grunt builds nodejs project

1. Foreword

With the popularity of Node.js, more and more web applications use it as the back-end server, and those complex front-end codes often need to be built and managed using Grunt. This article mainly introduces how to use Grunt to build a Node.js web application.

2. Introduction to Grunt

Grunt is a task runner written in JavaScript. It helps us automatically complete some fixed tasks, such as image compression, JS code compression and merging, LESS/ SCSS to CSS and so on. Grunt can greatly improve our work efficiency and allow us to focus more on writing business logic.

3. Grunt installation

Grunt depends on Node.js and npm, so please install them first. Enter the following command on the command line to install Grunt globally:

npm install -g grunt-cli

After the installation is completed, you can enter the following command to verify whether the installation is successful:

grunt --version

If the installation is successful, the current Grunt will be displayed. version number.

4. Gruntfile.js configuration

Create a file named Gruntfile.js in the project root directory, which defines what tasks Grunt needs to complete. The structure of a basic Gruntfile.js file is as follows:

module.exports = function(grunt) {
  // 任务
  grunt.initConfig({

  });

  // 加载插件
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('');

  // 默认任务
  grunt.registerTask('', []);
};

1. Task

The core of Grunt is the task. Each task will do something, such as copying, compressing and merging , preprocessing CSS, etc. In Gruntfile.js, we can define each task and the configuration options of the task through the grunt.initConfig() method.

For example, a task named copy_image is defined here. Its function is to copy the image files in the source directory to the dist directory:

grunt.initConfig({
  copy: {
    dist: {
      files: [{
        expand: true,
        cwd: 'source/image/',
        src: ['**/*'],
        dest: 'dist/image/'
      }]
    }
  }
});

2. Load plug-in

Grunt extends its functions by loading various functional plug-ins. For example, if we need the traditional uglify tool to compress JavaScript files, we need the corresponding plug-in.

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');

3. Default Task

Grunt can execute multiple tasks at the same time, then it will run them sequentially. The default task is the task that is executed when we enter the grunt command.

grunt.registerTask('default', ['copy', 'uglify']);

5. Commonly used Grunt plug-ins

1. grunt-contrib-copy: used for file copying.
2. grunt-contrib-concat: used for file merging.
3. grunt-contrib-cssmin: used for compression of CSS files.
4. grunt-contrib-uglify: used for compression of JS files.
5. grunt-contrib-watch: used to monitor file changes and automatically trigger tasks.
6. grunt-contrib-clean: Used to delete files and folders.

For example, grunt-contrib-concat and grunt-contrib-uglify plugins are used here to merge and compress JavaScript code:

grunt.initConfig({
  concat: {
    dist: {
      src: ['js/**/*.js'],
      dest: 'dist/js/script.js'
    }
  },
  uglify: {
    dist: {
      src: 'dist/js/script.js',
      dest: 'dist/js/script.min.js'
    }
  }
});

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-concat');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');

grunt.registerTask('default', ['concat', 'uglify']);

The task here is to merge with concat first All JS files are in one file, and then uglify is used to compress the JS code of the file.

6. Summary

Through the above introduction, I believe you have understood how to use Grunt to build and manage a Node.js web application. Keep trying and become an experienced web developer!

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