Sass Background Image mixin

Question

I'm kind of new to Sass, but I'm attempting to create a workflow for myself. I generate "color packs" for my theme designs and need to specify the following variables for my mixin. Is there a better way to do this?:

// folder,filename,extension,repeat,x-pos,y-pos
@mixin background ($folder:style1, $img:file, $type:png, $repeat:no-repeat, $x:0, $y:0) {
    background-image: url(./images/#{$folder}/#{$img}.#{$type});
    background-repeat: #{$repeat};
    background-position: #{$x}px #{$y}px;
}

I'm inserting like so:

#nav {
  @include background(style2,myimage,png,repeat-x,10,10);
}

which yields this:

#nav {
  background-image: url(./images/style2/myimage.png);
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
  background-position: 10px 10px;
}

I'd prefer to use CSS shorthand when possible, but I ran into errors with the output. I'd appreciate any expert advice if this is not the best way to do it.

Jannis Jannis · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-27T08:36:16

depending on how your packs are structured/applied you might be able to use a loop to generate a bunch of generic styles. See the documentation here: http://sass-lang.com/docs/yardoc/file.SASS_REFERENCE.html#id35

Do you really need 3 separate components to get your image url? wouldn't: $img and then setting that to /folder/img.ext be far easier?

Also, you don't need the #{} for repeat by the way.

I hope this is what you're after… the question is not very specific in terms of what you need the outcome to actually be.

Cheers, Jannis

Update:

Okay, I see you've updated your question (thanks for that). I believe this could be a little better for general use:

@mixin background($imgpath,$position:0 0,$repeat: no-repeat) {
    background: {
        image: url($imgpath);
        position: $position;
        repeat: $repeat;
    }
}
.testing {
    @include background('/my/img/path.png');
}

This will then output:

.testing {
  background-image: url("/my/img/path.png");
  background-position: 0 0;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

Or you can use the shorthand version:

@mixin backgroundShorthand($imgpath,$position:0 0,$repeat: no-repeat) {
    background: transparent url(#{$imgpath}) $repeat $position;
}
.testing2 {
    @include backgroundShorthand('/my/img/path.png');
}

Which will generate:

.testing2 {
  background: transparent url(/my/img/path.png) no-repeat 0 0;
}

Lastly if you want to specify your base path to your image directory separately you can do the following:

$imagedir:'/static/images/'; // define the base path before the mixin

@mixin backgroundShorthandWithExternalVar($filename,$position:0 0,$repeat: no-repeat) {
    background: transparent url(#{$imagedir}#{$filename}) $repeat $position;
}
.testing3 {
    @include backgroundShorthandWithExternalVar('filename.png');
}

This will then generate:

.testing3 {
  background: transparent url(/static/images/filename.png) no-repeat 0 0;
}

Is this what you needed?

If not feel free to update the question or reply/comment.

Sass Background Image mixin

3 Answers