Getting started
Material uses NPM scripts for its build system. Our package.json includes convenient methods for working with the framework.
To use our build system, you’ll need a copy of Material’s source code and Node. Follow these steps and you should be ready to rock:
-
Download and install Node.js, which we use to manage our dependencies. Then navigate to the root
/daemonite-materialdirectory and runnpm installto install build dependencies. -
Download and install Ruby, install Bundler from a terminal with
gem install bundler, and then runbundle install. This will install all Ruby dependencies, such as Jekyll (static site generator) and plugins.
When completed, you’ll be able to run the various commands provided from the command line. Our package.json includes the following commands and tasks:
| Task | Description |
|---|---|
npm run dist |
npm run dist creates the /css and /js directories with compiled files. |
npm run docs |
Builds CSS and JavaScript for docs. You can then run the documentation locally via npm run docs-serve. |
Run npm run to see all the npm scripts.
Local documentation
Running our documentation locally requires the use of Jekyll, a decently flexible static site generator that provides us: basic includes, Markdown-based files, templates, and more. Here’s how to get it started:
- Run through the getting started guide above to install Jekyll and other Ruby dependencies with
bundle install. - From the root
/daemonite-materialdirectory, runnpm run docs-servein the command line. - Open
http://127.0.0.1:9999/material/in your browser, and voilà (or just click on the Server address returned by the Terminal).
PostCSS
Material uses Autoprefixer (included in our build process) to automatically add vendor prefixes to some CSS properties at build time. Doing so saves us time and code by allowing us to write key parts of our CSS a single time while eliminating the need for vendor mixins.
We maintain the list of browsers supported in our package.json file.