This package has been deprecated

Author message:

Use bacon-grunt instead

grunt-bacon

Makes for tastier Gruntfiles

Features

• Allows inline definition of every task in a sequence
• No more scrolling back and forth between grunt.registerTask and grunt.initConfig()
• Automatically import all npm tasks
• Just syntactic sugar! All Grunt functionality works just like it used to.
• It's so good I named it "Bacon".

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.5

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-bacon --save-dev

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

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

Overview

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

s = function(grunt) {
  var bacon = require('grunt-bacon')(grunt);
  bacon.loadNpmTasks(); // Automatically scans your node_modules folder
 
  // 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
      expand: true,
      cwd: 'public/js'
      src: '**/*.js',
      dest: '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', {
      expand: true,
      cwd: 'public/img'
      src: '**/*.png',
      dest: '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. 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.loadNpmTasks()

Scans your project's node_modules directory for folders starting with grunt- (Exlcuding grunt-bacon, of course!) and calls grunt.loadNpmTasks() on each one.

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).

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.

Release History

• v0.2.0: Major refactor of bacon.subtask(), removed bacon.subtaskConfig().
• v0.1.0: First release!