Tool for installing bower dependencies that won't include entire repos. Although Bower works great as a light-weight tool to quickly install browser dependencies, it currently does not provide much functionality for installing specific "built" components for the client.
#Bower installs entire repositories
{
"name" : "test",
"version": "0.1",
"dependencies" : {
"backbone" : "latest"
}
}If bower install is run on this configuration file, the entire backbone repository will be pulled down
and copied into a components directory. This repository is quite large, when probably only a built js and css
file are needed. Bower conveniently provides the bower list --paths command to list the actual main files associated
with the components (if the component doesn't define a main, then the whole repository is listed instead).
#Bower Installer
Bower installer provides an easy way for the main files to be installed or moved to one or more locations. Simply add to
your bower.json an install key and path attribute:
{
"name" : "test",
"version": "0.1",
"dependencies" : {
"backbone" : "latest"
},
"install" : {
"path" : "some/path"
}
}Install bower-installer by executing
npm install -g bower-installerFrom the terminal in the same directory as your bower.json file, enter:
bower-installerAfter executing this, backbone.js will exist under some/path relative to the location of your
bower.json file.
#Overriding main files A lot of registered components for bower do not include bower.json configuration. Therefore, bower does not know about any "main files" and therefore, by default bower-installer doesn't know about them either. Bower-installer can override an existing main file path or provide a non-existant one:
{
"name" : "test",
"version": "0.1",
"dependencies" : {
"backbone" : "latest",
"requirejs" : "latest"
},
"install" : {
"path" : "some/path",
"sources" : {
"requirejs" : "bower_components/requirejs/require.js"
}
}
}If bower installer is run on this configuration, require.js and backbone.js will all appear under
some/path relative to your bower.json file.
#Install multiple main files
For one reason or another you may want to install multiple files from a single component. You can do this by providing
an Array instead of a String inside the sources hash. Or you can use file matchers https://github.com/isaacs/minimatch:
{
"name" : "test",
"version": "0.1",
"dependencies" : {
"jquery-ui" : "latest",
"datejs": "*"
},
"install" : {
"path" : "some/path",
"sources" : {
"jquery-ui" : [
"bower_components/jquery-ui/ui/jquery-ui.custom.js",
"bower_components/jquery-ui/themes/start/jquery-ui.css"
],
"datejs": "bower_components/datejs/build/*.*"
}
}
}#Install files to multiple locations
Files can be installed to multiple locations based upon file type or regular expression. Do so by modifying the path to be a map of file-type
locations. Example:
{
"name" : "test",
"version": "0.1",
"dependencies" : {
"jquery-ui" : "latest"
},
"install" : {
"path" : {
"css": "src/css",
"js": "src/js",
"/[sc|le]ss$/": "src/css"
},
"sources" : {
"jquery-ui" : [
"bower_components/jquery-ui/ui/jquery-ui.custom.js",
"bower_components/jquery-ui/themes/start/jquery-ui.css"
]
}
}
}###Configurable paths Paths can be custom configurable with variables (key, name and version):
{
"name": "test",
"version": "0.0.2",
"dependencies": {
"bootstrap": "~3.0.3"
},
"install": {
"base": "build",
"path" : {
"js": "{name}/js",
"css": "{name}/css",
"eot": "{name}/fonts",
"svg": "{name}/fonts",
"ttf": "{name}/fonts",
"woff": "{name}/fonts"
}
}
}Will create this output structure:
build/
bootstrap/
js
css
fonts
jquery
js
#Rename files during copy
Files can be renamed when bower-installer is copying them to their new destination. Do so by modifying the mapping object. Example:
{
"name" : "test",
"version": "0.1",
"dependencies/" : {
"jquery-ui" : "latest"
},
"install" : {
"path" : "some/path",
"sources" : {
"jquery-ui" : {
"mapping": [
{"bower_components/jquery-ui/ui/jquery-ui.js": "jquery-ui.js"},
{"bower_components/jquery-ui/ui/minified/jquery-ui.min.js": "jquery-ui-min-new-name.js"}
]
}
}
}
}#Ignore files
Files can be ignored and not copied. Do so by adding the appropriate to the ignore array. In the following example, ember-model has as dependency on ember and handlebars, so normally ember and the handlebars js files would be copied but in this case we don't want them copied over. Example:
{
"name" : "test",
"version": "0.1",
"dependencies": {
"ember-model" : "0.0.8"
},
"install": {
"path": "build/src",
"ignore": ["ember", "handlebars"]
}
}#Benefits from glob patterns You can specify a folder and get all files inside it preserving its folder structure.
{
"name" : "test",
"version": "0.1",
"dependencies": {
"datatables-bootstrap3" : "latest"
},
"install": {
"path": {
"scss": "build/styles",
"js": "build/js"
}
"sources" : {
"datatables-bootstrap3" : "bower_components/datatables-bootstrap3/BS3/assets/**"
}
}
}##Change log
- 1.2.0 - Allow matching by a regular expression instead of just file extension. Thank you to @g105b
- 1.1.0 - Updates to the configuration key API allowing {key}, {version}, and {name}. Also do not require a base path parameter. Thank you to @kimus!
- 1.0.0 - Breaking API changes, --keep flag removed in favor of --remove-install-path or -p - #53 - Destination paths configurable - #70 - Fixes #83, #78, #76
- 0.8.4 - Add silent option to avoid console.log output. --silent or -s closes #58
- 0.8.3 - Path can now be blank, allowing for install into root of project. fixes #59
- 0.8.2 - Upgrade bower to fix underlying bugs.
- 0.8.0 - Add an option for not removing the destination directories (--keep or -k). Preserve folder structures per extensions issue #52
- 0.7.0 - Preserve folder structure when using glob patterns.
- 0.6.1 - The commandline flag --remove or -r will remove the "bower_components" directory when installation completes.
- 0.6.0 - Add file globbing and a travis-ci enabled test suite.
- 0.5.0 - Add the ignore option
- 0.4.0 - Remove file-utils dependency
