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title: Requirements summary: How to include and require other assets in your templates such as javascript and CSS files.

Requirements

The requirements class takes care of including CSS and JavaScript into your applications. This is preferred to hard coding any references in the <head> tag of your template, as it enables a more flexible handling through the Requirements class.

The examples below are using certain folder naming conventions (CSS files in css/, JavaScript files in javascript/). SilverStripe core modules like cms use a different naming convention (CSS and JavaScript files in client/src/). The Requirements class can work with arbitrary file paths.

Template Requirements API

/templates/SomeTemplate.ss

<% require css("<my-module-dir>/css/some_file.css") %>
<% require themedCSS("some_themed_file") %>
<% require javascript("<my-module-dir>/javascript/some_file.js") %>

Requiring assets from the template is restricted compared to the PHP API.

PHP Requirements API

It is common practice to include most Requirements either in the init()-method of your controller, or as close to rendering as possible (e.g. in FormField).

use SilverStripe\Control\Director;
use SilverStripe\View\Requirements;

class MyCustomController extends Controller
{
    protected function init()
    {
        parent::init();

        Requirements::javascript("<my-module-dir>/javascript/some_file.js");
        Requirements::css("<my-module-dir>/css/some_file.css");
    }
}

CSS Files

use SilverStripe\View\Requirements;

Requirements::css($path, $media);

If you're using the CSS method a second argument can be used. This argument defines the 'media' attribute of the <link> element, so you can define 'screen' or 'print' for example.

Requirements::css("<my-module-dir>/css/some_file.css", "screen,projection");

Javascript Files

Requirements::javascript($path, $options);

A variant on the inclusion of custom javascript is the inclusion of templated javascript. Here, you keep your JavaScript in a separate file and instead load, via search and replace, several PHP-generated variables into that code.

$vars = [
    "MemberID" => Security::getCurrentUser()->ID,
];

Requirements::javascriptTemplate("<my-module-dir>/javascript/some_file.js", $vars);

In this example, some_file.js is expected to contain a replaceable variable expressed as MemberID.

If you are using front-end script combination mechanisms, you can optionally declare that your included files provide these scripts. This will ensure that subsequent Requirement calls that rely on those included scripts will not double include those files.

Requirements::javascript('<my-module-dir>/javascript/dist/bundle.js', ['provides' => [
    '<my-module-dir>/javascript/jquery.js'
    '<my-module-dir>/javascript/src/main.js',
    '<my-module-dir>/javascript/src/functions.js'
]]);
Requirements::javascript('<my-module-dir>/javascript/jquery.js'); // Will will skip this file

You can also use the second argument to add the 'async' and/or 'defer attributes to the script tag generated:

Requirements::javascript(
    "<my-module-dir>/javascript/some_file.js", 
    [
        "async" => true,
        "defer" => true,
    ]
);

Custom Inline CSS or Javascript

You can also quote custom script directly. This may seem a bit ugly, but is useful when you need to transfer some kind of 'configuration' from the database in a raw format. You'll need to use the heredoc syntax to quote JS and CSS, this is generally speaking the best way to do these things - it clearly marks the copy as belonging to a different language.

Requirements::customScript(<<<JS
  alert("hi there");
JS
);

Requirements::customCSS(<<<CSS
  .tree li.$className {
    background-image: url($icon);
  }
CSS
);

Combining Files

You can concatenate several CSS or javascript files into a single dynamically generated file. This increases performance by reducing HTTP requests.

Requirements::combine_files(
    'foobar.js',
    [
        '<my-module-dir>/javascript/foo.js',
        '<my-module-dir>/javascript/bar.js',
    ]
);

To make debugging easier in your local environment, combined files is disabled when running your application in `dev` mode. You can re-enable dev combination by setting `Requirements_Backend.combine_in_dev` to true.

Configuring combined file storage

In some situations or server configurations, it may be necessary to customise the behaviour of generated javascript files in order to ensure that current files are served in requests.

By default, files will be generated on demand in the format assets/_combinedfiles/name-<hash>.js, where <hash> represents the hash of the source files used to generate that content. The default flysystem backend, as used by the [AssetStore](api:SilverStripe\Assets\Storage\AssetStore) backend, is used for this storage, but it can be substituted for any other backend.

You can also use any of the below options in order to tweak this behaviour:

Requirements.disable_flush_combined - By default all combined files are deleted on flush. If combined files are stored in source control, and thus updated manually, you might want to turn this on to disable this behaviour.
Requirements_Backend.combine_hash_querystring - By default the <hash> of the source files is appended to the end of the combined file (prior to the file extension). If combined files are versioned in source control, or running in a distributed environment (such as one where the newest version of a file may not always be immediately available) then it may sometimes be necessary to disable this. When this is set to true, the hash will instead be appended via a querystring parameter to enable cache busting, but not in the filename itself. I.e. assets/_combinedfiles/name.js?m=<hash>
Requirements_Backend.default_combined_files_folder - This defaults to _combinedfiles, and is the folder within the configured asset backend that combined files will be stored in. If using a backend shared with other systems, it is usually necessary to distinguish combined files from other assets.
Requirements_Backend.combine_in_dev - By default combined files will not be combined except in test or live environments. Turning this on will allow for pre-combining of files in development mode.

In some cases it may be necessary to create a new storage backend for combined files, if the default location is not appropriate. Normally a single backend is used for all site assets, so a number of objects must be replaced. For instance, the below will set a new set of dependencies to write to mysite/javascript/combined

---
Name: myrequirements
---
SilverStripe\View\Requirements:
  disable_flush_combined: true
SilverStripe\View\Requirements_Backend:
  combine_in_dev: true
  combine_hash_querystring: true
  default_combined_files_folder: 'combined'
SilverStripe\Core\Injector\Injector:
  # Create adapter that points to the custom directory root
  SilverStripe\Assets\Flysystem\PublicAdapter.custom-adapter:
    class: SilverStripe\Assets\Flysystem\PublicAssetAdapter
    constructor:
      Root: ./mysite/javascript
  # Set flysystem filesystem that uses this adapter
  League\Flysystem\Filesystem.custom-filesystem:
    class: 'League\Flysystem\Filesystem'
    constructor:
      Adapter: '%$SilverStripe\Assets\Flysystem\PublicAdapter.custom-adapter'
  # Create handler to generate assets using this filesystem
  SilverStripe\Assets\Storage\GeneratedAssetHandler.custom-generated-assets:
    class: SilverStripe\Assets\Flysystem\GeneratedAssets
    properties:
      Filesystem: %$League\Flysystem\Filesystem.custom-filesystem
  # Assign this generator to the requirements builder
  SilverStripe\View\Requirements_Backend:
    properties:
      AssetHandler: '%$SilverStripe\Assets\Storage\GeneratedAssetHandler.custom-generated-assets'

In the above configuration, automatic expiry of generated files has been disabled, and it is necessary for the developer to maintain these files manually. This may be useful in environments where assets must be pre-cached, where scripts must be served alongside static files, or where no framework php request is guaranteed. Alternatively, files may be served from instances other than the one which generated the page response, and file synchronisation might not occur fast enough to propagate combined files to mirrored filesystems.

In any case, care should be taken to determine the mechanism appropriate for your development and production environments.

Combined CSS Files

You can also combine CSS files into a media-specific stylesheets as you would with the Requirements::css call - use the third paramter of the combine_files function:

$loader = SilverStripe\View\ThemeResourceLoader::inst();
$themes = SilverStripe\View\SSViewer::get_themes();

$printStylesheets = [
    $loader->findThemedCSS('print_HomePage.css', $themes),
    $loader->findThemedCSS('print_Page.css', $themes)
];

SilverStripe\View\Requirements::combine_files('print.css', $printStylesheets, 'print');

By default, all requirements files are flushed (deleted) when ?flush querystring parameter is set. This can be disabled by setting the Requirements.disable_flush_combined config to true.

When combining CSS files, take care of relative urls, as these will not be re-written to match the destination location of the resulting combined CSS.

Combined JS Files

You can also add the 'async' and/or 'defer' attributes to combined Javascript files as you would with the Requirements::javascript call - use the third paramter of the combine_files function:

$loader = SilverStripe\View\ThemeResourceLoader::inst();
$themes = SilverStripe\View\SSViewer::get_themes();

$scripts = [
    $loader->findThemedJavascript('some_script.js', $themes),
    $loader->findThemedJavascript('some_other_script.js', $themes)
];

SilverStripe\View\Requirements::combine_files('scripts.js', $scripts, ['async' => true, 'defer' => true]);

Minification of CSS and JS files

You can minify combined Javascript and CSS files at runtime using an implementation of the SilverStripe\View\Requirements_Minifier interface.

namespace MyProject;

use SilverStripe\View\Requirements_Minifier;

class MyMinifier implements Requirements_Minifier
{
    /**
     * Minify the given content
     *
     * @param string $content
     * @param string $type Either js or css
     * @param string $filename Name of file to display in case of error
     * @return string minified content
     */    
    public function minify ($content, $type, $fileName)
    {
        // Minify $content;

        return $minifiedContent;
    }
}

Then, inject this service in Requirements_Backend.

SilverStripe\Core\Injector\Injector:
  SilverStripe\View\Requirements_Backend:
    properties:
      MinifyCombinedFiles: true
      Minifier: %$MyProject\MyMinifier

While the framework does afford you the option of minification at runtime, we recommend using one of many frontend build tools to do this for you, e.g. [Webpack](https://webpack.github.io/), [Gulp](http://gulpjs.com/), or [Grunt](https://gruntjs.com/).

Clearing assets

Requirements::clear();

Clears all defined requirements. You can also clear specific requirements.

Requirements::clear('modulename/javascript/some-lib.js');

Depending on where you call this command, a Requirement might be *re-included* afterwards.

Blocking

Requirements can also be explicitly blocked from inclusion, which is useful to avoid conflicting JavaScript logic or CSS rules. These blocking rules are independent of where the block() call is made. It applies both for already included requirements, and ones included after the block() call.

One common example is to block the core jquery.js added by various form fields and core controllers, and use a newer version in a custom location. This assumes you have tested your application with the newer version.

Requirements::block('silverstripe-admin/thirdparty/jquery/jquery.js');

The CMS also uses the `Requirements` system, and its operation can be affected by `block()` calls. Avoid this by limiting the scope of your blocking operations, e.g. in `init()` of your controller.

Inclusion Order

Requirements acts like a stack, where everything is rendered sequentially in the order it was included. There is no way to change inclusion-order, other than using Requirements::clear and rebuilding the whole set of requirements.

Inclusion order is both relevant for CSS and Javascript files in terms of dependencies, inheritance and overlays - be careful when messing with the order of requirements.

Javascript placement

By default, SilverStripe includes all Javascript files at the bottom of the page body, unless there's another script already loaded, then, it's inserted before the first <script> tag. If this causes problems, it can be configured.

Requirements::set_force_js_to_bottom(true);

Requirements.force_js_to_bottom, will force SilverStripe to write the Javascript to the bottom of the page body, even if there is an earlier script tag.

If the Javascript files are preferred to be placed in the <head> tag rather than in the <body> tag, Requirements.write_js_to_body should be set to false.

Requirements::set_write_js_to_body(false);

Direct resource urls

In templates you can use the $resourcePath() or $resourceURL() helper methods to inject links to resources directly. If you want to link to resources within a specific module you can use the vendor/module:some/path/to/file.jpg syntax.

E.g.

<div class="loading">
    <img src="$resourceURL('silverstripe/admin:client/dist/images/spinner.gif')" />
</div>

In PHP you can directly resolve these urls using the ModuleResourceLoader helper.

$file = ModuleResourceLoader::singleton()
  ->resolveURL('silverstripe/admin:client/dist/images/spinner.gif');

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