Question

I had set up compiling LESS on server side in Express, and it worked right in jade without putting less in layout.

my terminal:

if(err) throw err;
                ^
Error: ENOENT, open '/Users/lijung/Documents/Project/clubond/public/stylesheets/left_navigator.less'

app.js:

/**
 * Module dependencies.
 */

var express = require('express')
    , path = require('path')
    , club = require('./routes/club')
    , less = require('less')
    , fs = require('fs');

var app = module.exports = express.createServer();

// Configuration

app.configure(function(){
    var RedisStore = require('connect-redis')(express);
    app.use(express.cookieParser());
    app.use(express.session({ secret: "william", store: new RedisStore }));
    app.use(express.logger());
    app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
    app.set('view engine', 'jade');
    app.use(express.bodyParser());
    app.use(express.methodOverride());
    app.use(app.router);
    app.set('view options', { layout: false });
    app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
});


app.configure('development', function(){
    app.use(express.errorHandler({ dumpExceptions: true, showStack: true }));
});

app.configure('production', function(){
    app.use(express.errorHandler()); 
});

// Routes
//index-in-layout
app.get('/club/:id', club.chkExist, club.getDataById, site.clubPage);

//compile less
app.get("*.less", function(req, res) {
    var path = __dirname + req.url;
    fs.readFile(path, "utf8", function(err, data) {
        if(err) throw err;
        less.render(data, function(err, css) {
    if (err) throw err;
        res.header("Content-type", "text/css");
        res.send(css);
     });
   });
}); 


app.listen(3000);
console.log("Express server listening on port %d in %s mode", app.address().port, app.settings.env);  

I put my layout in views named index_in_layout:

!!! 5
html
head
    title= title
    script(src='/javascripts/jquery.min.js')
    link(rel="stylesheet", href="/stylesheets/index.css")
    link(rel="stylesheet",type='text/css', href="/public/stylesheets/left_navigator.less")
    script(src='/javascripts/index_in.js')
    block script
body

index.jade:

extends ./index_in_layout

block script

    script(src='/javascripts/new_club.js')
    script(src='/javascripts/new_bond.js')
    script(src='/javascripts/new_event.js')
    script(src='/javascripts/popup.js')
    script(src='/javascripts/list_clubs.js')
    script(src='/javascripts/list_bonds.js')
    script(src='/javascripts/list_events.js')
    link(rel='stylesheet', type='text/css', href='/public/stylesheets/test.less')


block body  

Terminal keeps telling me Error: ENOENT that my left_navigator.less can’t open. I put test.less and navigator.less in the same directory, it makes no sense.

LESS on server side driving me crazy. Can someone help me out please. Thanks

Answer 1

Unless I’m missing something, you really don’t need to go through these heroics to get less working 🙂 Generally you just need to add one line to your app.configure call like this:

app.configure(function() {
    app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
    ...
    app.use(express.compiler({ src: __dirname + '/public', enable: ['less'] }));
    app.use(connect.static(__dirname + '/public'));
    app.use(app.router);
});

If you do it this way, you don’t need the special route for *.less files. You just request *.css with the same name in your public folder and it’s automatically generated. I use master/child layouts with jade and LESS here if an example would help:

https://github.com/JustinBeckwith/ExpressStarter

Happy Coding!