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Sass and SCSS in Compass applications

Last modified: 08 October 2024

Available only in PyCharm Professional: download to try or compare editions

Required plugins:

Compass  -  Install the plugin on the Settings | Plugins page, tab Marketplace. The plugin is available only in PyCharm Professional.

File Watchers  -  The plugin is bundled with PyCharm and enabled by default.

warning

Since PyCharm 2020.1, Compass support in the IDE has been deprecated.

However, Compass support is still available through the Compass plugin, which can be installed on the Settings | Plugins page as described in Installing plugins from JetBrains Marketplace.

Before you start

  1. Download and install Ruby.

  2. Install and enable the Compass plugin on the Settings | Plugins page, tab Marketplace, as described in Installing plugins from JetBrains Marketplace.

  3. Make sure the File Watchers plugin is enabled in the settings. Press CtrlAlt0S to open settings and then select Plugins. Click the Installed tab. In the search field, type File Watchers. For more information about plugins, refer to Managing plugins.

Installing Compass

  • In the embedded Terminal (AltF12) , type:

    gem install compass

    Compass is installed in the folder where Ruby executable file and the gem.bat file are stored.

Creating a new Compass application

If you have no Compass application yet, you can create it or add Compass support to an empty PyCharm project. In either case, a conf.rb configuration file is generated.

  • In the embedded Terminal (AltF12) , type:

    compass create <the name of the application to be created>

  • Create an empty PyCharm project , open the embedded Terminal (AltF12) , and type:

    cd <application folder>
compass init

Activate Compass-aware support in your application

  1. Open a .sass or .scss file, click the red bulb next to the @import 'compass' statement or press AltEnter, and then choose Configure Compass from the suggestion list.

    tip

    Alternatively, in the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) , go to Languages & Frameworks | Style Sheets | Compass.

  2. Select the Enable Compass support checkbox, and specify the paths to the Compass executable file and to the conf.rb configuration file.

Starting with an existing Compass application

Open the application sources that are already on your machine

  • Click Open on the Welcome screen or select File | Open from the main menu. In the dialog that opens, select the folder where your sources are stored.

Check out the application sources from your version control

  1. Click Clone Repository on the Welcome screen.

    Alternatively, select File | New | Project from Version Control or Git | Clone or VCS | Get from Version Control from the main menu.

    Instead of Git in the main menu, you may see any other Version Control System that is associated with your project. For example, Mercurial or Perforce.

  2. In the dialog that opens, select your version control system from the list and specify the repository to check out the application sources from. For more information, refer to Check out a project (clone).

Compiling Sass and SCSS

To compile your code automatically, you need to install a compiler and configure a Compass Sass or Compass SCSS File Watcher which will track changes to your files and run the compiler.

tip

You can also use the compiler from the command line or configure it as a third-party tool.

When you open a file, PyCharm checks whether an applicable File Watcher is available in the current project. If such File Watcher is configured but disabled, PyCharm displays a popup that informs you about the configured File Watcher and suggests to enable it.

If an applicable File Watcher is configured and enabled in the current project, PyCharm starts the compiler automatically upon the event specified in the New Watcher dialog.

  • If the Auto-save edited files to trigger the watcher checkbox is selected, the File Watcher is invoked as soon as any changes are made to the source code.

  • If the Auto-save edited files to trigger the watcher checkbox is cleared, the File Watcher is started upon save (File | Save All, Ctrl0S) or when you move focus from PyCharm (upon frame deactivation).

Learn more from File Watchers.

PyCharm creates a separate file with the generated output. The file has the name of the source Sass or SCSS file and the extension .css. The location of the generated files is defined in the Output paths to refresh field of the New Watcher dialog. However, in the Project Tree, they are shown under the source file which is now displayed as a node.

Create a File Watcher

  1. In the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) , click File Watchers under Tools. The File Watchers page that opens shows the list of already configured File Watchers.

  2. Click Add button or press AltInsert. Depending on the tool you are going to use, choose the compass sass or compass scss predefined template from the list. The New Watcher dialog opens.

  3. In the Program field, specify the path to the executable file:

    • compass.bat for Windows

    • compass for Unix and macOS

  4. In the Arguments field, type one of the following depending on the operating system used:

    • compile $UnixSeparators($ProjectFileDir$)$ to process an entire directory

    • compile $UnixSeparators($FilePath$)$ to process a single file

  5. Proceed as described in File Watchers.

See also

Procedures

Reference

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