Changing web essentials output location for compiled less files

Question

How do I change the location where Web Essentials place my compiled Less css files?

Answer 1

If you are using Visual Studio 2013.

In your Visual Studio menu, there is WEB ESSENTIALS >> Create Solution Settings.

After the solution settings are created, a WebEssentials-Settings.json file will be generated in the Solution Items folder.

Go to the Less section of that file:

"Less": {
"CompileOnBuild": false,
"CompileOnSave": true,
"EnableChainCompilation": true,
"GenerateSourceMaps": true,
"MinifyInPlace": false,

"OutputDirectory": null,
// "OutputDirectory": "..\\..\\Content",

"ProcessSourceMapsForEditorEnhancements": true,
"ShowPreviewPane": true,
"StrictMath": false
},

Edit OutputDirectory. Change null into your target folder. Please note the \ escape character is necessary. The ~\ prefix will not work.

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Another place to look at is TOOLS >> Options. In the Options dialog, find Web Essentials group of settings. Under LESS, there is Custom output directory.

When editing in this dialog, no need for the \ escape character. You can input ..\..\Content\CustomCss.

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If you happened to use Visual Studio 2012, there is some other application to help. For example, koala.

Here is the link.

This documentation shows how to change the output path.