Bundling and minification without ASP.NET MVC

Question

Is it possible to use bundling and minification from Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization without having an MVC project?

I'm creating an AngularJS site communicating with a REST API. For the REST API I'm using ASP.NET Web API. I have also created an "ASP.NET Empty Web Application". There are only HTML, js and CSS files in this project (and a web.config). I'd like for my js and CSS files to be bundled and minified, but I don't want to create a MVC project just to get that. Is it possible?

Answer 1

It is absolutely possible to use the bundling and minification in a blank project.

1. Use Nuget to install the package: Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization

2. Create a BundleConfig Class and define your bundles:

   using System.Web.Optimization;
   public class BundleConfig
   {
       public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)
       {
           bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/js").Include(
                     "~/Scripts/*.js"));
           bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/bundles/css").Include(
                      "~/Styles/*.css")); 
       } 
   }
   

3. Register the BundleConfig class within the application start in the global.asax

   void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
       BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
   }
   

4. reference the bundles in your HTML document.
5. Enable bundling by disabling debug mode.