Bixbite Project Initializer

Bixbite is a Ruby gem that creates a project structure optimal for client-side development.

• Downloads the latest versions of Google Ajax API Libraries
• Uses LABjs for parallelized script management
• Allows full use of server-side includes for shared module management
• Bundles a customized PHP Minify package using Google's Closure Compiler for on-the-fly compression tests
• Dynamic to static publishing eliminates server-side dependencies on delivery

Additionally, Bixbite includes rake tasks to automatically:

• Create new page templates & associated JS/CSS files
• Prepare files for deployment
• Generate NaturalDocs-compliant documentation
• Compress PNG files using PNGout
• Gracefully degrade 24-bit PNG files for Internet Explorer 6
• Deliver compressed versions of CSS & JavaScript files using Google's Closure Compiler & YUI Compressor
• Add new files, remove outdated files from Subversion
• Generate diff reports for each delivery

Bixbite can be fully customized to fit your personal development tastes.

Links

• Wiki
• Bugs

Installing

Install the gem:

gem install bixbite

Usage

Generating a Bixbite template

Run the Bixbite gem to generate a new template:

bixbite "The Foo Project" FOO

This command will generate a template with a project name of "The Foo Project" and support files (JS/PHP) using the FOO namespace.

You may also specify arguments when invoked. Via bixbite --help:

• --js-lib [ARG]: use specified JavaScript library (options: jQuery, YUI, MooTools)
• --source-directory [ARG]: override bundled template with user-defined template

Quick Examples

See Rake tasks for more information.

Creation

Create "Example Project" with EXAMPLE namespace

bixbite "Example Project" EXAMPLE

Create "Example Project" with EXAMPLE namespace using MooTools

bixbite "Example Project" EXAMPLE --js-lib MooTools

Create "Example Project" with EXAMPLE namespace using a custom template

bixbite "Example Project" EXAMPLE /path/to/custom-template

Use a custom template by default

bixbite --source-directory /path/to/custom-template

Bundled Rake Tasks

Publish deployable files, generate documentation, perform Subversion tasks

rake prep

Create new page template

rake bixbite:page

Publish compressed files to deploy folder

rake files:compress

Compress PNGs

rake png:compress

Wiki

See the Bixbite wiki for details on how to utilize the generated template. It also contains details on how to use a customized template if you so wish.