If you are using PhpStorm then css and javascript minification is a set it and forget it process that requires no maintenance after setup. As a programmer it doesn’t get any better than that, so I felt very silly for not doing a good job of it over the years when I figured out this trick. It took a minute to figure out as i’m using Mac OSX Maverick, and all of the articles on it were for Windows. So, if you’re stuck and on windows you should be good to find specifics with a quick google. Alright, lets get going.
First, this was also my introduction to Node.js, but not to worry if it is yours too, we will only be using it as a simply command line utility. Head over to http://nodejs.org/ and click install to download, and then run the pkg, defaults will work. Then go into PhpStorm and install the node.js plugin to finish that integration. A little note, /usr/local/lib/node_modules is the important directory and it should hold by default npm ( Node Package Manager ). And by default everything should be symlinked so the npm command will work anywhere.
Download: