
Edit 2
You can actually see the gem's code and structure on github
Edit 3
Thought I'd solved the problem, but I didn't: changing from an #import to a =require got rid of the errors, and included Foundation's CSS. But require does not import the SCSS functionality - variables, mixins - that Foundation provides. There's no way to change global values this way, or to retrieve them or the mixins from the main stylesheet or other #imported stylesheets.
It looks like Foundation thinks this is the best possible solution:
Manually add Foundation's stylesheet subdirectories (each of them) to SASS's :load_paths in the main block of application.rb:
config.sass.load_paths += [
"#{Gem.loaded_specs['foundation-rails'].full_gem_path}/vendor/assets/stylesheets/foundation/components",
"#{Gem.loaded_specs['foundation-rails'].full_gem_path}/vendor/assets/stylesheets/foundation/"
]

Using variables and mixins in Foundation

I've found a lot of similar questions to this one but nothing that quite solves my problem. Basically, I'm using foundation 4.x with rails 3.x, everything is working fine with foundation_and_overrides being included in my application.css. I can modify the variables in foundation_and_overrides and it all works fine. However, I want to use the $primary-color variable (and a bunch of others) in one of my other scss files (application/global.css.scss). If i use #import "foudation_and_overrides" in my global css file, then it works, but it includes the entire Foundation CSS twice in my compiled application.css, which is obviously not ideal.
I also want to use mixins, such as #include radius() in my global file. This works if I use #import "foundation/components/global" - but then this also ends up with duplicate CSS being compiled. All I want to do is use the global vars & functions, not the CSS - surely this is a really common thing to do?
Previously (before foundation) I just put all my scss functions in a helpers file, and imported this in all other scss files that needed it.
Another quick Q while I'm here, what class do I use to add the little dropdown triangle thing next to some custom text?
Thanks!
With new foundation you do:
$include-html-global-classes: false;
#import "foundation/components/global";
Updated for even newer foundation (see commentS)
Earlier path was
#import "foundation/foundation-global";
As James said you can set the variable $include-html-classes to false and it won't copy any of the styles to the css. You can add the following lines to any scss sheet to get access to variables and mixins.
$include-html-classes: false;
#import "foundation";
There are a bunch of Sass variables named something like, include-grid-css or something like this in _settings.scss or _variables.scss. You can turn them off so it doesn't generate all of those standard presentational classes. If you are confused, just jump into the source of one these and you will see at the bottom of the file, there is an if statement that causes all of that css to be generated with the mixins at the top of the file. Hope this hepls.
Keep only settings in foundation_and_overrides.scss
Remove the following line at the end of the file foundation_and_overrides.scss:
#import "foundation";
And maybe rename foundation_and_overrides.scss to a more appropriate foundation_settings.scss.
Uncomment all settings that you will use in your SASS files. This also makes explicit which Foundation settings you will use in your application files.
Use #import in application.scss
In "application.scss" make sure to use #import instead of require for both Foundation and its settings.
/*
*= require_tree .
*= require_self
*/
#import "foundation_settings";
#import "foundation";
Use Foundation settings in your application files
You can simply add the following line in your files that need to access to Foundation variables:
#import "foundation_settings";
I haven't tested this with mixins yet, but for variables it works and prevents duplicated code.

Using #import in Rails Asset Pipeline

I'm having an issue with using #import to load global variables and also for the purpose of #extend from other files.
Let's say I have a settings.css.scss and I want this available in all my files by using #import 'settings'; at the top of each other scss file.
This works fine and I do get proper access to all my variables and stuff -- but doesn't this inject all the styles again to each file?
When I look at the source in the after-compiled version, I'm seeing the same style for a given class repeated 3-4 times in firebug, except it's scratching out all but one.
Is this repetitive bloat normal or am I doing something wrong??

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