Minification failed. Returning unminified contents

Question

I have made my first website using MVC 5 which works fine on my local machine but when I publish it to the server some of the CSS is not minifying correctly.

    /* Minification failed. Returning unminified contents.
    (80,1): run-time error CSS1019: Unexpected token, found '@import'
    (80,9): run-time error CSS1019: Unexpected token, found 'url('../Content/dark-skin/skin.css')'
    (671,16): run-time error CSS1062: Expected semicolon or closing curly-brace, found ':'
    (1288,16): run-time error CSS1062: Expected semicolon or closing curly-brace, found ':'
    (1680,1): run-time error CSS1019: Unexpected token, found '@keyframes'
    (1682,5): run-time error CSS1062: Expected semicolon or closing curly-brace, found '50%'
    (1685,1): run-time error CSS1019: Unexpected token, found '@-webkit-keyframes'
    (1687,5): run-time error CSS1062: Expected semicolon or closing curly-brace, found '50%'
     */
    /* NUGET: BEGIN LICENSE TEXT
     *
     * Microsoft grants you the right to use these script files for the sole
     * purpose of either: (i) interacting through your browser with the Microsoft
     * website or online service, subject to the applicable licensing or use
     * terms; or (ii) using the files as included with a Microsoft product subject
     * to that product's license terms. Microsoft reserves all other rights to the
     * files not expressly granted by Microsoft, whether by implication, estoppel
     * or otherwise. The notices and licenses below are for informational purposes only.
     *
     * NUGET: END LICENSE TEXT */
    /*!
     * Bootstrap v3.0.0
     *
     * Copyright 2013 Twitter, Inc
     * Licensed under the Apache License v2.0
     * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
     *
     * Designed and built with all the love in the world by @mdo and @fat.
     *//*! normalize.css v2.1.0 | MIT License | git.io/normalize */

After trying to correct some of the errors and publishing again the error looks the same.

The strangest part is with bootstrap.css which I have slightly modified for the purpose of the website. When I publish it the changes are not in the bundle file. Is it possible that bootstrap is loaded from Bootstrap server and not my project?

    bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/Content/cssmain").Include(
                      "~/Content/bootstrap.css",
                      "~/Content/site.css",
                      "~/Content/ilightbox.css",
                      "~/Content/bannerscollection_zoominout.css"));

I have also tried to do minification myself using web application but my changes are not visible and the files do not appear to be minified.

Any help is appreciated.

score 24 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 03 '14 at 14:01

24

I resolved the problem bundling bootstrap.css by doing 2 things:

Include the bootstrap.css first in the bundle. The code sample in the question already does this, but I was not.
Add the official minified version (bootstrap.min.css) to the project in the same directory as the unminified version. This prompts the bundler to use the existing minified file instead of trying (and failing) to minify bootstrap.css itself. See the green arrow in the screenshot below.

Note that if you are using a specific theme, substitute bootstrap.css and bootstrap.min.css with the files provided by the theme. Here's the working code from my project that uses the spacelab theme:

            bundles.Add(new StyleBundle(GetStyleBundlePath("bootstrap")).Include(
            "~/Content/3rdParty/bootstrap.spacelab.css",
            "~/Content/3rdParty/bootstrap-datepicker.css",
            "~/Content/3rdParty/bootstrap-multiselect.css"));

enter image description here

answered Nov 03 '14 at 14:01

trebormf

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Note that GetStyleBundlePath is my own method and not part of the framework. You can just use a string like the questioner does. – trebormf Nov 03 '14 at 14:23
3

i used ScriptBundle for bundling CSS and got [this](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/glow-users/pDf8CzVa-Jc) error , **Be sure** to use `ScriptBundle` for Scripts and `StyleBundle` for CSS – Shaiju T Feb 24 '16 at 17:18
6

Thanks for letting me know that bundler first tries to look for existing minified file :) – Abdul Rauf Aug 15 '16 at 10:54
If you simply use `'.IncludeDirectory("~/js/path", "*.js")` does the BundleConfig still know to use .min.js files over straight .js files? – Feb 16 '18 at 17:02

score 17 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 14 '16 at 17:14

For those that may stumble on this post... You can also resolve this by moving the @import to the first bundled item.

According to: http://webdesign.about.com/cs/css/qt/tipcssatimport.htm

@Import must always be first in the CSS document. When you bundle multipule CSS files together, it chains them into a single bundled css file. Since the second css file added to my bundle, in bundle config, contained an @Import at the start, as the files were chained together the @import appeared towards the middle of the newly merged document. Once I changed the bundle order the issue was resolved.

This is important to understand because although you can use the minified files provided by plugins like bootstrap any changes made to the non-minified files during development will not be added to the existing minified css file. Meaning you will have to make the changes twice, and navigate your way through the minified file.

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

7

Make sure the none of those .js files you are bundling end with //Some Comment. If a file ending with a double backslash // comment is tacked on to another dependent file it will be seen as one long comment causing the error you are seeing. I bet there is an //@Import at the end of one of your .js files. If that's the case I think you can probally safely change that line to /*@Import */

Also, I don't know if this was fixed in MVC5 but in MVC4 the minification parser doesn't handle the non-standard :-moz-any() and :-webkit-any() css tags.

Also look at this post that details how to resolve Less @import directories.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Jun 24 '14 at 20:18

Ross Bush

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Thanks for the answer. None of my files ends with a comment and I don't have any of those tags in my code. I got the @import in my css file not js – Whistler Jun 24 '14 at 20:24
That minification parser does check syntax. I think that js file has to be on line with what the parser is expecting valid js to look like. – Ross Bush Jun 24 '14 at 20:26
but all my js animation and function works correctly. I only see issue with styling my website so the problem is with the css minification – Whistler Jun 24 '14 at 20:29
I added a link to a post that deals with less import errors. – Ross Bush Jun 24 '14 at 20:34
I have copied everything from the import file and copied to my main css, published, but nothing has change still have @import in the css file,b ut I have removed it. Why my changes are not updating on the server? – Whistler Jun 24 '14 at 21:01
You just saved me a pretty big headache. I updated my jQuery version in NuGet to 1.11.3 using PMC, and if I added a direct reference to either the .js or .min.js versions they worked fine. Include them in a bundle? "jQuery is not defined" errors all over the place. For some reason this was in the final line of the .min.js file: `//# sourceMappingURL=jquery.min.map`. Removed that line and bundling works without a hitch. So weird. – MattD Nov 19 '15 at 20:28
Just learned that I could have also fixed this by updating my version of the Web Optimization Framework from 1.0.0 to 1.1.3 (the latest version as I write this). Added the commented out line back in to my .min version of jQuery and it works just fine. – MattD Nov 19 '15 at 21:53

rikitikitik · Answer 4 · 2014-07-23T09:48:13.800

We experienced the same issue and it turns out that bootstrap.css is the problem. We were getting the same exact minification errors that you wrote above. The bundler is having problems with @import, @keyframes and @-webkit-keyframes that are in the css file.

What we did to solve the problem is to remove bootstrap.css from the bundle and just reference it directly (or the minified version, if you have it) in the Shared/_Layout.cshtml.

@Styles.Render("~/Content/bootstrap.min.css")
@Styles.Render("~/Content/css")

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 21 '14 at 00:45

Minification Problem Solution:

I know Two types of possible that cause optimization problem :

The invalid CSS files that should be validated before bundling. here is W3C CSS validation service to meet this purpose.

Also considering that Microsoft Optimizer reads content of target resources for minification process, so by using some special phrases like @ sourceMappingURL=jquery.min.map in a JavaScript file or @charset "UTF-8"; in a styleSheet file, the Minification will be failed again. So try to remove or comment them.

Note that by default, Bundling process can't build relative path of image resources in css or js files.

Relative Image Path Solution:

You can use the same path as bundling path like:

bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/Content/css/jquery-ui/bundle")
       .Include("~/Content/css/jquery-ui/*.css"));

Where you define the bundle on the same path as the source files that made up the bundle, the relative path of image resources will still work( i.e. /bundle can be any name you like).

Or using new CssRewriteUrlTransform() as second parameter like:

bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/Content/css/bundle")
    .Include("~/Content/css/*.css", new CssRewriteUrlTransform()));

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 01 '20 at 14:11

3

Encountered this too. I had Bootstrap in the bundle-list among with the main CSS file, in which I imported bootstrap.min.css again. So Bootstrap got requested twice. Removing the import line in my main CSS file solved this for me.

edited Jan 01 '20 at 14:11

plr108

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answered May 22 '15 at 14:26

2mas

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 29 '14 at 15:01

@import don't work with bundle minification.

Do this... in the file BundleConfig.cs set:

bundles.UseCdn = true;
bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/skin", "../Content/dark-skin/skin.css"));

And set this in layout:

@Styles.Render("~/skin")

But only application relative URLs (~/url) are allowed.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 24 '18 at 19:06

What I did was, in my BundleConfig.vb (cs), I put all the files I referenced by @import within the css files like this:

bundles.Add(New StyleBundle("~/bundle/css-account") _
                .Include("~/Content/consola/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.css",
                         "~/Content/consola/plugins/node-waves/waves.css",
                         "~/Content/consola/plugins/animate-css/animate.css", //Referenced by @import
                         "~/Content/consola/plugins/bootstrap-select/css/bootstrap-select.css",
                         "~/Content/account/account.css",
                         "~/fonts/awesome/css/font-awesome.css",//Referenced by @import
                         "~/Content/consola/materialize.css", //Referenced by @import
                         "~/Content/consola/style.css"))

That eliminated almost all the errors.

The next thing I did was modify my css files changing css pseudo-classes syntax from this [type="checkbox"]:not(.filled-in, .gm-menu-hamburger) + label:after { to this one [type="checkbox"]:not(.filled-in) + label:after, [type="checkbox"]:not(.gm-menu-hamburger) + label:after {

That solved all errors I had.

Hope that helps

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 30 '19 at 22:25

0

The issue for me was I had @import in a .css file.

I moved my code into a corresponding .less file that gets compiled on build, which resolved the build error for me. Compiled with Gulp.

answered Mar 30 '19 at 22:25

GraehamF

1,971
24
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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered May 22 '19 at 23:52

Not sure about other, but changes I made in Bundle.config file did not get picked up until I rebuild the project.

I guess, compiler includes the information into the compiled DLL, and no longer looks at Bundle.config.

I am using ASP.NET forms application though, not sure about MVC.

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Aug 28 '19 at 18:24

Check if you have any minified (...min.js) files in your bundle.

    bundles.Add( ... minified files???
     ));

Remove them from the bundle and render in the _layout.cshtml file:

@Styles.Render("~/Content/fontawesome-free-5.10.1-web/css/all.min.css")

Or add the non minified version of your css to the bundle.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 12 '19 at 06:20

My solution was the same as @GraehamF, I was having issues where the @imports were trying to load the css, when you inspect with dev tools the bundle css's if you see something like "run-time error", it means the file is not loaded correctly.

Before to deploy remove the debug="true" on your web.config then try to run the code on your local box, that should give you the idea of which files are not getting loaded and causing the bundle did not work.

Minification failed. Returning unminified contents

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