MIT license

version 0.1

Cactus is a simple java multi-module application dedicated to process and obfuscate JavaScript and Css code. It can be used as a maven plugin inside java projects being managed by maven as well as standalone CLI utility for js/css obfuscation.

Cactus uses:

• Apache Maven - build/management tool
• YUI Compressor - js/css files obfuscation
• Simple XML - XML mapping/(de)serialization

If you haven't maven installed please download and install it first.

Having maven installed and configured we can go to cactus-plugin installation.

• clone the cactus repo, open terminal/CLI and run:
  git clone [email protected]:nbabinski/Cactus.git
cd Cactus
• install:
  mvn install

CLI output:

[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 0.702s
[INFO] Finished at: Tue Apr 19 01:36:31 EEST 2011
[INFO] Final Memory: 2M/48M

BUILD SUCCESS means cactus plugin was successfully installed.
Congratulations, now you have cactus-plugin installed.

Cactus plugin is executed at process-sources life-cycle phase.

Now we can configure your pom.xml file to use cactus plugin:

<build>
	<plugins>
	...
		<plugin>
			<groupId>com.cactus</groupId>
			<artifactId>cactus-plugin</artifactId>
			<version>0.1</version>
			<configuration>
				<jsBaseDirectory>src/main/webapp/js</jsBaseDirectory>
				<outputDirectory>cache</outputDirectory>					
			</configuration>
			<executions>
				<execution>
					<goals>
						<goal>obfuscate</goal>
					</goals>
				</execution>
			</executions>
		</plugin>
	...
	</plugins>        
</build>

Configuration includes:
baseDirectory optional Defaults ${project.basedir}

jsBaseDirectory required Relative path from baseDirectory to the JavaScript/Css sources.

confingDirectory optional Path to the folder where is cactus.xml configuration file, by default it is the same as jsBaseDirectory

outputDirectory optional Relative path from jsBaseDirectory to output directory for obfuscated/processed files. Defaults to the jsBaseDirectory, the directory should exist.

mode optional Mode PRODUCTION/DEBUG. Defaults to PRODUCTION, means it obfuscates all files. In DEBUG mode files only glued but aren't obfuscated.

From this point you can try mvn package to pack your project.

Also cactus plugin can be used without project, all we need to create cactus.xml configuration file and being in the same folder (where cactus.xml is) run:

mvn com.cactus:cactus-plugin:obfuscate

Cactus console tool have the same purpose as cactus-plugin - obfuscate js/css files. Here we don't need to use maven. All we need is java installed.

Before used tool, we need to build it:

• go to the cactus-tool module project_home_dir/cactus/cactus-tool
• run mvn assembly:single

Now you got the assembled cli tool under the module/target folder.

How to run it:

1. create cactus.xml configuration file

2. run cactus-tool:

   java -jar cactus-tool.jar

By default tool requires only one paremeter -c the path to the folder which contains cactus.xml file.

But supports the following parameters:

-c required The path to folder contains cactus.xml file.

-d optional All files in cactus.xml are specified with relative path from -c folder.

-o optional Relative path to destination/output folder. If output directory wasn't specified all output will be going to -d (source directory). This parameter should be going after -d parameter (if -d is used)

-m - optional The mode: PRODUCTION/DEBUG. Default mode is PRODUCTION - obfuscation is ON. In DEBUG mode files are glued in the configurated way.

Example:

java -jar cactus-tool.jar -d ../web/js -o cache

For version 0.1 cactus is configured using xml based file.

cactus.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cactus>
	<js>
		<needles>		
			<needle>
				<output>ext-3.1.0.js</output>
				<files>
					<file>https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/ext-core/3.1.0/ext-core-debug.js</file>
				</files>
			</needle>
			<needle>
				<output>jquery-1.5.2.js</output>
				<files>
					<file>https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.2/jquery.js</file>
				</files>
			</needle>
		</needles>
	</js>

	<css>
		<needles>		
			<needle>
				<output>test.css</output>
				<files>
					<file>YOUR_CSS_FILE_HERE</file>
				</files>
			</needle>
		</needles>		
	</css>
</cactus>

The above is example of simple cactus configuration file which contains 3 outputs (needles): ext-3.1.0.js, jquery-1.5.2.js and test.css

After running:

mkdir cactus-test
cd cactus-test

copy cactus.xml and cactus-tool.jar in cactus-test folder

java -jar cactus-tool.jar -c PATH_TO_CACTUS_CONFIG_FOLDER

will be gotten all files and created two output needles.

file tag accepts URLs, folder paths and file names.

All folders should be relative from the folder BASE folder (-c). For example we have the following folders structure:

|-root
|--batch    
|  | - cactus-tool.jar  
|--webapp     
|----js    
|   |--cactus.xml
|   |--boo.js    
|   |--foo.js
|   |--utils
|   |  |--array.js
|   |  |--string.js
|   |  |--parser
|   |  |  |--xmlparser.js
|   |--cache

And the following cactus.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cactus>
	<js>
		<needles>		
			<needle>
				<output>test.js</output>
				<files>
					<file>boo.js</file>
					<file>utils</file> <!-- get all js files from utils folder-->
					<file>utils/parser/xmlparser.js</file>
				</files>
			</needle>
		</needles>
	</js>
</cactus>

Running the tool from root/batch folder

java -jar cactus-tool.jar -c ../webapp/js -d ../webapp/js -o cache

Here we have cactus.xml configuration file in the js folder that is why -c and -d parameters are equal.

We get test.js file inside root/webappjs/cache folder, which has boo.js, all files js from utils and utils/parser/xmlparser.js file obfuscated.

The sequence of file tags is important it reflects on the order of file's content in the output needle's file.