Bob

Convention-based build tool for node.js projects.

Bob provides a set of build-related tasks that work cross-platform and simple to use by following a few convention.

It works with zero configuration and allows minimal customisation when you don't want to use the default type of a particular task.

It only installs the default tools, while alternative tools will be lazy-installed as required.

It doesn't have plugins. It uses various CLI tools and configure their usage in task configuration files.

Installation

npm install -g bob

Project Convention

A project must have:

• package.json file, with at least name and version info
• lib/ directory, where you put your source code
• test/ directory, where you put your test code

Usage

Run Bob: (from your project directory, where package.json is located)

bob clean lint test coverage

Run Bob in robot mode: (generate machine-parsable output when possible)

BOB_MODE=robot bob clean lint test coverage

Run Bob quietly: (only lists tasks, without each task's output)

bob --quiet clean lint test coverage

Tasks

In alphabetical order.

| Task | Description | Default Type | Alternative Type(s) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | clean | Delete .bob directory | rimraf | - | | complexity | Run code complexity checker against *.js files in lib/ directory | plato | - | | coverage | Check code coverage | c8 | - | | dep | Install dependencies specified in package.json | npm | - | | depgraph | Generate module dependencies graph | madge | - | | doc | Generate code documentation | jsdoc | - | | lint | Lint *.js files in lib/ and test/ directories | eslint | - | | package | Create an artifact file in .bob/artifact/ directory | tar.gz | - | | publish | Publish artifact file to a repository | npm | - | | rmdep | Remove node_modules directory. | rimraf | - | | site | Generate web site. | ae86 | buildbranch | | style | Style the code | prettier | - | | test | Execute unit test files in test/ directory | mocha | npm | | test-acceptance | Execute acceptance test files in test-acceptance/ directory | mocha | cucumber | | test-integration | Execute integration test files in test-integration/ directory | mocha | cmdt | | updep | Upgrade all dependencies to latest version | pkjutil | - |

Config

To customise Bob for your project, create a .bob.json file in your project directory, where package.json is located.

To use nodelint instead of default jshint when running bob lint:

{
  "lint": {
    "type": "nodelint"
  }
}

To add an alias task (called build) which executes clean lint test coverage tasks:

{
  "build": "clean lint test coverage"
}

Continuous Integration

GitHub Workflow

Configure Bob in GitHub workflow YAML file:

jobs:
  build:
    steps:
      - run: npm install -g bob
      - run: bob clean lint test coverage

Jenkins CI

Configure Bob in a Jenkins job with shell script build step:

npm install -g bob
bob clean lint test coverage

Colophon

Developer's Guide

Build reports:

• Code complexity report
• Unit tests report
• Test coverage report
• Integration tests report
• API Documentation

Videos:

• Evolution of bob (Gource Vizualisation) by Landon Wilkins