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Build Informataion

Source Files

To make development easier, CSS files are authored in a conditional logic source format that is processed with regular expressions. Sometimes, it is easier to edit the source format and re-generate the CSS output than it is to edit the final output directly. If your product provides CSS in the source format, you will find the source files as well as the Apache Ant build scripts necessary to do the transformation in a folder usually named csssrc. (Check your product documentation to determine the exact location and if the source format is provided or not.) In addition to the standard Ant tasks, the build scripts necessary to do the transformation requires the Apache ant-contrib tasks.

Here is an example illustrating our source format:

/*This CSS was built on @BUILDDATE@. (version: @BUILDNUMBER@)*/
.lotusExampleStyle {
	padding:[ltr]12px 12px 12px 20px[/ltr][rtl]12px 20px 12px 12px[/rtl];
	background-position:@LEFT@ bottom;
	background-repeat:repeat-x;
	background-image:url(@IMAGESROOT@/exampleBackground.gif)
}
/*#include "foo/anotherExampleFile.css" */

Keywords

Keywords are replaced with a value at build time and are denoted by @ characters. The following keywords are defined by the build script:

BUILDDATE
The date on which the build was run
BUILDNUMBER
An identifier unique to each build used for support purposes
LEFT
The string "left" in left-to-right languages. The string "right" in right-to-left languages.
RIGHT
The string "right" in left-to-right languages. The string "left" in right-to-left languages.
IMAGESROOT
The path to a folder containing images shared across all themes. This is dynamically generated on a per-directory basis so it has the proper number of ".." path components relative to the file in which the subsitution is made.
THEMEIMAGESROOT
The path to a folder containing images that are specific to the current theme. This is dynamically generated on a per-directory basis so it has the proper number of ".." path components relative to the file in which the subsitution is made.

Additional keywords are defined in the file css.properties.

Sections that are only to be included in left-to-right languages are surrounded by [ltr] and [/ltr]. Sections that are only to be included in right-to-left languages are surrounded by [rtl] and [/rtl]. NOTE: [ltr]...[/ltr] and [rtl]...[/rtl] sections are only processed at this time in files whose names end in the suffix _bidi.css. At some point in the future, the build script will be changed to no longer require this naming convention.

Files can be included inside each other at build time using the /*#include "filename.css" */ syntax. This is an alternative to the CSS @import syntax that causes additional HTTP requests at runtime.

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