LessMVCFour

LESS BundleTransform, HttpHandler for integrating with ASP.NET MVC 4.

I suffered too long when trying to integrate dotless into my MVC 4 projects, dotless works fine with a simple less file, but when that file contains @import directive then the file missing error came. I googled the solutions and it needs quite a piece of code to solve the problem, almost rewriting the process of creating dotless engine.

Because of that, I created this library for later reuse and now share it with you. There are still many limitations that I have not overcome, working hard to improve it.

Usage

Install LessMVCFour into your project

Open Package Manager Console in Visual Studio to ensure that the Default Project is set to your target MVC 4 project and execute the following command

Install-Package LessMVCFour

Changes in web.config

Open your web.config you will see the following changes

...
<system.web>
  ...
  <httpHandlers>       
    <add path="*.less" verb="GET" type="LessMVCFour.LessHttpHandler, LessMVCFour" />
  </httpHandlers>
</system.web>
<system.webServer>
  <handlers>             
    <add name="dotless" path="*.less" verb="GET" type="LessMVCFour.LessHttpHandler, LessMVCFour" resourceType="File" preCondition="" />
  </handlers>
</system.webServer>
...

LessMVCFour switches from dotless's handler to its handler.

Using BundleTransform

Open App_Start/BundleConfig.cs and add a new bundle into RegisterBundles method, e.g

...
bundles.Add(new Bundle("~/Content/less",
                    new WebLessBundleTransform())
                    .Include("~/Content/main.less"));
...

The main.less file is put in /Content folder, the bundle's virtual path is **/Content/less**

Note : All the included files should be in the same folder of the virtual path E.g :

...
bundles.Add(new Bundle("~/Content/less",
                    new WebLessBundleTransform())
                    .Include("~/Content/main.less", "~/Content/second.less"));
...

is good BUT

...
bundles.Add(new Bundle("~/Content/less",
                    new WebLessBundleTransform())
                    .Include("~/Content/lessfiles/main.less"));
...

or

...
bundles.Add(new Bundle("~/Content/less",
                    new WebLessBundleTransform())
                    .Include("~/Content/main.less", "~/Content/lessfiles/second.less));
...

Will give you error. I am researching to solve this problem. If you have any solution please send me email at minhkhoa4783@gmail.com, many thanks :).

Note : Also remember that don't have virtual path conflict with your folders. e.g "/Content/less" will confict with Content/less folder, give it another virtual path like "/Content/lessstyle" is good.

Using LESS parser

If your LESS content does not include @import directive

var parsedContent = WebLessParser.Parse(lessContent, null);

In case, it contains @import directives.

var parsedContent = WebLessParser.Parse(lessContent, "<virtual path to the file which stored the LESS content>");

Limitations

These notes above.

This library is just for using with Web applications.

The package now is just for .NET 4.5