Meteor package css relative resource path

Question

How can I refer to an image file in a Meteor package from a CSS file in the same package, so that the image would be accessible after bundling.

Answer 1

Reference your image using package relative path, ie :

/packages/my-package/css/my_css.css :

.my-class{
    background-image:url('/packages/my-package/img/my_image.png');
}

Explicitly ask Meteor to bundle it on the client via the package system API :

/packages/my-package/package.js :

Package.on_use(function(api){
    var clientFiles=[
        // css
        "css/my_css.css",
        // img
        "img/my_image.png"
    ];
    api.add_files(clientFiles,"client");
});

This way your package will be truly generic : users will just have to "mrt add" it to automatically serve your image to the client without messing with /public which is reserved for application-specific static files.

As an example, consider a bootstrap3-glyphicons package :

packages/
-> bootstrap3-glyphicons/
----> bootstrap-glyphicons/ (3rd party files from Twitter Bootstrap)
-------> css/
----------> bootstrap-glyphicons.css
-------> fonts/
----------> glyphiconshalflings-regular.eor
----------> ...
-------> bootstrap_override.css (our overriding to make it work the Meteor way)
-------> package.js
-------> smart.json

package.js :

Package.on_use(function(api){
    api.use(["bootstrap3"]);//!
    //
    var clientFiles=[
        // css
        "bootstrap-glyphicons/css/bootstrap-glyphicons.css",
        // glyphicon fonts
        "bootstrap-glyphicons/fonts/glyphiconshalflings-regular.eot",
        ...
    ];
    api.add_files(clientFiles,"client");
    // this css file makes the paths to the icon absolute (/packages/bootstrap3-glyphicons)
    // it needs to be included AFTER the standard bootstrap css in order to take precedence.
    api.add_files("bootstrap_override.css","client");
});

bootstrap_override.css :

@font-face{
    font-family:'Glyphicons Halflings';
    src:url('/packages/bootstrap3-glyphicons/bootstrap-glyphicons/fonts/glyphiconshalflings-regular.eot');
    src:url('/packages/bootstrap3-glyphicons/bootstrap-glyphicons/fonts/glyphiconshalflings-regular.eot?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'), ...
}