gulp-babel

What is gulp-babel?

The gulp-babel package is a Gulp plugin that allows you to use Babel to transpile your JavaScript files. Babel is a JavaScript compiler that lets you use next-generation JavaScript, today. It can transform syntax, polyfill features that are missing in your target environment, and more.

What are gulp-babel's main functionalities?

Transpile ES6 to ES5

This feature allows you to transpile ES6 JavaScript code to ES5, making it compatible with older browsers. The code sample demonstrates a Gulp task that reads a JavaScript file from the 'src' directory, uses Babel to transpile it, and then writes the output to the 'dist' directory.

const gulp = require('gulp');
const babel = require('gulp-babel');

gulp.task('default', () => {
  return gulp.src('src/app.js')
    .pipe(babel({
      presets: ['@babel/env']
    }))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('dist'));
});

Use Babel plugins

This feature allows you to use specific Babel plugins to transform your code. The code sample demonstrates a Gulp task that uses the Babel plugin for transforming arrow functions.

const gulp = require('gulp');
const babel = require('gulp-babel');

gulp.task('default', () => {
  return gulp.src('src/app.js')
    .pipe(babel({
      plugins: ['@babel/plugin-transform-arrow-functions']
    }))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('dist'));
});

Source Maps

This feature allows you to generate source maps for your transpiled code, which can be very useful for debugging. The code sample demonstrates a Gulp task that initializes source maps, transpiles the code using Babel, and then writes the source maps to the 'dist' directory.

const gulp = require('gulp');
const babel = require('gulp-babel');
const sourcemaps = require('gulp-sourcemaps');

gulp.task('default', () => {
  return gulp.src('src/app.js')
    .pipe(sourcemaps.init())
    .pipe(babel({
      presets: ['@babel/env']
    }))
    .pipe(sourcemaps.write('.'))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('dist'));
});

Other packages similar to gulp-babel

gulp-typescript

The gulp-typescript package is a Gulp plugin for compiling TypeScript files. It offers similar functionality to gulp-babel but is specifically designed for TypeScript. It can compile TypeScript to JavaScript, generate declaration files, and more.

gulp-coffee

The gulp-coffee package is a Gulp plugin for compiling CoffeeScript files. Like gulp-babel, it allows you to transpile code from one language to another, but it is specifically for CoffeeScript.

gulp-uglify

The gulp-uglify package is a Gulp plugin for minifying JavaScript files. While it doesn't transpile code like gulp-babel, it is often used in conjunction with gulp-babel to minify the transpiled code for production.

README

gulp-babel

Turn ES6 code into vanilla ES5 with no runtime required using babel

Issues with the output should be reported on the babel issue tracker.

Install

$ npm install --save-dev gulp-babel

Usage

var gulp = require('gulp');
var babel = require('gulp-babel');

gulp.task('default', function () {
	return gulp.src('src/app.js')
		.pipe(babel())
		.pipe(gulp.dest('dist'));
});

API

babel([options])

options

See the babel options, except for sourceMap and filename which is handled for you.

Source Maps

Use gulp-sourcemaps like this:

var gulp = require('gulp');
var sourcemaps = require('gulp-sourcemaps');
var babel = require('gulp-babel');
var concat = require('gulp-concat');

gulp.task('default', function () {
	return gulp.src('src/**/*.js')
		.pipe(sourcemaps.init())
		.pipe(babel())
		.pipe(concat('all.js'))
		.pipe(sourcemaps.write('.'))
		.pipe(gulp.dest('dist'));
});

Babel Metadata

Files in the stream are annotated with a babel property, which contains the metadata from babel.transform().

Example

var gulp = require('gulp');
var babel = require('gulp-babel');
var through = require('through2');

function logFileHelpers() {
	return through.obj(function (file, enc, cb) {
		console.log(file.babel.usedHelpers);
		cb(null, file);
	});
}

gulp.task('default', function () {
	return gulp.src('src/**/*.js')
		.pipe(babel())
		.pipe(logFileHelpers);
})

Runtime

If you are attempting to use features such as generators, you will need to pass { optional: ['runtime'] } to include the babel runtime. Otherwise you will receive the error: regeneratorRuntime is not defined.

var gulp = require('gulp');
var babel = require('gulp-babel');

gulp.task('default', function () {
	return gulp.src('src/app.js')
		.pipe(babel({ optional: ['runtime'] }))
		.pipe(gulp.dest('dist'));
});

License

MIT © Sindre Sorhus