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Getting Started with Grunt: The JavaScript Task Runner
Getting Started with Grunt: The JavaScript Task Runner

Getting Started with Grunt: The JavaScript Task Runner: If you know JavaScript you ought to know Grunt – the Task Runner for managing sophisticated web applications. From a basic understanding to constructing your own advanced Grunt tasks, this tutorial has it all covered.

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Getting Started with Grunt: The JavaScript Task Runner

Chapter 2. Setting Up Grunt

In this chapter, we will go over the steps required to get Grunt up and running. We begin with an introduction into Node.js and npm, as they are the key technologies used to build the foundations upon which Grunt stands. We review Node.js modules and how they relate to Grunt, then cover the basics of a Grunt environment, including package.json and Gruntfile.js files. Once we are set up, we'll move onto configuring Grunt. We will look into the various methods and strategies that make Grunt best convey our build.

Installation


In this section, we cover how to install and use Grunt's key components, Node.js and npm. We will review a brief introduction into each, as well as their core concepts. Subsequently, we will cover the simple installation of Grunt itself.

Node.js

Although this book primarily focuses on Grunt, we will also dip our toes into the world of Node.js (http://gswg.io#node) fairly regularly. Given Grunt is written as a Node.js module and Grunt tasks and plugins are also Node.js modules, it is important that we understand the basics of Node.js and its package manager, npm (http://gswg.io#npm).

Ryan Dahl started the Node.js project in early 2009 out of frustration with the current state of web servers in the industry. At the time, web servers written in Ruby (Mongrel and then Thin) were popular due to the Ruby on Rails framework. Ryan realized that writing a really fast web server in Ruby just wasn't possible. Ruby's inefficiency was actually caused by the language's blocking nature, which...

Project setup


Now we have installed Node.js, npm and Grunt, we're ready to create our first Grunt environment. Let's say we've already built a website, now we want to use Grunt to minify our assets. In this section, we'll learn about the two required files: the package.json file and the Gruntfile.js file, as well as a recommended directory structure.

package.json

The package.json file is a package descriptor; it is used to store all metadata about the module, such as name, version, description, author, repository, and more. It's the single file required to effectively use npm, therefore, the package.json file can also be thought of as the "npm file". As the file extension would suggest, it must be in the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data format. If the JSON syntax is invalid, npm will display an error when reading this file. Using a package.json file in our project has many benefits. These include: making it easy to reinstall our dependencies by defining a dependencies field; letting...

Configuring tasks


Grunt configuration can be thought of as single JavaScript object, though, instead of assigning values, we'll use functions provided by Grunt to get and set properties.

We briefly touched on Grunt configuration in Chapter 1, Introducing Grunt, displaying simple uses of the grunt.initConfig, grunt.config.get and grunt.config.set functions. The grunt.initConfig function (which as mentioned earlier, is aliased from grunt.config.init) accepts an object, which is then used as the starting point for our configuration, whereas the grunt.config.get and grunt.config.set functions are used to get and set individual properties. We can also use the shorter grunt.config function, which works like jQuery getters and setters. When called with one argument it aliases to grunt.config.get, and with two arguments, it aliases to grunt.config.set. Each line in the following example is functionally equivalent:

grunt.config.init({ foo: { bar: 7 }});
grunt.config.set('foo.bar', 7); 
grunt.config...

Summary


At this point, we have Node.js along with npm installed on our machine. We have the npm module grunt-cli installed globally, providing us with the grunt executable. We understand the basic premise of how modules work in Node.js and we know how to find and install modules from npm. Lastly, we understand the purpose of the package.json file and the Gruntfile.js file. In the next chapter, we will learn how to create our own tasks using Grunt.

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What you will learn

  • Learn about Grunt and its advantages
  • Understand Node.js and how it relates to Grunt
  • Take an indepth look at npm, Node.js modules, and the working of Grunt plugins
  • Get familiar with installing Grunt and setting up your first Grunt build environment
  • Gain insight on the methods of configuring Grunt and when each method should be used
  • Effectively execute Grunt through the use of task arguments, task aliasing, multitask targets, and more
  • Construct your own Grunt tasks, multitasks, and asynchronous tasks
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Publication date : Feb 19, 2014
Length: 132 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783980628
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Product Details

Publication date : Feb 19, 2014
Length: 132 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783980628
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Table of Contents

5 Chapters
Introducing Grunt Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Setting Up Grunt Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using Grunt Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Grunt in Action Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced Grunt Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Willie Pritchett Apr 09, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
While the book's title would lead you to believe that the book is about Grunt, which it is for the most part, you are also treated with the added bonus of receiving a slight introduction into Node.JS as well!As a full stack developer, I can appreciate tools that assist in making my job easier and Grunt is an exceptional tool for eliminating repetitive tasks and this book covers it beautifully. Some topics that you will gain helpful insight on include:1. Configuring Grunt to run your own Tasks2. Using Grunt for Testing purposes3. Setting up and Configuring GruntI would say this book is moreso for a user who has a working knowledge of Javascript or at least a beginner Javascript developer. Otherwise, many of the terms used throughout the book will not make much sense.An Excellent read and I highly recommend it.
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Hemanta Sapkota Mar 31, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The book maybe about Grunt, but its biggest value proposition, IMHO, is the excellent walkthrough on the Node.js ecosystem and modern web development.The author has very cleverly leveraged Grunt as a medium to introduce more advanced tools like Coffeescript, Jade, Stylus, all of which when used properly results in a huge productivity boost. See Chapter 4 Grunt in Action.The only thing that I felt missing was a chapter on Javascript itself. A brief intro on Javascript and its idiosyncrasies could have served as a nice appendix. Although, the book does contain a good reference list on Javascript.Who will benefit from the book ? Not including the usual front-end developers and framework creators:1. Experienced Java developers like myself who've made the move to the dynamic world of Javascript (front-end/backend)2. Web developers proficient in JQuery/PHP but have failed to get onboard the Node trainAll in all, there's no doubt that the book will serve as a handy reference for Javascript developers.
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Callie Jul 03, 2014
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I'm a newbie to web development, and I've been doing A LOT of reading over the last two months. This book was well written and informative. I would recommend this book to anyone who is trying to teach themselves Grunt.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
astericky Jul 29, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is among the best introductions to Grunt: The Javascript Task Runner and Nodejs platform I have seen to date. I was so pleased with this book that I recommended it to the other developers on my team immediately upon finishing this book.The author immediately starts us out with creating a simple Grunt task. He explains the benefits of using a task runner at all in the development process. We learn why Grunt is an excellent choice for task runner in real world use cases such as code minification, code linting and code deployments.Next we are guided through a more thorough set up of Grunt and the NodeJS platform. We learn about basic configuration and directory structure. The author does not stop there though. He walks us through installing grunt packages and plug-ins as well as building our own custom Grunt tastsk.By the end of this book the author had me convinced that Grunt is the tool my team can leaverage at work to get control of our unweildy code base and get some structure and consistency around our deployment process.Often times I find that beginner books are almost too beginner for the audience they are trying to target. This book really hits the sweetspot in terms of getting beginners set up quickly and easily without alienating more senior developers or going into the gory details of Grunt before developers have any real context or understanding around the problem Grunt attempts to solve.One way I would improve this book is move the last 15-20 pages on development tools to an appendix of some sort. However, I would not include it as a part of a chapter titled Advanced Grunt.Full disclosure: I was asked to do this review literally the day after I finished it. However, I've read this book and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.I'm stunned that such a potentially boring topic could make for an amazing book.Full disclosure: I was asked to do this review literally the day after I finished it. However, I've read this book and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
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P S Sep 17, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is worth every cent! Not only it gives you information on grunt but background on node js is just fantastic.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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