Springboard

Springboard is an ultra minimal JavaScript / CSS and HTML project springboard.

It features a useful ANT build file which can:

Refactor template files to match your project and namespace
Build with Google Closure Builder allowing the use of Google Closure Library
Compile JavaScript using the Google Closure Compiler
Minify CSS using the YUI Compressor
Generate JavaScript documentation using the JSDoc Toolkit

Also included is a simple JavaScript Model-View-Controller (MVC) template (based on Alex Netkachov's) which can optionally be used as a basis for your project.

Quick Setup

To get started, first clone the repository:

cd /your/workspace
git clone git@github.com:frazbot/Springboard.git YourProjectName

Update the AUTHOR and NAMESPACE variables in the build.properties file.

Run the setup task:

cd YourProjectName
ant setup

This will refactor the project template to match your namespace. You'll then be given the option to delete the GIT metadata and disconnect from the Springboard repository...

###Now Start Coding!

In your HTML files keep your code in the following block comments:

CSS:LIB - For CSS libraries
CSS:SRC - For your CSS
JS:LIB - For closure Javascript (You shouldn't need to change this)
JS:SRC - For your Javascript

Scripts and styles embedded outside of blocks will remain untouched to add flexibility, whilst all blocks of the same type in different pages will intelligently be compiled together.

Springboard supports blocks for both third party libraries and project source files in CSS and JavaScript. Libraries used by your project are combined to reduce HTTP requests but not minfied, whereas project source files are.

Springboard uses externs to manage compiled code dependancies and ships with externs for JQuery 1.6.1. Externs for other libraries can be generated using Closure Compiler Externs Extractor.

###Update Dependencies

As you add new classes you will need to update the dependencies so the Closure Library can dynamically locate the right Javascript files for the right classes.

To do this, run update:

ant update

###Building

To compile your project and create a deploy version, run build:

ant build

###Documenting

To generate JavaScript documentation, run jsdoc:

ant jsdoc