grunt-modulefiles

Enables a project to split its files into a set of modules. A module's information is stored in a json file containing a name for the module, the files it contains, and other modules it depends on. The module files can then be accumulated into various configurations of included and excluded modules, which can be fed into other plugins (e.g. grunt-contrib-concat) for packaging.

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.1

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-modulefiles --save-dev

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

grunt.loadNpmTasks("grunt-modulefiles");

The "modulefiles" task

Overview

In your project's Gruntfile, add a section named modulefiles to the data object passed into grunt.initConfig().

grunt.initConfig({
    modulefiles: {
        your_target: {
            options: {
                // Target-specific options go here.
            },
            src: []// Target-specific file lists go here.
        }
    }
});

The modulefiles task will look for json dependency files in your project matching the specified file pattern. These json dependency files contain a name for the module, the files it contains, and other modules it depends on. The included files and dependencies should all be listed in the order of their dependence. The files should be paths relative to the dependency file. The dependency file itself, should be located within a directory representing the module.

{
    "moduleName": {
        "files": ["file1.js", "file2.js"],
        "dependencies": ["moduleA", "moduleB"]
    }
}
 

If you wish to place the dependency file in a location outside of the module, you can specify the directory property indicating where the modules directory is, relative to the module file. This is useful if the module is pulled in via NPM. In the following example the dependency file would be a sibling to the module's directory:

{
    "moduleName": {
        "files": ["file1.js", "file2.js"],
        "dependencies": ["moduleA", "moduleB"],
        "directory": ["./moduleDirectory"]
    }
}
 

Options

options.exclude

Type: String or Array Default value: []

Either an array or comma separated string listing the modules to be excluded from the set of dependencies.

options.include

Type: String or Array Default value: null

Either an array or comma separated string listing the modules to be included in the set of dependencies. If the value is falesy the entire set of modules, minus exclusions (see option.exclude), will be used.

Output

An object containing arrays of all the files and directories returned from the task, is stored at the targets output property.

{
    "files": [/*file paths*/],
    "dirs": [/*directory paths*/]
}

This can be accessed using either grunt.config.prop or "<%= modulefiles.targetName.output =>". (see: grunt.config)

grunt.initConfig({
    modulefiles: {
        your_target: {
            src: ["**/*Dependencies.json"]
        }
    },
    // example passing in the files to the concat task
    concat: {
        all: {
            src: "<%= modulefiles.your_target.output.files %>",
            dest: "package.js"
        }
    }
});

Usage Examples

Default Options

In this example the json dependency files are found by matching the src pattern. There are no include and exclude options specified, so all of the modules found will be used. An array of all the files is stored in the 'modulefiles.all.output' config property.

grunt.initConfig({
    modulefiles: {
        all: {
            src: ["**/*Dependencies.json"]
        }
    }
});

Custom Options

In this example modules "moduleA" and "moduleB" are included, but "moduleC" and "moduleD" are excluded. The resulting set of files is stored at the "modulefiles.some.output" config property.

grunt.initConfig({
    modulefiles: {
        some: {
            options: {
                exclude: ["moduleC", "moduleD"],
                include: "moduleA, moduleB"
            },
            src: ["**/*Dependencies.json"]
        }
    }
});

Set a relative path

In this example, "cwd" sets the root directory for locating the dependency files from. The returned paths for the source files and directories will be relative to the new root directory.

grunt.initConfig({
    modulefiles: {
        all: {
            cwd: "path/",
            src: ["**/*Dependencies.json"]
        }
    }
});

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

v0.4.0

• Module definitions can specify a directory property to indicated the module's directory location. This allows the module file to be placed outside of the module; which is useful, for example, when a module is pulled in via NPM.

v0.3.1

• Improved linting.
• Published to NPM

v0.2.1

• Added an "cwd" option to specify a path that all source files and directories can be relative to.

v0.2.0

• Improved dependency handling. Now the dependencies section in a json dependency file can be specified as a string, array, or be left off completely.
• Files are relative to the json file. Instead of providing paths relative to the grunt file, file paths in the json dependency files are now relative to the json dependency file.

v0.1.0

Initial release