Basset 🐶

The dead-simple way to use CSS and JS assets in your Laravel projects.

// instead of
<script src='https://cdn.com/path/to/file.js'>
<link href='https://cdn.com/path/to/file.css'>

// you can do
@basset('https://cdn.com/path/to/file.js')
@basset('https://cdn.com/path/to/file.css')

That will internalize the file (copy to storage/app/public/bassets) and make sure that file is only loaded once per page.

Using Basset, you easily internalize and use:

• files from external URLs (like CDNs)
• files from internal, but non-public URLs (like the vendor directory)
• entire archives from external URLs (like Github)
• entire directories from local, non-public paths (like other local projects)

Installation

composer require backpack/basset
php artisan basset:install

Storage Symlink

Basset uses the public disk to store cached assets in a directory that is publicly-accesible. So it needs you to run php artisan storage:link to create the symlink. The installation command will create ask to run that, and to add that command to your composer.json. That will most likely make it work on your development/staging/production servers. If that's not the case, make sure you create the links manually wherever you need them, with the command php artisan storage:link.

Disk

By default Basset uses the public disk. If you're having trouble with the assets not showing up on page, you might have an old Laravel configuration for it. Please make sure your disk is properly setup on config/filsystems.php - it should look like the default one.

Usage

Now you can replace your standard CSS and JS loading HTML with the @basset() Blade directive:

// for files from CDNs
-    <script src="https://cdn.ckeditor.com/ckeditor5/36.0.1/classic/ckeditor.js">
+    @basset('https://cdn.ckeditor.com/ckeditor5/36.0.1/classic/ckeditor.js')

Basset will:

• copy that file from the vendor directory to your storage directory (aka. internalize the file)
• use the internalized file on all requests
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

Note
Basset is disabled by default on local environment (APP_ENV=local), if you want to change it please set BASSET_DEV_MODE=false on the env file.

Features

The package provides 4 Blade directives, @basset(), @bassetBlock(), @bassetArchive(), @bassetDirectory(), that will allow you to:

Easily self-host files from CDNs

-   <script src="http://localhost/storage/basset/cdn.ckeditor.com/ckeditor5/36.0.1/classic/ckeditor.js"></script>
+   @basset('https://cdn.ckeditor.com/ckeditor5/36.0.1/classic/ckeditor.js')

Basset will:

• copy that file from the CDN to your storage/app/public/basset directory (aka. internalize the file)
• use the local (internalized) file on all requests
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

Easily use local files from non-public directories

+ @basset(resource_path('assets/file.css'))
+ @basset(resource_path('assets/file.js'))

Basset will:

• copy the file from the provided path to storage/app/public/basset directory (aka. internalize the file)
• use the internalized file on all requests
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

Easily move code blocks to files, so they're cached

+   @bassetBlock('path/or/name-i-choose-to-give-this')
    <script>
      alert('Do stuff!');
    </script>
+   @endBassetBlock()

Basset will:

• create a file with that JS code in your storage/app/public/basset directory (aka. internalize the code)
• on all requests, use the local file (using <script src="">) instead of having the JS inline
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

Easily use archived assets (.zip & .tar.gz)

+    @bassetArchive('https://github.com/author/package-dist/archive/refs/tags/1.0.0.zip', 'package-1.0.0')
+    @basset('package-1.0.0/plugin.min.js')

Basset will:

• download the archive to your storage/app/public/basset directory (aka. internalize the code)
• unarchive it
• on all requests, use the local file (using <script src="">)
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

Easily internalize and use entire non-public directories

+    @bassetDirectory(resource_path('package-1.0.0/'), 'package-1.0.0')
+    @basset('package-1.0.0/plugin.min.js')

Basset will:

• copy the directory to your storage/app/public/basset directory (aka. internalize the code)
• on all requests, use the internalized file (using <script src="">)
• make sure that file is only loaded once per pageload

Easily internalize everything from the CLI, using a command

Copying an asset from CDNs to your server could take a bit of time, depending on the asset size. For large pages, that could even take entire seconds. You can easily prevent that from happening, by internalizing all assets in one go. You can use php artisan basset:internalize to go through all your blade files, and internalize everything that's possible. If you ever need it, basset:clear will delete all the files.

php artisan basset:cache         # internalizes all @bassets
php artisan basset:clear         # clears the basset directory

In order to speed up the first page load on production, we recommend you to add basset:internalize command to the deploy script.

Why does this package exist?

1. Keep a copy of the CDN dependencies on your side.

For many reasons you may want to avoid CDNs, CDNs may fail sometimes, the uptime is not 100%, or your app may need to work offline.

2. Forget about compiling your assets.

Most of the times backend developers end up messing around with npm and compiling dependencies. Backpack has been there, at some point we had almost 100Mb of assets on our main repo. Basset will keep all that mess away from backend developers.

3. Avoid multiple loads of the same assets.

In Laravel, if your CSS or JS assets are loaded inside a blade file:

// card.blade.php

<div class="card">
  Lorem ipsum
</div>

<script src="path/to/script.js"></script>

And you load that blade file multiple times per page (eg. include card.blade.php multiple times per page), you'll end up with that script tag being loaded multiple times, on the same page. To avoid that, Larvel 8 provides the @once directive, which will echo the thing only once, no matter how many times that blade file loaded:

// card.blade.php

<div class="card">
  Lorem ipsum
</div>

@once
<script src="path/to/script.js"></script>
@endonce

But what if your script.js file is not only loaded by card.blade.php, but also by other blade templates (eg. hero.blade.php, loaded on the same page? If you're using the @once directive, you will have the same problem all over again - that same script loaded multiple times.

That's where this package comes to the rescue. It will load the asset just ONCE, even if it's loaded from multiple blade files.

Change log

Please see the releases tab for more information on what has changed recently.

Testing

$ composer test

Contributing

Please see contributing.md for details and a todolist.

Security

If you discover any security related issues, please email [email protected] instead of using the issue tracker.

Credits

• Antonio Almeida
• Cristian Tabacitu
• All Contributors

License

MIT. Please see the license file for more information.