2letterbem

Renames css classes to 2 letters to further compress css files.

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import letterbem from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/2letterbem';
</script>

README

2 Letter Bem

Compresses your css classes down to a few characters ( probably 2 ), which you can then use in your html. This is standalone package that is run as a npm script.

Compressing css this way + gzip = negligible results

Example - bootstrap 4.4.1 css minified and gzipped:

  • bootstrap.min.css.gz -> 23.6KB
  • 2 letter bem version -> 22.8KB
  • However, this can be used with html, to shave a kilobyte or two. This could be used to obfuscate your work.

input css file:

.something { ... }
.something__block { ... }
.something__block:hover .that-thing { ... }
.js-action-state something__block.active { ... }

output - creates 2 files css:

.a { ... }
.b { ... }
.b:hover.c { ... }
.js-action-state b.d { ... }

json:

{
"something": "a",
"something__block": "b",
"that-thing": "c",
"active" "d"
}

Anything prepended with .js in your css is not compressed. You can specify a whiteList of classes that you don't want to be touched. They won't appear in the json file either. You can use the json file as dictionary now for your html.

Simple example in PHP:

function klass($cssName){
    $output = [];
    $cssNames = explode(' ', $cssInput);
    foreach ($cssNames as $cssName) {
      if (array_key_exists($cssName, $allYourClassNamesReadFromJSON)) {
        $output[] = $allYourClassNamesReadFromJSON[$cssName];
      } else {
        $output[] = $cssName;
      }
    }
    return implode(' ', $output);
}
<div class="klass('something')"></div> renders as <div class="a"></div>

How to use

In package.json as an example:

{
...
 "config": {
    "2letterbem": {
      "whiteList": [
        ".is-active",
        ".wf-inactive",
      ]
    }
  },
  dependencies: { ... }
  devDependencies: { ... }
  scripts: {
   "2letterbem": "node ./node_modules/2letterbem/2letterbem.js --i ./inputFile.css --o ./outputFile.css --j './jsonMapFile.json"
  }
...

or everything in package.json config

{
  ...
  "config": {
    "2letterbem": {
      "cssPath": "./inputFile.css",
      "jsonSpace": 2,
      "outputCssPath": "./outputFile.css", 
      "outputJsonPath": "./jsonMapFile.json",
      "permutationArgs": {
        "maxSize": 2,
        "recursive": true
      },
      "permutationLetters": "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ",
      "whiteList": [
        ".is-active",
        ".wf-inactive"
      ]
    }
  },
  scripts: {
    "2letterbem": "node ./node_modules/2letterbem/2letterbem.js"
  },
  ...
}