WebBlocks

Overview

WebBlocks is a toolkit that facilitates the rapid development of responsive, aesthetic and modern web applications. This framework integrates a number of existing web packages and extends them with additional functionality.

Build

Prerequisites

WebBlocks is built via rake, a Ruby build utility similar to GNU make. As such, the following are required to use WebBlocks:

• gem
• rubygems
• bundler
• rake

The rake build file (Rakefile) also requires several tools:

• git
• sass
• compass
• rb-fsevent
• uglifycss
• uglifyjs
• grunt (to package jQuery)

These tools are all written in either Ruby or Node.js, and as such, both are required (see ''Installing Prerequisites'' below).

By default, the Rakefile executes these tools as though they are within the user search path. In the event that they reside elsewhere in the file system, the invoking commands should be specified within Rakefile-configure.rb.

Installing Prerequisites

To install Ruby, please visit:

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/

With Ruby installed, use Bundler to install the required Ruby packages:

bundle          # from within WebBlocks root directory

Several required tools are written in Node.js. To install Node.js, please visit:

http://nodejs.org/

With Node.js installed, use NPM to install the required Node.js packages:

npm install     # from within WebBlocks root directory

Some or all of these installations may require superuser privileges.

If Bundler and/or NPM are not viable, you can also install these packages individually through gem install and npm install.

Building WebBlocks

WebBlocks can be built simply by invoking rake.

The entire process from checkout to completed build is as follows:

git clone git@github.com:ucla/WebBlocks.git
cd WebBlocks
bundle
npm install
rake

Again, as a reminder, these commands may require superuser privileges.

The Rakefile includes a number of subtasks that may be invoked:

• rake build builds WebBlocks
• rake build_all updates and rebuilds all packages before building WebBlocks
• rake clean removes the build directory for WebBlocks
• rake clean_all removes build outputs for all packages and WebBlocks
• rake check check for prerequisites (requires commands in user search path)
• rake environment display the environment configuration used by WebBlocks
• rake paths display paths for compile/build as configured for WebBlocks
• rake packages display external packages WebBlocks is configured to include
• rake includes display sources WebBlocks is configured to include
• rake packages_build builds all packages '''(!)'''
• rake packages_clean removes build outputs for all packages '''(!)'''
• rake packages_update updates submodules for all packages '''(!)'''
• rake init first time call to initialize WebBlocks including submodules '''(!)'''
• rake reset completely reset and clean state of WebBlocks build '''(!)'''

''(!) denotes an advanced feature that should likely never be called individually''

The WebBlocks build process is highly configurable. By default, you may define configuration settings within Rakefile-config.rb. A full list of all properties and their default values is available within rake/config.rb.

In some cases, it may make sense to specify a configuration file in a different location, such as it WebBlocks is checked out as a submodule of a larger project. Under these conditions, a command line argument config is available to specify this path, such as:

rake [command] -- --config=Rakefile-config.rb

Credits

WebBlocks leverages a number of external packages:

• jQuery - MIT License - http://jquery.com
• Modernizr - MIT or BSD License - http://modernizr.com
• Respond.js - MIT or GPLv2 License - https://github.com/scottjehl/Respond
• Twitter Bootstrap - Apache License - http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap
• Selectivizr - MIT License - http://selectivizr.com