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Less CSS Filter

A LessCSS filter/compiler for Java web applications. (Blog post on the 'origins' of this little project: Ultraq's Final MooCow » Blog » If only I'd waited.)

This filter will process any requests for URLs ending with .less, processing the LESS file pointed to by the URL and converting it to a standard CSS file. Once the file is processed, the result is cached to save on having to process it again. Any changes to the LESS file will be picked up and cause the file to be processed the next time it is requested.

  • Current version: 1.1.2
  • Released: 22 September 2013

Requirements

  • Java 7
  • A Servlet 3.0 compliant servlet container

Installation

Standalone distribution

Copy the JAR from the latest release bundle, placing it in the WEB-INF/lib directory of your web application, or build the project from the source code here on GitHub.

For Maven and Maven-compatible dependency managers

Add a dependency to your project with the following co-ordinates:

  • GroupId: nz.net.ultraq.lesscss
  • ArtifactId: lesscss-filter
  • Version: 1.1.2

Usage

Start writing LESS! Also, don't change <link rel="stylesheet" .../> to <link rel="stylesheet/less" .../> like the LESS website advises. That change only applies to using LESS on the client.

If you're not taking advantage of servlet 3.0 annotations, then you'll need to specify the filter in your web.xml file, ideally as the last filter in the processing chain so that a proper CSS file can be generated as soon as possible:

<filter>
	<filter-name>LessCSSFilter</filter-name>
	<filter-class>nz.net.ultraq.lesscss.LessCSSFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
	<filter-name>LessCSSFilter</filter-name>
	<url-pattern>*.less</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<mime-mapping>
	<extension>less</extension>
	<mime-type>text/css</mime-type>
</mime-mapping>

The mime-mapping element is optional, but helps some web development tools (eg: FireBug) identify your .less files as CSS.

Limitations

This filter only works on URLs which locate a file on the file system. This is a limitation of the way I've chosen to detect changes to the underlying file, which I've done using Java 7's NIO 2 package.

Changelog

1.1.2

  • Update lesscss-compiler dependency to 1.1.2, which in turns uses LessCSS 1.4.2.

1.1.1

1.1

  • Extract the processor/compiler part and put into its own project.
  • Change package and Maven group to nz.net.ultraq.lesscss (dropped the 'web' part).

1.0.3

  • Project structure reorganization after changes to the Gradle build scripts.

1.0.2

1.0.1

  • Switched from Ant to Gradle as a build tool.
  • Made project available from Maven Central. Maven co-ordinates added to the Installation section.

1.0

  • Initial release