A recent minor update to 3.3.4_1 gives an error

[niranjans]

Hi,

I just updated my app and I am getting the following error:

   While building the application:
   client/lib/custom.bootstrap.less:1629:18: Less compiler error: variable @form-group-margin-bottom is undefined

I tried to comment that out and also delete the custom.bootstrap.less completely so that it could be generated again. But it still throws that error.

Is there something that I need to change?

Thanks

[levino]

Same here.

[emgee3]

This occurs when upgrading the Bootstrap package. The underlying LESS variables changed between Bootstrap 3.x.x and 3.3.4, so your original custom.bootstrap.import.less file does not contain the variable that was introduced in Bootstrap 3.3.4.

So what you have to do is either:

• Delete custom.bootstrap.import.less and recreate your customized changes
  or
• Update custom.bootstrap.import.less to reflect the Bootstrap changes. Here's a screenshot of what changes are needed:

I have to think a bit on the best way of doing these upgrades, but for now, I'm linking to this issue in the README.md file.

[niranjans]

Got it. That worked. Thanks!

[raghuugare]

Was about to let you know about this issue--thanks for the fix friends! :)

[ghost]

HEY GUYS, I FOUND A MAJ—oh never mind. ;)
Thanks for the solution.

[KrishnaPG]

Just a quick question - what is the best way to configure these things? Because I think I have made some changes in my "custom.bootstrap.import.less" earlier (do not remember which ones) - now If I delete that file it gets created correctly, but may loose my changes - so what is the right "closed for modifications but open for extensions" way?

Afterall this less stuff is supposed to help extensibility without having to manual tweaking, right?

I can see that there is a manual 'update' workaround given above - but just in case in future if these kind of things happen it is better to be organized from the start - so wondering whats the best way to go about it.

[KrishnaPG]

Alright - looks like I got something working. Moved all (and only) my custom changes into a separate overrides.import.less file and imported it as the last line of the auto-generated custom.bootstrap.import.less. The plan is to override the variables without modifying them inplace - and it seems to be working.

This way I can have the auto-generated and override versions separate - where by the custom.bootstrap.import.less can be deleted and auto-generated anytime, except that only I need to add the extra line at the bottom whenever it is generated afresh.

Perhaps, the nemo author could implement this solution - where he could add an empty overrides.import.less file in the directory and add the line for its import at the end of generated file.

Or if there is more better way to separate the auto-generated parts from customary changes - would love to follow it - please share.

[niranjans]

@KrishnaPG No actually, the custom.bootstrap.import.less is not meant to be deleted and auto-generated. There should be this in the top of the file -

// This File is for you to modify!
// It won't be overwritten as long as it exists.
// You may include this file into your less files to benefit from
// mixins and variables that bootstrap provides.

So you can change your @brand-primary color and other things in this file and it won't be over-written. You can also then import this file into your other less files by placing this line on top -
@import "client/lib/custom.bootstrap.import.less";

Try to go through the ReadMe of this project again.

[KrishnaPG]

Well - one of the posts from the above says this:
Delete custom.bootstrap.import.less and recreate your customized changes or.

What is the guarantee that this kind of situation does not occur again, with say bootstrap 5, 6 ... 10 ??

And please do not ask me to follow the alternative of manually updating an automatically generated file - that's Software engineering going in the wrong direction.

[emgee3]

@KrishnaPG Pull requests welcome