Files
edx-platform/static/coffee

CoffeeScript

This folder contains the CoffeeScript file that will be compiled to the static directory. By default, we're compile and merge all the files ending .coffee into static/js/application.js.

Install the Compiler

CoffeeScript compiler are written in JavaScript. You'll need to install Node and npm (Node Package Manager) to be able to install the CoffeeScript compiler.

Mac OS X

Install Node via Homebrew, then use npm:

$ brew install node
$ curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
$ npm install -g git://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script.git

(Note that we're using the edge version of CoffeeScript for now, as there was some issue with directory watching in 1.3.1.)

Try to run coffee and make sure you get a coffee prompt.

Debian/Ubuntu

Conveniently, you can install Node via apt-get, then use npm:

$ sudo apt-get install nodejs npm &&
$ sudo npm install -g git://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script.git

Compiling

The dev server will automatically compile coffeescript files that have changed. Simply start the server using:

$ rake runserver

Testing

We're also using Jasmine to unit-testing the JavaScript files. All the specs are written in CoffeeScript for the consistency. To access the test cases, start the server in debug mode, navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8000/_jasmine to see the test result.