grunt-livereload
Refresh your CSS (or page) with each save via LiveReload.
Getting Started
First, install this grunt plugin next to your project's grunt.js gruntfile with: npm install grunt-livereload
Second, add this line to your project's grunt.js
gruntfile:
grunt;
Documentation
Third, have livereload monitor changes to browser-accessible resources. This part is crucial, as CSS, if specified correctly, can be reloaded without refreshing the entire page.
// grunt.js ... livereload : options : base : 'public' files : 'public/**/*' ...
In this example, public/css/app.css
will trigger a reload of the css/app.css
resource only,
while public/index.html
will cause a full page refresh.
Finally, ensure your watch
task doesn't process CSS at the same time it
processes HTML, JS, and other resources that are being monitored:
// grunt.js watch: somecss: files: '**/*.css' tasks: 'copy:somecss' js: files: '**/*.js' tasks: 'concat'
Many people watch everything and run their build process each time. This
is unecessarily slow and prevents LiveReload from being able to see when
only the .css
has changed. So, it's recommended that you watch different
types of files and perform only what's necessary to rebuild those.
This way, CSS is copied/processed alone and LiveReload will seamlessly replace the styles in your page without refreshing the whole browser.
Changelog
v0.1.3
- Grunt 0.4 support (Thanks @xbudex!)
v0.1.2
- If
livereload
attempts to start an already-running server, it logs to the console rather than throwing anerr
. (This is common when clearingrequire.cache
)
v0.1.1
- Refresh browser when
livereload
task is ran while server is running
v0.1.0
- Initial release
License
Copyright (c) 2013 Eric Clemmons Licensed under the MIT license.