`Juicer` is a CSS and JavaScript packaging tool, that provides a method to compress (minify) and concatenate the resources for a website or a software package. (Juicer supports the widely used and stable `YUI Compressor`.) This compression happens manually, offline. Then, if this resource is used in a website page, the page can use the compressed resources directly.

Juicer: http://cjohansen.no/en/ruby/juicer_a_css_and_javascript_packaging_tool

YUI Compressor: http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/compressor/

It is, however, very difficult or close to impossible to debug and develop websites with fully compressed resources. As a developer, my every day work routine needs an easy way to switch to a "development mode", where I am able to access the original set of uncompressed, undeveloped resources.

One possible solution for this would be to provide two sets of resources from the website pages: one for production that contains the compressed resources, and one for development. This can be achieved in several ways, for example, by providing two sets of resources from the html headers conditionally, or use some kind of registry that supports a Development / Production mode switch. The problem with these approaches is that they almost always require changes in the software and possibly extra administration, redundancy, which can be especially painful if the project has many resources.

As an alternate solution, to avoid a dual set of resources, some tool can be used that supports the compression and minification of the original sources on the fly. This however has the disadvantage that due to the fact that even the most robust compression methods are prone to errors, it is more difficult to verify the validity of the produced resources, than in offline mode.

`gf.rejuice` attempts to provide a simple way to aid this process. In comparision with existing tools, that support the compression and minification of the original sources on the fly, `gf.rejuice` supports a workflow the other way around. It takes the minified resources as the reference, and provides access to the uncompressed resources for development.

It does this by providing a way to transparently switch a site that contains and refers the compressed (minified) resources only, into development mode. It does this without the need to change the original software and templates. In addition, it also provides a way to automate the process of compressing or recompressing the resources for production, in case this becomes necessary due to some changes that have been made to the sources.

Read more in the documentation: http://greenfinity.hu/pub/gf.rejuice/trunk/docs.html