Choose bower install directory

Question

This is a follow-up to this question. I'm using bower 0.7.1, and still cannot get the components to be installed anywhere else than in the components folder.

I tried adding the following line to my component.json, as per this PR:

"componentsDirectory": "public/components"

But it will still install in ./components.

I tried to create a .bowerrc file next to component.json:

{
  "directory" : "public/components"
}

But I get this error when running bower install:

Error: Unable to parse local .bowerrc file: Unexpected token }

Any idea?

Answer 1

Another way to change installation directory temporarily is using --config option in command line:

bower install jquery --config.directory=/path/to/your/components

Answer 2

Actually the .bowerrc file does work, this was an issue with my IDE not saving the file properly:

{
  "directory" : "public/components"
}

I'm still wondering why componentsDirectory still doesn't work in component.json, though.

Answer 3

If you are creating this file in Notepad++, make sure the Encoding is set to "Encode in UTF-8 without BOM" and save as file type "Any".

Answer 4

While you can happily use Bower to manage the dependencies of your own personal projects, primarily the component.json is a description of your project for other people. If you share a component through the Bower registry the component.json goes with it to describe the dependencies. That is why your own local preferences like where to install components don't belong in there.