RTLCSS

RTLCSS is a framework for converting Left-To-Right (LTR) Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) to Right-To-Left (RTL).

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Why RTLCSS	Install	Basic Usage	CLI	Advanced Usage	Options

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Introduction

In a right-to-left, top-to-bottom script (commonly shortened to right to left or abbreviated RTL), writing starts from the right of the page and continues to the left. For example Arabic script (the most widespread RTL writing system in modern times ).

Web development depends heavily on CSS to create visually engaging webpages, user interfaces for web applications, and user interfaces for many mobile applications. CSS defines how HTML elements are to be displayed via Positioning, Box model, Typographic and Visual properties, such as left:10px, padding-left:1em, text-align:right, ... etc.

Browsers will apply these properties AS IS regardless of the document language direction. This means in order for an international website to support RTL languages, it should adjust the entire CSS to render from right to left.

For example, this is how different github would be if it was to be viewed in an RTL language:

Just like a mirror, where everything gets flipped.

Why RTLCSS

Instead of authoring two sets of CSS files, one for each language direction. Now you can author the LTR version and RTLCSS will automatically create the RTL counterpart for you!

.example {
  display:inline-block;
  padding:5px 10px 15px 20px;
  margin:5px 10px 15px 20px;
  border-style:dotted dashed double solid;
  border-width:1px 2px 3px 4px;
  border-color:red green blue black;
  box-shadow: -1em 0 0.4em gray, 3px 3px 30px black;
}

Will be transformed into:

.example {
  display:inline-block;
  padding:5px 20px 15px 10px;
  margin:5px 20px 15px 10px;
  border-style:dotted solid double dashed;
  border-width:1px 4px 3px 2px;
  border-color:red black blue green;
  box-shadow: 1em 0 0.4em gray, -3px 3px 30px black;
}

Who's using RTLCSS

• AlertifyJS a javascript framework for developing pretty browser dialogs and notifications.
• Semantic a UI component library implemented using a set of specifications designed around natural language.
• WebEssentials2013 Web Essentials extends Visual Studio with a lot of new features that web developers have been missing for many years.
• WordPress WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog.

Install

npm install rtlcss

Basic usage

var rtlcss = require('rtlcss');
var result = rtlcss.process("body { direction:ltr; }");
//result == body { direction:rtl; }

RTLCSS preserves original input formatting and indentations.

CSS Syntax

A CSS rule has two main parts: a selector, and one or more declarations:

Supported CSS Properties (a-z)

background background-image background-position background-position-x border-bottom-left-radius border-bottom-right-radius border-color border-left border-left-color border-left-style border-left-width border-radius border-right border-right-color border-right-style border-right-width border-style border-top-left-radius border-top-right-radius border-width box-shadow clear cursor direction float left margin margin-left margin-right padding padding-left padding-right right text-align text-shadow transform transform-origin transition transition-property

Supported Processing Directives

When RTLing a CSS document, there are cases where it's impossible to know whether to mirror a property value, whether to change a rule selector, or whether to update a non-directional property. In such cases, RTLCSS provides processing directives in the form of CSS comments. Both standard /*rtl:...*/ and special/important /*!rtl:...*/ notations are supported.

Two sets of processing directives are available, on Rule and Declaration level.

Rule Level Directives:

Rule level directives are placed before the CSS rule.

Directive	Description
/*rtl:ignore*/	Ignores processing of this rule.
/*rtl:rename*/	Forces selector renaming by applying String Map.

Example

/*rtl:ignore*/
.code{
  direction:ltr;
  text-align:left;
}

Output

.code{
  direction:ltr;
  text-align:left;
}

Declaration Level Directives:

Declaration level directives are placed any where inside the declaration value.

Directive	Description
/*rtl:ignore*/	Ignores processing of this declaration.
/*rtl:{value}*/	Replaces the declaration value with {value}.
/*rtl:append:{value}*/	Appends {value} to the end of the declaration value.
/*rtl:prepend:{value}*/	Prepends {value} to the begining of the declaration value.
/*rtl:insert:{value}*/	Inserts {value} to where the directive is located inside the declaration value.

Example

body{
  font-family:"Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Arial/*rtl:prepend:"Droid Arabic Kufi", */;
  font-size:16px/*rtl:14px*/;
}

Output

body{
  font-family:"Droid Arabic Kufi", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Arial;
  font-size:14px;
}

CLI

Convert LTR CSS files to RTL using the command line.

$ rtlcss input.css output.rtl.css

For usage and available options see CLI documentaion.

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Advanced usage

// directly processes css and return a string containing the processed css
output = rtlcss.process(css [, options , rules, declarations, properties]);
output // processed CSS

// create a new RTLCSS instance, then process css with postcss options (such as source map)
result = rtlcss([options , rules, declarations, properties]).process(css, postcssOptions);
result.css // Processed CSS
result.map // Source map

// you can also group all configuration settings into a single object
result = rtlcss.configure(config).process(css, postcssOptions);
result.css // Processed CSS
result.map // Source map

Built on top of PostCSS, an awesome framework, providing you with the power of manipulating CSS via a JS API.

It can be combined with other processors, such as autoprefixer:

var processed = postcss()
  .use(rtlcss([options , rules, declarations, properties]).postcss)
  .use(autoprefixer().postcss)
  .process(css);

options (object)

Option	Default	Description
preserveComments	true	Preserves modified declarations comments as much as possible.
preserveDirectives	false	Preserves processing directives.
swapLeftRightInUrl	true	Swaps left and right in URLs.
swapLtrRtlInUrl	true	Swaps ltr and rtl in URLs.
swapWestEastInUrl	true	Swaps west and east in URLs.
autoRename	true	Applies to CSS rules containing no directional properties, it will update the selector by applying String Map.(See Why Auto-Rename?)
greedy	false	A false value forces selector renaming and url updates to respect word boundaries, for example: .ultra { ...} will not be changed to .urtla {...}
stringMap	see String Map	Applies to string replacement in renamed selectors and updated URLs
enableLogging	false	Outputs information about mirrored declarations to the console.
minify	false	Minifies output CSS, when set to true both preserveDirectives and preserveComments will be set to false .

stringMap (Array)

String map is a collection of map objects, where each defines a mapping between directional strings. It is used in renaming selectors and URL updates. The following is the default string map:

[
  {
    'name'    :	'left-right',
    'search'  :	['left', 'Left', 'LEFT'],
    'replace' :	['right', 'Right', 'RIGHT'],
    'options' : {
        'scope': options.swapLeftRightInUrl ? '*' : 'selector',
        'ignoreCase': false
      }
  },
  {
    'name'    : 'ltr-rtl',
    'search'  : ['ltr', 'Ltr', 'LTR'],
    'replace' : ['rtl', 'Rtl', 'RTL'],
    'options' :	{
        'scope': options.swapLtrRtlInUrl ? '*' : 'selector',
        'ignoreCase': false
      }
  },
  {
    'name':'west-east',
    'search': ['west', 'West', 'WEST'],
    'replace': ['east', 'East', 'EAST'],
    'options' :	{
        'scope': options.swapWestEastInUrl ? '*' : 'selector',
        'ignoreCase': false
      }
  }
]

To override any of the default maps, just add your own with the same name. A map object consists of the following:

Property	Type	Description
name	string	Name of the map object
search	string or Array	The string or list of strings to search for or replace with.
replace	string or Array	The string or list of strings to search for or replace with.
options	object	Defines map options.

The map options is optional, and consists of the following:

Property	Type	Default	Description
scope	string	*	Defines the scope in which this map is allowed, 'selector' for selector renaming, 'url' for url updates and '*' for both.
ignoreCase	Boolean	true	Indicates if the search is case-insensitive or not.
greedy	Boolean	reverts to options.greedy	A false value forces selector renaming and url updates to respect word boundaries.

Example

// a simple map, for swapping "prev" with "next" and vice versa.
{
  "name"    : "prev-next",
  "search"  : "prev",
  "replace" : "next"
}

// a more detailed version, considering the convention used in the authored CSS document.
{
  "name"    : "prev-next",
  "search"  : ["prev", "Prev", "PREV"],
  "replace" : ["next", "Next", "NEXT"],
  options   : {"ignoreCase":false}
}

rules (array)

Array of RTLCSS rule Processing Instructions (PI), these are applied on the CSS rule level:

Property	Type	Description
name	string	Name of the PI (used in logging).
expr	RegExp	Regular expression object that will be matched against the comment preceeding the rule.
important	boolean	Controls whether to insert the PI at the start or end of the rules PIs list.
action	function	The action to be called when a match is found, and it will be passed a rule node. the functions is expected to return a boolean, true to stop further processing of the rule, otherwise false.

Visit PostCSS to find out more about rule node.

Example

// RTLCSS rule processing instruction
{
  "name"        : "ignore",
  "expr"        : /\/\*rtl:ignore\*\//img,
  "important"   : true,
  "action"      : function (rule) {
                    return  true;
                  }
}

declarations (array)

Array of RTLCSS declaration Processing Instructions (PI), these are applied on the CSS declaration level:

Property	Type	Description
name	string	Name of the PI (used in logging).
expr	RegExp	Regular expression object that will be matched against the declaration raw value.
important	boolean	Controls whether to insert the PI at the start or end of the declarations PIs list.
action	function	The action to be called when a match is found, and it will be passed a decl node. the functions is expected to return a boolean, true to stop further processing of the declaration, otherwise false.

Visit PostCSS to find out more about decl node.

Example

// RTLCSS declaration processing instruction
{
    "name"      : "ignore",
    "expr"      : /(?:[^]*)(?:\/\*rtl:ignore)([^]*?)(?:\*\/)/img,
    "important" : true,
    "action"    : function (decl) {
                    if (!config.preserveDirectives)
                        decl._value.raw = decl._value.raw.replace(/\/\*rtl:[^]*?\*\//img, "");
                    return true;
                  }
},

properties (array)

Array of RTLCSS properties Processing Instructions (PI), these are applied on the CSS property level:

Property	Type	Description
name	string	Name of the PI (used in logging).
expr	RegExp	Regular expression object that will be matched against the declaration property name.
important	boolean	Controls whether to insert the PI at the start or end of the declarations PIs list.
action	function	The action to be called when a match is found, it will be passed a prop (string holding the CSS property name) and value (string holding the CSS property raw value). If options.preserveComments == true, comments in the raw value will be replaced by the Unicode Character 'REPLACEMENT CHARACTER' (U+FFFD) � (this is to simplify pattern matching). The function is expected to return an object containing the modified version of the property and its value.

Example

// RTLCSS property processing instruction
{
    "name"      : "direction",
    "expr"      : /direction/im,
    "important" : true,
    "action"    : function (prop, value) {
                    return { 'prop': prop, 'value': util.swapLtrRtl(value) };
                  }
}

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Bugs and Issues

Have a bug or a feature request? please feel free to open a new issue .

Release Notes

• v1.7.0 [19 Sep. 2015]

  • Add calc support.
  • Mark rule as flipped when values are updated by decl. directives.
  • Allow further processing for rules that uses rename directive.

• v1.6.3 [28 Aug. 2015]

  • CLI: fix source map option (issue #40).
  • Upgrade to POSTCSS v5.0.x

• v1.6.2 [21 Jul. 2015]

  • CLI: fix loading custom configuration file manually via the --config flag. Thanks @KeyKaKiTO

• v1.6.1 [17 Mar. 2015]

  • Fixed flipping units having more than 1 digit before the decimal point.

• v1.6.0 [15 Mar. 2015]

  • Support flipping matrix3d transform.

• v1.5.2 [28 Feb. 2015]

  • Fix flipping string maps containing regular expressions special characters (Fixes #24).

• v1.5.1 [14 Feb. 2015]

  • Fix flipping multiple shadows when a hex color was used. Thanks @ocean90

• v1.5.0 [30 Jan. 2015]

  • CLI: New option -e,--ext to set output files extension when processing a directory.

• v1.4.3 [24 Jan. 2015]

  • Upgrade to POSTCSS v4.0.x Thanks @necolas

• v1.4.2 [24 Oct. 2014]

  • CLI: Switch to Unix line endings (Fixes #14)

• v1.4.1 [24 Oct. 2014]

  • CLI: Print processing errors.

• v1.4.0 [10 Oct. 2014]

  • CLI: Support processing a directory. see CLI documentation

• v1.3.1 [29 Sep. 2014]

  • Update README.md (typos).

• v1.3.0 [28 Sep. 2014]

  • New feature - String Maps. Add your own set of swappable strings, for example (prev/next).
  • Preserves lowercase, UPPERCASE and Capitalization when swapping left, right, ltr, rtl, west and east.

• v1.2.0 [26 Sep. 2014]

  • Support !important comments for directives (enables flipping minified stylesheets).

• v1.1.0 [26 Sep. 2014]

  • Upgrade to POSTCSS v2.2.5
  • Support flipping border-color, border-style and background-position-x

• v1.0.0 [24 Aug. 2014]

  • Upgrade to POSTCSS v2.2.1
  • Support flipping urls in '@import' rule.
  • Fix JSON parse error when configuration file is UTF-8 encoded.
  • Better minification.

• v0.9.0 [10 Aug. 2014]

  • New configuration loader.
  • CLI configuration can be set using one of the following methods:
    • Specify the configuration file manually via the --config flag.
    • Put your config into your projects package.json file under the rtlcssConfig property
    • Use a special file .rtlcssrc or .rtlcssrc.json

• v0.8.0 [8 Aug. 2014]

  • Fix source map generation.

• v0.7.0 [4 Jul. 2014]

  • Fix flipping linear-gradient.

• v0.6.0 [4 Jul. 2014]

  • Allow additional comments inside ignore/rename rule level directives.

• v0.5.0 [11 Jun. 2014]

  • Add CLI support.

• v0.4.0 [5 Apr. 2014]

  • Fix flipping transform-origin.
  • Update autoRename to search for all swappable words.

• v0.3.0 [5 Apr. 2014]

  • Support flipping rotateZ.
  • Fix flipping rotate3d.
  • Fix flipping skew, skewX and skewY.
  • Fix flipping cursor value.
  • Fix flipping translate3d.
  • Update flipping background horizontal position to treat 0 as 0%

• v0.2.1 [20 Mar. 2014]

  • Upgrade to POSTCSS v0.3.4

• v0.2.0 [20 Mar. 2014]

  • Support combining with other processors.
  • Support rad, grad & turn angle units when flipping linear-gradient
  • Fix typo in config.js

• v0.1.3 [7 Mar. 2014]

  • Fix missing include in rules.js

• v0.1.2 [5 Mar. 2014]

  • New option: minify output CSS.
  • Updated README.md

• v0.1.1 [4 Mar. 2014]

  • Initial commit.