easyassets is an open-source client-side asset manager for Node.JS and JAVA web applications.

There is ONE usage of easyassets: manage lists of static assets. Developer defines entries with '*' character and this is translated to list of files.

Why and where to use

With easyassets, you work on your sources, and then generate output that is meant to be consumed by your users. easyassets will take your definition file and give you list of resources as an array. Let's walk through a basic example.

We start off by installing easyassets

$ npm install easyassets --save

Asset definition file

This is a simple configuration file:

{
  "dependencies": [
    "./public/lib/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js",
    "./public/lib/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js",
    "./public/lib/angular/angular.js"
  ],
  "src": [
    "./public/config.js",
    "./public/application.js",
    "./public/translations.js",
    "./public/modules/*/*.js",
    "./public/modules/*/*/*.js"
  ],
  "tests": ["./public/dev/**/*.js"]
}

Let me explain the format. You group your assets into groups. 'dependencies', 'src' are names of the groups

Example

Now that you know how to configure your assets hash, here's how you use it.

// create instance: first paramaeter if file name and 'prefix' is optional parameter,
// used to 'prepend' string for each filename in definitions file
var easyAssetsInstance = new easyassets('spec/examples/assets/javascript.json',
                {prefix : 'spec/examples'});

// get list of all assets
var list = easyAssetsInstance.get();

// get list of assets in group 'src'
var list = easyAssetsInstance.get('src');

// get list of assets in group 'tests'
var list = easyAssetsInstance.get('tests');

// get list of assets in group 'src' AND 'tests'
var list = easyAssetsInstance.get(['src', 'tests']);

add more files: its easy.

Sometimes you may want to add more definition files

easyAssetsInstance.loadFile('anotherfile.json', { prefix: 'some/prefix'});

Common use cases

Often you'll want to add assets in different places in your application:

• Grunt
• Server side dynamic html creation (Swig, JSP)
• Express.js