grunt-este-watch

Run predefined tasks whenever watched file changes. LiveReload included.

Update: I extracted core watching functionality into separate module. So you can use it with gulpjs for example. Tests are included. If you want to participate on open source and become famous, send me pull request to update this grunt-este-watch module.

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.0

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-este-watch --save-dev

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

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-este-watch');

Watch task

Run this task with the grunt esteWatch command.

Settings

options.dirs

Note you have to specify only directory ('dir'), or directory recursively ('dir/**/') with all its subdirectories.

Type: Array.<string> Default:

[
  'bower_components/closure-library/**/',
  'bower_components/este-library/**/',
  '!bower_components/este-library/node_modules/**/',
  'client/**/{js,css}/**/'
]

List of watched directories.

options.livereload

Type: Object Default:

{
  enabled: true,
  port: 35729,
  extensions: ['js', 'css']
  key: null, // provide a filepath or Buffer for `key` and `cert` to enable SSL.
  cert: null
}

Examples

Watch and compile CoffeeScript.

esteWatch:
  options:
    # just a dirs, no file paths
    dirs: ['dirOne/**/', 'dirTwo/**/']

  'coffee': (filepath) ->
      files = [
        expand: true
        src: filepath
        ext: '.js'
      ];
      grunt.config ['coffee', 'app', 'files'], files
      ['coffee:app']

  # to define all
  '*': (filepath) ->
    return ['urequire:uberscoreUMD']

From github.com/steida/este Gruntfile.coffee.

grunt.initConfig({
  esteWatch: {
    options: {
      dirs: ['bower_components/closure-library/**/',
      'bower_components/este-library/**/',
      '!bower_components/este-library/node_modules/**/',
      'client/**/{js,css}/**/']
    },
    coffee: function(filepath) {
      var files = [{
        expand: true,
        src: filepath,
        ext: '.js'
      }];
      grunt.config(['coffee', 'app', 'files'], files);
      grunt.config(['coffee2closure', 'app', 'files'], files);
      return ['coffee:app', 'coffee2closure:app'];
    },
    soy: function(filepath) {
      grunt.config(['esteTemplates', 'app'], filepath);
      return ['esteTemplates:app'];
    },
    js: function(filepath) {
      grunt.config(['esteUnitTests', 'app', 'src'], filepath);
      var tasks = ['esteDeps:all', 'esteUnitTests:app'];
      if (grunt.option('stage')) {
        tasks.push('esteBuilder:app');
      }
      return tasks;
    },
    styl: function(filepath) {
      grunt.config(['stylus', 'all', 'files'], [{
        expand: true,
        src: filepath,
        ext: '.css'
      }]);
      return ['stylus:all', 'stylus:app'];
    },
    css: function(filepath) {
      if (grunt.option('stage')) {
        return 'cssmin:app';
      }
    }
  }
});

Live Reloading

Live reloading is built into the watch task and enabled by default.

Enabling Live Reload in Your HTML

Once you've started a live reload server you'll be able to access the live reload script. To enable live reload on your page, add a script tag before your closing </body> tag pointing to the livereload.js script:

<script src="//localhost:35729/livereload.js"></script>

Feel free to add this script to your template situation and toggle with some sort of dev flag. Note that if you are using SSL in dev, you will need to add a key and cert config to options.livereload.

FAQs

What's wrong with official grunt-contrib-watch?

It's slow and buggy, because it uses combination fs.fileWatch and fs.watch, for historical reason. From Node 0.9.2+, fs.watch is ok.

github.com/steida/este needs maximum performance and stability, so that's why I had to create yet another Node.js file watcher. This watcher is continuously tested on Mac, Linux, Win platforms.

grunt-contrib-watch Issues

• Strange "Abort trap: 6" exceptions.
• File added in new directory isn't detected.
• LiveReload console.log mess during livereloading.
• Polling to much files. Etc.

Note about editors atomic save

Node.js fs.watch sometimes does not work with editors atomic save. For example, Node.js v0.10.17 works while v0.10.18 doesn't. Fix for SublimeText is easy, just disable it via "atomic_save": false.

License

Copyright (c) 2013 Daniel Steigerwald

Licensed under the MIT license.