bacon-grunt

⚠ DEPRECATED ⚠

I don't use Grunt anymore, so I don't maintain this package.

Bacon for Grunt

Makes for tastier Gruntfiles (not in any way related to Bacon.js)

Features

• Allows inline definition of every task in a sequence
• No more scrolling back and forth between grunt.registerTask and grunt.initConfig()
• Define glob patterns in one line of code instead of four!
• Just syntactic sugar! All Grunt functionality works just like it used to.
• It's so good I named it "Bacon".

Getting Started

This add-on requires Grunt 1.x.

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains Grunt's inner workings. Once you're familiar with the basics of Grunt, you may install Bacon with this command:

npm install bacon-grunt --save-dev

Once the module has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

var bacon = require('bacon-grunt')(grunt);

Overview

Here's a sample (slightly contrived) Gruntfile enhanced by Bacon:

module.exports = function(grunt) {
  var bacon = require('bacon-grunt')(grunt);  
  require('load-grunt-tasks')(grunt); // If you're not using load-grunt-tasks, you should be!

  // grunt.initConfig() is used for global tasks only - the way it should be!
  grunt.initConfig({
    jshint: {
      options: {
        curly: true
      },
      all: {
        src: ['public/js/**/*.js']
      }
    }
  });

  bacon.task('build', [ // Use instead of grunt.registerTask() for multi-step tasks

    'jshint', // Reference tasks the old-fashioned way, or...

    // Adds a `uglify:build` task
    // Also creates an alias as `build:uglify` for better readability
    bacon.subtask('uglify', 
      // Second argument of subtask() is the configuration for the task
      // bacon.globFiles() automatically generates an `expand: true` configuration block
      bacon.globFiles('public/js/**/*.js', 'dist/js/', {
        ext: '.min.js'
      }), { // Third argument of subtask() is the `options` object of the configuration
        sourceMap: true
      }),

    // Creates `clean:build` task and `build:clean` alias
    // subtask() uses the second argument as the entire task configuration; it doesn't have to be an object
    bacon.subtask('clean', ['tmp']),

    // For multiple instances of a subtask in a task, you will need more specific names
    // Creates a `copy:buildImg` task and `build:copy:img` alias
    bacon.subtask('copy:img', bacon.globFiles('public/img/**/*.png', 'dist/img/')),

    // `copy:buildIndex`; alias: `build:copy:index`
    bacon.subtask('copy:index', {
      src: 'dist/index.html',
      dest: 'public/index.html'
    }),

    // Can't find a plugin? Just write a quick function to do the job!
    // Equivalent to grunt.registerTask('build:logDone', function() { ... })
    bacon.subtaskCustom('logDone', function() {
      console.log("Done!");
    })
  ]);

  // This whole task is registered like this:
  // grunt.registerTask('build', ['jshint', 'uglify:build', 'clean:build', 'copy:buildImg', 'copy:buildIndex', 'build:logDone']);
};

For comparison, here's the same Gruntfile written without Bacon and load-grunt-tasks (a fellow warrior in the battle against messy Gruntfiles). Notice how you need to scroll back and forth between the grunt.registerTask() calls and the grunt.initConfig() section in order to understand it:

module.exports = function(grunt) {

  grunt.initConfig({

    clean: {
      build: ['tmp']
    },

    jshint: {
      options: {
        curly: true
      },
      all: {
        src: ['public/js/*.js']
      }
    },

    copy: {
      buildImg: {
        expand: true,
        cwd: 'public/img/'
        src: '**/*.png',
        dest: 'dist/img/'
      },
      buildIndex: {
        src: 'dist/index.html',
        dest: 'public/index.html'
      }
    },

    uglify: {
      build: {
        expand: true,
        cwd: 'public/js/'
        src: '**/*.js',
        dest: 'dist/js/',
        ext: '.min.js',
        options: {
          sourceMap: true
        }
      }
    }
  });

  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-clean');
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-copy');
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');

  grunt.registerTask('build:logDone', function() {
    console.log("Done!");
  });

  grunt.registerTask('build', ['jshint', 'uglify:build', 'clean:build', 'copy:buildImg', 'copy:buildIndex', 'build:logDone']);
};

Bacon functions

bacon.task(taskName: String, subtasks: [String or BaconSubtask])

Registers a new task sequence with the name taskName.

Any BaconSubtasks (created with bacon.subtask(), or bacon.subtaskCustom()) in the subtasks array will be registered with Grunt. In addition, any strings in the subtasks array will be interpreted as the name of a task defined elsewhere.

If only strings are used in the subtasks array, this function is identical to grunt.registerTask(taskName, subtasks).

bacon.subtask(subtaskName: String, config: Object[, options: Object])

Returns a BaconSubtask for use with bacon.task().

Example usage:

bacon.task('doThings', [
  // Simple
  bacon.subtask('build', 'allTheThings'),
  // Specific name
  bacon.subtask('clean:tmp', ['tmp']),
  // With options
  bacon.subtask('uglify', {
    src: 'public/**/*.js', dest: 'build'
  }, {
    mangle: false
  })
])

Equivalent vanilla Gruntfile:

grunt.initConfig({
  build: {
    doThings: 'allTheThings'
  },
  clean: {
    doThingsTmp: ['tmp']
  },
  uglify: {
    doThings: {
      src: 'public/**/*.js', dest: 'build',
      options: {
        mangle: false
      }
    }
  }
});

grunt.registerTask('doThings:build', ['build:doThings']);
grunt.registerTask('doThings:clean:tmp', ['clean:doThingsTmp']);

The subtaskName usually refers to the name of a multiTask (e.g. clean, build, and uglify in this example, or copy, less, etc). You can optionally add additional colon-seperated names for additional specificity (e.g. clean:tmp in this example, or copy:img, less:bootstrap, etc). This is sometimes required, since every subtask must have a unique name within the task.

This function will set config as the Grunt configuration for a task with the convention of <multiTask>:<parentTask><Specificiers> (any colons in the subtaskName will be converted to camelcase). The examples above will create Grunt configuration for build:doThings, clean:doThingsTmp, and uglify:doThings tasks, respectively.

If the optional options argument is provided, the value will merged into config with a key of options; see the uglify task in this example.

For more intuitive task names, this function will also create an alias to this task called <parentTask>:<subtaskName>. In this example, the aliases are doThings:build, doThings:clean:tmp, and doThings:uglify respectively.

bacon.subtaskCustom(subtaskName: String, subtask: Function)

Returns a BaconSubtask for use with bacon.task().

Example usage:

bacon.task('doThings', [
  // Simple
  bacon.subtaskCustom('build:allTheThings', function() {
    console.log("BUILT ALL THE THINGS");
  })
])

Equivalent vanilla Gruntfile:

grunt.registerTask('doThings:build:allTheThings', function() {
  console.log("BUILT ALL THE THINGS");
});

This mounts the subtask function as a task called <parentTask>:<subtaskName>. Unlike with bacon.subtask(), colons in the subtaskName are left mostly untouched. (In this example, the task is created as doThings:build:allTheThings).

bacon.globFiles(src: String, dest: String[, extras: Object])

Returns an Object configuration for building a Files list dynamically.

The src argument will be split between the cwd and src properties of the return object: everything before the first wildcard (*) will be put into cwd.

Optional extras:

• exclude: A String or array of Strings representing glob patterns that should not be matched.

Any properties in extras will be merged into the result.

Example usage:

bacon.task('build', [
  bacon.subtask('uglify', bacon.globFiles('public/js/**/*.js', 'dist/js', { 
    exclude: ['public/js/vendor/**/*.js', 'public/js/jquery.js']
    ext: '.min.js'
  }))
])

Equivalent vanilla Gruntfile:

grunt.initConfig({
  uglify: {
    build: {
      expand: true,
      cwd: ['public/js/', '!vendor/**/*.js', '!jquery.js'],
      src: '**/*.js',
      dest: 'dist/js',
      ext: '.min.js'
    }
  }
});

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using Grunt.