mensch

A decent CSS parser.

usage

npm install mensch

var mensch = require('mensch');

var ast = mensch.parse('p { color: black; }');
var css = mensch.stringify(ast);

console.log(css);
// => p { color: black; }

api

parse(css, [options={}])

Convert a CSS string or an array of lexical tokens into a stringify-able AST.

• css {String|Array} CSS string or array of lexical tokens
• [options] {Object}
• [options.comments=false] {Boolean} Allow comment nodes in the AST.
• [options.position=false] {Boolean} Allow line/column position in the AST.

When {position: true}, AST node will have a position property:

{
  type: 'comment',
  text: ' Hello World! ',
  position: {
    start: { line: 1, col: 1 },
    end: { line 1, col: 18 }
  }
}

stringify(ast, [options={}])

Convert a stringify-able AST into a CSS string.

• ast {Object} A stringify-able AST
• [options] {Object}
• [options.comments=false] {Boolean} Allow comments in the stringified CSS.
• [options.indentation=''] {String} E.g., indentation: ' ' will indent by two spaces.

lex(css)

Convert a CSS string to an array of lexical tokens for use with .parse().

• css {String} CSS

non-validating

Mensch is a non-validating CSS parser. While it can handle the major language constructs just fine, and it can recover from gaffes like mis-matched braces and missing or extraneous semi-colons, mensch can't tell you when it finds invalid CSS like a misspelled property name or a misplaced @import.

comments

Unlike most CSS parsers, mensch allows comments to be represented in the AST and subsequently stringified with the {comments: true} option.

var options = { comments: true };

var ast = mensch.parse('.red { color: red; /* Natch. */ }', options);
var css = mensch.stringify(ast, options);

console.log(css);
//=> .red { color: red; /* Natch. */ }

However, comments within the context of a selector, property, etc., will be ignored. These comments are difficult to represent in the AST.

var ast = mench.parse('.red /*1*/ { color /*2*/: /*3*/ red /*4*/; }', options);
var css = mesch.stringify(ast, options);

console.log(css);
//=> .red { color: red; }

ast

The structure of mensch's AST riffs on several existing CSS parsers, but it might not be 100% compatible with other CSS parsers. Here it is in a nutshell:

{
  type: 'stylesheet'
  stylesheet: {
    rules: [{
      type: 'rule',
      selectors: ['.foo'],
      declarations: [{
        type: 'property',
        name: 'color',
        value: 'black'
      }]
    }]
  }
}

credits

Mensch is based on several existing CSS parsers, but nzakas/parser-lib and visionmedia/css are notable influences.