Basset is an image converting and organizing tool, that allows developers to take care of only vector versions of assets used in iOS projects.

Main features of Basset can be describd in two steps:

1. Converting vector images (.svg, .eps, .pdf, .psd) to PNG(s) with resolutions and names properly recognized by iOS apps (@2x, @3x etc.)
2. Copying assets from previous steps to selected .xcasset files and creating proper JSONs there.

####Why just don't use XCode's PDF support?

1. Each PDF what is drag-and-dropped to XCode is assigned to @1x category in xcassets. For each of them you need to drag them again to "All" category, what is really painful when you're using hundreads of images in your projects.
2. It's easier to manage ordinary directory of assets than .xcassets. You don't have to use XCode to do that. so even non-developers can add resources to the project.
3. Check of this link: http://bjango.com/articles/idontusepdfs/

##Getting started

###Prerequisites

Basset requires:

• OSX (tested on Yosemite)
• Homebrew or docker installed

It should also work on other Unix-like system, but it wasn't tested there.

###Installation

####Homebrew

Open your terminal and type

brew tap Polidea/tap
brew install basset_ios

In order to upgrade Basset type:

brew update
brew upgrade basset_ios

Adobe Illustrator save to .SVG options

In order to export assets form Adobe Iloustrator to SVG files that are supported by Basset, you need to select "CSS Properties" set as "Style Attributes".

Also keep in mind to convert all fonts in the artboards to outlines (you can also use "Conver to outline" option during saving).

####Troubleshooting

Incorrect gradients when using SVG files

In order to convert SVG's to PNG's with correct gradients we're using librsvg that is someting incorrectly installed by Homebrew. In order to install Basset with librsvg you need to:

brew uninstall librsvg
brew uninstall imagemagick
brew uninstall basset_ios

brew install basset_ios

Outdated homebrew version

in case you've recieved this error:

Error: undefined method `desc' for ...

please make sure you've newest version of homebrew. You can update it by running brew update command

El Capitan XCode issue

If during installation on El Capitan you recieve

error: cannot run C compiled programs

run

xcode-select —install

##Usage

In order to use Basset you need to tell which directory you're using to store vector images, where generated PNGs will be store etc. You can do this by following naming convention written below, or by specifying explicit configuration via command line parameters or dedicated configuration file.

SVG is recommended file format for Basset.

Remember that you'll have to create .xcassets directory that you want to use on your own. If you'll have more than one .xcassets in your project, you'll need to specify which one you want Basset to operate on.

Naming convention

In order to use Basset you need to place:

• All vector images used in the project needs to be stored in Resources/Assets directory
• Default xcassets directory needs to be in Resources/Images.xcassets
• Generated PNG(s) will be stored in Resources/GeneratedAssets directory

If you'll follow this convention, you can can run Basset in root directory of your iOS project, and all vector images will be processed, and stored in proper xcassets directory.

If you'd like to use different settings, you need to provide configuration file, or override default settings in command line.

###Config file

# Default xcasset dir
xcassets_dir: Assets.xcassets

# Where vector images are kept
raw_assets: VectorAssets

# Where generated PNG(s) will be kept
generated_assets_dir: GeneratedAssets

# Should generated PNG(s) be merged to xcassets folder
merge_with_xcassets: True

# Should convert all assets every time
force_convert: False

Example

You can run Basset with configuration file by providing path to it as -c parameter, for example:

basset-ios -c "Assets/config.yml"

###Command line

basset-ios [-h] [-d XCASSETS_DIR] [-a RAW_ASSETS_DIR]
                 [-g GENERATED_ASSETS_DIR] [-m MERGE_WITH_XCASSETS]
                 [-c CONFIG] [-e EXTRACT_PATH]

arguments:
  -h, --help										show help message and exit
  -x, --xcassets_dir XCASSETS_DIR					path to directory with default xcassets directory
  -r, --raw_assets_dir RAW_ASSETS_DIR				path to directory with raw, vector based graphics
  -g, --generated_assets_dir GENERATED_ASSETS_DIR	path to directory where generated PNGs will be stored
  -m, --merge_with_xcassets MERGE_WITH_XCASSETS		will script process xcassets directories
  -f, --force_convert FORCE_CONVERT					should regenerate assets even when they were generated before
  -c, --config CONFIG								path to config file
  -e, --extract_path EXTRACT_PATH					if set to existing xcassets directory, will extract all assets from it to "raw_assets_dir"
    
  

Extracting assets from existing .xcassets

In case you'd have existing project, with existing .xcassets with PDFs, you can extract them to separate directory, so it could be used in the future.

In order to extract vectors from existing .xcassets directory, you need to run whi command:

basset_ios -e <path_to_xcassets_dir> -r <path_to_vector_assets_dir>

Example

1. First of all create new iOS project. Make sure it contains xcassets folder inside.

2. Create Assets folder, and put all your vector images in there.

3. Create config file:

xcassets_dir: test_basset/Images.xcassets
raw_assets: Assets
generated_assets_dir: GeneratedAssets
merge_with_xcassets: True
force_convert: False

and save it as config.yml in project root folder:

4. Open terminal, change current directory to your iOS project, and type:

basset_ios -c config.yml

5. All vector images should be converted to PNGs and put into selected xcassets folder.

All images are now visible in XCode:

##License Basset-ios is released under a MIT License. See LICENSE file for details.