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August 27, 2015 07:00 am

JavaScript Workflow Automation Using Grunt and Gulp

When you are new to front-end development
and start mastering HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, the obvious next step is to put
your hands on tools that most
developers use to stay sane in this complex space. You too deserve to have more
flexibility and features while writing your CSS sheets by using Less. You too
deserve to optimize bandwidth by minifying your JS code. You too deserve to be
able to automatically check that your JS code is good using JSHint.

You deserve all this good stuff.

So you start to use all these great tools
by hand, running more and more command lines manually. Sometimes, you forget to
run the Less compiler… Sometimes you forget to run JSHint and a bug is shipped…

And suddenly you find yourself wondering:
is there any solution to automate all these tools? How can you create a
repeatable workflow to prevent you from making mistakes?

Obviously a solution exists, and two tools
in particular are waiting for you to get started: Grunt and Gulp.

As a newbie using these tools, you are
wondering how they work and which one to use, aren’t you? Well, perfect then,
you are reading the right article!


1. The Sample We Will Use

I will give you the basis for using Grunt
and Gulp using a really simple example that you can download from GitHub.

It is a simple web site composed of three
files:

list of files indexhtml mainjs and stylesless

Styles.less defines the CSS sheet in a
richer manner than is possible using a standard CSS file. In the end we use
the Less compiler to create a styles.css
file. Using Less, we are able for instance to use variables in the CSS file:

variables in the css file

Get more information about Less in this Getting Started guide.

The JavaScript and HTML code are really
simple. The page should look like this:

Simple HTML web page


2. Understanding Node.js Package Manager

You need to understand first how Node.js Package Manager (npm) works.

Npm is the tool provided with Node.JS. It
is used to get tools and frameworks while automatically resolving their
dependencies.

For instance, to use Less and compile it
into a web usable CSS file, you first need to install Less using this command:

Note:
To get the npm command line, you
have to install Node.js from the Node website.

Once this is done, you can run this command
to compile .less files into .css:

Npm uses a file that it creates and stores in the local folder it is working in: package.json.
This file uses the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format to let npm know
which tool and version is installed and the frameworks used by the current project (which is represented by the
current folder).

This file is important for Grunt and Gulp
because it will contain the list of plugins that have been downloaded and are usable in your
automation workflow.

To create an empty package.json file you
can use the following npm command:

You will go through some questions that you
can answer using the default option, and then you will be all set to start.

In this file you will have two kinds of
dependencies:


  • the ones needed for the
    execution of your web app or Node.js app

  • the ones needed for the
    development phase (like Less) and which are used to compile or check your code

Npm basically gives you three ways to
install packages:


  • globally on your machine using
    the –g or -global option

  • for execution purpose, locally
    on your project folder using no options (only npm install [tools or framework])

  • for dev purpose, locally on
    your project folder using the --save-dev
    option

The third one will create a devDependencies section / property
inside the package.json file.

devDependencies section  property inside the packagejson file


3. Grunt

What
Is Grunt?

Grunt is a pioneer in the JavaScript automation
workflow area. There are a lot of known Grunt users like Twitter, jQuery and Modernizr.  

The basic principle for Grunt is to give us an easy way to run tasks. A task is a set of code files
and configuration files already created for you. You can get new tasks by
installing Grunt plugins that you will get using npm. You can find a plugin for
pretty much every tool you might use, such as Less and JSHint.

To run Grunt, you have to create a Gruntfile in which you specify
which tasks you want to run and the configuration for each of them. Once this
is done, you only have to run the grunt
command line specifying the task you want to run (default or a specific one)
and it will do it automatically.

Now let’s go through a step-by-step guide to set all this up.

Step 1. Create the
Package.json File

Use npm to init the file:

You will have to answer a few questions like the project name and
what is the default .js file. You can also choose to create the file manually
and set its content to:

Step 2. Install Grunt
Globally and Locally

You need to install Grunt globally to get the command line and
locally to initialize everything needed for the project.

Run:

Then run it locally:

Note: Do not forget the
–dev part for it to be specified as one of the devDependencies in the package.json file.

Step 3. Create the
GruntFile.js

Grunt works using a file named gruntFile.js. This file contains
everything needed by Grunt, that is to say:


  • configuration for
    tasks

  • custom tasks

  • task loading

Grunt expects the file to export a single function which takes one
parameter named “grunt”. You will use this object to perform all Grunt relative
actions.

Here is a minimal gruntfile that only reads the package.json file
and creates a default task which runs nothing.

Note:
place the file in the project folder, side by side with the package.json file.

You can execute it to be sure everything is configured
correctly.

To do that, open a command prompt on the project
folder and run:

You should see something like this:

Done without errors


Step 4. Add Your First
Task: JSHint


Now that your Gruntfile is ready, the next step is to add a plugin
and use it. All plugins can be found in the listing on the Grunt website. One of the
common tasks performed in a Gruntfile is checking if the JavaScript syntax is
correct. To do that, we usually use JSHint.

Let’s add this to your grunt workflow.

If you search for JSHint on the grunt plugins page, you will find
grunt-contrib-jshint, which
corresponds to what we need!

In the project folder, run:

One this is done, you have to add it in your Gruntfile.js. There
are two simple steps for that:


  1. Load the plugin.

  2. Configure the
    task.

To load the plugin, use the loadNpmTasks
function:

The
configuration is done in the initConfig function
where you have to add a new property to the object given in the parameter. This
has to be the name of the task you want to add and is related to the plugin
you use. The best way to know that name and the list of available options for
the task is to have a look at the plugin documentation. You will always find a
well-documented sample.

For instance, in
our sample we want to check all the JavaScript files except gruntfile.js.
We also want to activate a set of rules to check in the JavaScript files like eqeqeq to ensure we use triple equals when needed.

Here is the
initConfig function modified:

Code for the initConfig function modified

You can run your task by using the
following command line (where you specify the task name as a parameter for grunt):

The result is here:

Done without errors

You just have to run that command and it
will automatically prompt you for any errors it encounters.

Congratulations, you now have a task automated in your grunt
workflow!

Step 5. Add a Second Task:
Less Compilation

Your JSHint task works well, but it is a little bit alone in the
workflow. Usually, we use tools like Grunt to run more than one task.

It is really easy to add more of them, as you just have to follow
the same steps. Let’s say you now want to add the compilation for your less
file inside the automated process. If you search in the Grunt plugins, you will
find a grunt-contrib-less plugin that you can install in your project folder:

As with the JSHint task, you have to add
the configuration:

code to add the configuration

Then, load the task:

code to load the task

You can now run Grunt and specify the less task: this will launch only Less.
That is OK, but you want to run all the tasks, right? That is the role of the default task.

When you just run grunt without specifying any task, it will search for a default task and run all the tasks specified in its array. You can modify it to run less and jshint. Note
that to add a group of tasks like default, you need to call the registerTask function:

code to call the registerTask function

From now, when you run grunt, it will run jshint, and then less:

Running less task done without errors

You can add any task you want, and you can
also specify other group of tasks like default
and call them by passing their name as an argument to the grunt command line.

Easy, right?

Step 6. Use Watch So You Do
Not Have to Run Grunt Manually

Now, you are a happy developer. All your repetitive tasks are
automated inside a grunt workflow, and you just have to run grunt for them to
execute. But it can be done even more easily. It can be done automatically.

To do that, you can add a specific task named watch. This task will constantly inspect your working folder and,
based on rules, when a file is modified, grunt will run an associated task.

First, install watch in your project folder:

Load it like all other tasks using the loadNpmTasks function, and configure it. The config part is a bit
different here because you need to specify a configuration for each task you
want to cover using watch.

code to specify a configuration for each task you want to cover using watch

For more information, you can read the full documentation for this task.

When you want to activate watch, you only have to run the following command:

And it will execute tasks each time a file
is changed and this file is in the scope of watched files for the specific
task.

execute tasks each time a file is changed and this file is in the scope of watched files for the specific task

And that’s it! You now know everything to create
automated workflow using grunt.


4. Gulp

What
Is Gulp?

Gulp is an alternative to grunt. It is a
bit more recent and has a reputation as being more flexible than grunt. Before
choosing which one you will use, let’s have a look at how gulp works.

Gulp is a workflow
automation tool. Like grunt, it works using npm and the package.json file. All available
plugins will also be downloaded using npm and added as devDependencies in the
package.json file.

One of the main differences is
that Gulp uses streams. A stream is a set of functions through which a file will
go and be modified in memory. The
file will be written on the disk only at the end of the process, so it is more
efficient. Grunt tasks, on the other hand, work as silos and cannot be chained.

Let’s have a quick look at how Gulp works by
following a few easy steps.

Step 1. Create the
Package.json File

Similar to Grunt, you first
have to create the package.json file. You can use exactly the same technique as you
used for the grunt sample.

Step 2. Install Gulp and
Gulp-Util Globally and Locally

Once the package.json file is created, install gulp globally and
locally using:

and

This will install the gulp command line and everything needed to
run a gulp workflow.

You then have to install gulp utils, which contains common functions shared by other plugins:

Finally, create the minimum gulp file, which will look like this:

As you can see, it is a bit different from the grunt syntax. In
gulp, plugins are loaded using the require syntax as you might be used to if
you are a Node.js developer. There is also a default task defined using the gulp.task function.

If you run the gulp command
line using a command prompt in the project folder, you should see a result like
this:

result of running the gulp command line using a command prompt

Step 3. Using Your First
Task: Less Compilation

To use a plugin in gulp, you use the same function as the one we
used to create the default task.
This is because you do not have to use a specific name to create a task. You
just call gulp.task, set the name you want, and give it a JavaScript function as
a second parameter. When gulp runs the task, it will run this function.

To use a plugin, you call it using the name you chose when requiring it. Usually, you call it as
part of a streaming workflow which generally starts with a selection of files.
This is done with the gulp.src
function. It will select a bunch of files and return a stream that can be used
by another function using pipe. That
is how you can chain multiple actions without writing them to the disk. You
just pass the stream from one plugin to another.

Here is a basic sample for Less:

basic sample for less

We first require (‘gulp-less’)
 to load the less plugin for gulp. (We got it using npm install gulp-less --save-dev).

Then gulp.src will
select all the .less files, we
‘pipe’ it to the less() function and
it finally is ‘piped’ to gulp.dest which
indicates where to write the result. As gulp.src can select more than one file,
gulp.dest specifies a folder.

Once you understand the piping model, you can easily get the same
result as the one we got using grunt.

The power of gulp is that you can create custom tasks in which you
call more than one plugin and where you can associate them the way you want.

Note: there is obviously
also a gulp-watch plugin you can use
to automate the launch of your workflow!

Conclusion: Which One to Choose?

I hope that you have now a clearer
understanding of why you need an automation workflow and how you can use Grunt or Gulp to get it.

Choosing one of them is more related to the
task you want to achieve.

Grunt is easy to use. You do not have to
understand the piping system, and achieving simple tasks will be more
straightforward. It is a really mature tool, used by a lot of known editors
and developers, and there are a lot of plugins available.

That said, the way Gulp is designed
can give you a lot of flexibility. It has existed for quite some time now, and
even if you won’t find as many plugins as you will for Grunt, all the classic
ones are available for Gulp.

If you are using a really standard workflow
with common steps like JSHint, uglifying, CSS validating, etc., Grunt is a good
choice. If you are up to more complicated tasks, Gulp will be a good wingman.

More Information

More Hands-On With JavaScript

Microsoft has a bunch of free learning on many open source JavaScript
topics, and we’re on a mission to create a lot more with Microsoft
Edge
. Here are
some to check out:

And some free tools to get started: Visual
Studio Code
, Azure
Trial
, and cross-browser
testing tools
—all available for Mac, Linux, or Windows.

This article is part of the web dev tech series from Microsoft. We’re
excited to share
Microsoft
Edge
and the new EdgeHTML
rendering engine
with you.
Get free virtual machines or test remotely on your Mac, iOS, Android, or
Windows device @
https://dev.modern.ie/.


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