Semantic UI for Meteor

This package integrates Semantic UI into Meteor and lets you configure what parts you need.

Installation

Meteor <1.3

meteor add semantic:ui flemay:less-autoprefixer jquery

Continue to the Usage section.

Meteor 1.3+

meteor remove standard-minifier-css

meteor add semantic:ui juliancwirko:postcss less jquery

Add the following to package.json

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "autoprefixer": "^6.3.1",
    "postcss": "^6.0.22",
    "postcss-load-config": "^1.2.0"
  },
  "postcss": {
    "plugins": {
      "autoprefixer": {"browsers": ["last 2 versions"]}
    }
  }
}

After saving the changes to package.json, run:

meteor npm install

Usage

1. Create an empty custom.semantic.json inside a /client/ folder somewhere in your project.
   Example: /client/lib/semantic-ui/custom.semantic.json.
2. Start meteor
3. Edit the file custom.semantic.json to select only the definitions and themes you want
   Example: set themes basic to true, leave default as true
4. Save the file and it will generate Semantic UI
5. Check the generated-structure table below for editable files and folders.

IMPORTANT: If you are happy with the default values you will NEED to remove .custom.semantic.json to generate Semantic UI. (see Generating Trigger)

NOTE: Another way to use ONLY the default values is to use this package: https://atmospherejs.com/semantic/ui-css meteor add semantic:ui-css

Getting Started & Initializing Modules

Semantic UI requries some components to be initialized or they will not work (Dropdowns, Menus, Accordions, etc) Refer to the Usage sections in a module on how to initialize each element eg: Semantic UI Accordion Usage

Example of initializing a dropdown using a template helper

Template.myDropdown.rendered = function() {
  // be sure to use this.$ so it is scoped to the template instead of to the window
  this.$('.ui.dropdown').dropdown({on: 'hover'});
  // other SUI modules initialization
};

Abstracted version which you use on any template helper

function initAccordions(template) {
  template.$('.ui.accordion').accordion();
}
function initDropdowns(template) {
  template.$('.ui.dropdown').dropdown({on: 'hover'});
}

Template.myDropdowns.onRendered({
  initDropdowns(this);
})

custom.semantic.json

custom.semantic.json is the most important file. If it is empty, semantic:ui will generate the content with all the definitions and themes. By default, it sets to true all definitions and the core-theme "default"(which should always be true).

{
  "definitions": {
    "accordion": true,
    "ad": true,
    "api": true,
    ...
  },
  "themes": {
    "amazon": false,
    "basic": false,
    "bookish": false,
    "bootstrap3": false,
    "chubby": false,
    "classic": false,
    "default": true,
    ...
  }
}

Changing any value will trigger the package to regenerate the files/folders accordingly.

Be aware when you strip away definitions. The site definition is always needed and so is the default theme. Here an example of the most minimal custom.semantic.json file.

{
  "definitions": {
    "site": true // <- needs to be true
  },
  "themes": {
    "basic": true, // <- a theme
    "default": true // <- core "theme" needs to be true
  }
}

Generated Structure

This package generates the following structure based on custom.semantic.json

+- definitions/
+- site/
+- themes/
|- .custom.semantic.json
|- custom.semantic.json
|- semantic.less
|- theme.config.import.less
|- theme.import.less

The following table explains the generated files/folders and if they are editable without losing any changes when generating.

File/Folder	Description	Generated	Editable
definitions/	contains the less and javascript definitions for each component	always	no
site/	contains your current site's theme	only if it does not exist	yes
themes/	contains pre-packaged themes including Semantic's default theme	always	no
.custom.semantic.json	copy of custom.semantic.json (see Generating Trigger)	always	no
custom.semantic.json	contains definitions and themes to be included or not	only if the file is empty	yes
semantic.less	imports the definitions	always	no
theme.config.import.less	defines which theme to use per components	only if the file does not exist	yes
theme.import.less	imports the right themes	always	no

site/

This folder contains your current site's theme. It is generated only when it does not exist. Therefore if you change custom.semantic.json to turn definitions/themes on/off, then it will not affect site/. You will either need to add/remove files in site/ or remove the site/ folder so it can be regenerated again.

Generating Trigger

Every time Meteor starts (or refreshes) it calls the package semantic:ui to generate Semantic UI.

The package has a simple mechanism based on the difference of custom.semantic.json and .custom.semantic.json to avoid generating all the Semantic UI files and folders each time Meteor starts (or refreshes).

Therefore if the file .custom.semantic.json does not exist or it is different from custom.semantic.json then it will generate Semantic UI.

Dependencies

(Meteor <1.3) flemay:less-autoprefixer: Semantic UI needs autoprefixer to be compiled.

Note 1: You can choose any less-autoprefixer package.

Note 2: Since the flemay:less-autoprefixer package compiles LESS files you don't need the less package.

(Meteor 1.3+) juliancwirko:postcss: Semantic UI needs autoprefixer for adding vendor prefixes.

(Meteor 1.3+) less: is needed to compile the LESS files to CSS when building.

semantic:ui-data is being used to get Semantic UI files.

Contributing

Contributors are very welcome.

License

MIT license

Credits and Acknowledgements

nemo64:bootstrap: semantic:ui has been inspired by nemo64:bootstrap. It uses a very similar approach.