I just released version 2 of Django-css, and it’s on github now.

http://github.com/dziegler/django-css/tree/master

This is a significant departure from version 1 because it uses django_compressor rather than django-compress to do compression and versioning. As a result, it’s much easier to use and setup.

Usage is virtually identical to django_compressor, except you can also include HSS, Sass, CleverCSS, etc files in addition to just CSS. For example:

{% compress css xhtml %}
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{MEDIA_URL}}css/reset.css" type="text/css" charset="utf-8" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{MEDIA_URL}}css/base.ccss" type="text/css" charset="utf-8" />
{% endcompress %}

will render something like

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/CACHE/css/f7c661b7a124.css"
    type="text/css" media="all" charset="utf-8" />

(be sure to use the xhtml argument if you’re using xhtml, otherwise <link> won’t self-close). The only additional piece of work you need is something like this in your settings file:

COMPILER_FORMATS = {
    '.sass': {
        'binary_path':'sass',
        'arguments': '*.sass *.css'
    },
    '.hss': {
        'binary_path':'/home/dziegler/hss',
        'arguments':'*.hss'
    },
    '.ccss': {
        'binary_path':'clevercss',
        'arguments': '*.ccss'
    },
}

to tell django-css where to find your css compiler binaries, and how to pass it arguments.

If you’re not familiar with django_compressor, it’s basically a more elegant django-compress. From the django_compressor readme:

So now you include your css/js in templates, where they belong. Also, with django-compress you have to play around with a bunch of settings variables that not even I totally understand to get your versioning to work correctly. With django_compress if you want to update your compressed and versioned css/js, just flush the cache. During development you’re probably using

CACHE_BACKEND = 'dumy:///'

so it should automatically be updated.

Here is my nightmarish settings configuration with django-css version 1:

# django_css
COMPILER_FORMATS = {
    '.ccss': {
        'binary_path': 'clevercss',
        'arguments': 'SOURCE_FILENAME.ccss'
    }
}
COMPRESS_YUI_BINARY = os.path.join('java -jar '+PROJECT_PATH,'yuicompressor-2.4.2.jar')
COMPRESS=False
COMPRESS_CSS = {
    'css': {
        'source_filenames': ('css/reset.css','css/base.ccss','css/thickbox.css',
                             'css/uni-form-generic.css','css/uni-form.css',
                             'css/jquery-ui-1.7.2.custom.css',
                             'css/jquery.rating.css'),
        'output_filename': 'css/all_compressed.r?.css'
    },
    'iefix_css': {
        'source_filenames': ('css/iefix.ccss',),
        'output_filename': 'css/iefix_compressed.r?.css'
    }
}
COMPRESS_JS = {
    'js': {
        'source_filenames': ('js/json2.js','js/jquery.corners.min.js',
                             'js/jquery.form.js','js/thickbox.js','js/uni-form.jquery.js',
                             'js/jquery.MetaData.js','js/jquery.rating.js',
                             'js/jquery-ui-1.7.2.custom.min.js',
                             'js/base.js'),
        'output_filename': 'js/all_compressed.r?.js'
    }
}
COMPRESS_AUTO = True
COMPRESS_VERSION = True 
COMPRESS_CSS_FILTERS = ('django_css.filters.yui.YUICompressorFilter',)
COMPRESS_JS_FILTERS = ('django_css.filters.yui.YUICompressorFilter',)

and with django-css version 2:

# django_css
COMPILER_FORMATS = {
    '.ccss': {
        'binary_path':'clevercss',
        'arguments': '*.ccss'
    },
}
COMPRESS_YUI_BINARY = os.path.join('java -jar '+PROJECT_PATH,'yuicompressor-2.4.2.jar')
COMPRESS_CSS_FILTERS = ('compressor.filters.yui.YUICSSFilter',)
COMPRESS_JS_FILTERS = ('compressor.filters.yui.YUIJSFilter',)

So, I think this is a pretty big improvement. As always, feel free to send me any suggestions, comments, or questions. Plus, now that it’s on github you can fork or push changes.