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I am looking for an implementation of a CSS generator in PHP. The idea is that the script gets some input like : array('element' => 'div', 'color' => '#00ff00') and generates a file with :

div {
  color : #00ff00; 
}

Or something similar, you get the idea. Please do not point to some software or online service, I am looking for an actual open source implementation that I can possibly use in my projects, like a PHP class or so.

Is there an open source implementation of that which you know of ?

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    It seems pretty easy to write one yourself, but who knows. Commented Sep 7, 2012 at 0:43
  • 1
    I could write one easily indeed, but I thought there is no need to reinvent the wheel if there is something out there. Commented Sep 7, 2012 at 0:44
  • 3
    the wheel is not very complicated in this case, reinvent it Commented Sep 7, 2012 at 0:46
  • well, there is a javascript solution called www.lesscss.org, hope it helps Commented Sep 7, 2012 at 0:46
  • hmm, i really don't see why all the negative votes, i guess people don't like the question. Anyway, I respect that. Commented Sep 7, 2012 at 0:48

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LESS or SASS...both free, open source. They will provide at least a good starting point for CSS parsing and templating logic (even if it may not be the right solution-see comments).

  • LESS - JavaScript, C#, PHP versions exist (maybe others).
  • SASS - Ruby, JavaScript, and PHP

Unlike some of the comments state, this isn't a trivial task if you want the tool to be useful (I'm assuming your code example is simplified from a full implementation).

There are a couple of ways to implement CSS pre-processing:

  • In the browser (the JS versions). This puts a lot of load on the browser with every page view and can cause issues.

  • On the server. This approach usually generates then caches the output, so it's acceptably fast. I like this for development work because I can see my changes in real time.

  • Pre-compilation. With this approach, you generate the final CSS independently of the web server and statically link to it. This is the highest performance approach, but requires the most manual work.

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7 Comments

They both seem pretty nice solutions, I will definitely check them. Do you think any of them is superior in terms of integrating with simple PHP projects ?
I only have experience with LESS in c#; my experience base been very positive in that regard. I just added a link to a PHP port of LESS.
LessPHP seems pretty interesting, I will take a closer look now thanx ! leafo.net/lessphp
If you search this site for LESS or SASS you should find a variety of info. Both are very popular.
Just to clarify, I +1 your answer. In my case, i will need to create sort of a panel that gets user defined values, produces a new CSS file and includes it in the page. I'm not particularly sure if LESS/SASS are a bit overkill for that, but I will definitely investigate.
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