gulp-beer: better error reporting.

gulp-beer is a simple error handler function that provides some extra features:

• Interactive System Notification (thanks to node-notifier)
• Custom Server for Errors (opened on notification click) that display all your errors in a more pleasent and straightforward way.

Interactive System Notification

Custom Server for Errors

Installation

$ npm install --save-dev gulp-beer

Usage

Require gulp-beer in your gulpfile.js:

var gulpBeer = require('gulp-beer');

than simply pass required function as error handler function wherever you like:

gulp.src('*')
  // stream error
  .on('error', gulpBeer)
  // Plumber
  .pipe(plumber({errorHandler: gulpBeer}))
  // Other error listener
  .pipe(sass().on('error', gulpBeer))

You can also call it manually if an error object must be handled

var customFunction(err, result) {
  if (err) gulpBeer(err);
}

(!!) Start error server (!!)

Since error server prevents the gulp process to finish, it has to be started manually when needed (usually when performing a watching task).

Error Handler function expose the server object, so you can do:

gulpBeer.server.start() // to start the error server

gulpBeer.server.stop() // to stop the error server

A simple usage example:

var gulp = require('gulp');
var gulpBeer = require('gulp-beer');
var plumber = require('gulp-plumber');
var sass = require('gulp-sass');

function build() {
	return gulp.src('./src/css/*.scss')
  		.pipe(plumber({errorHandler: gulpBeer}))
        .pipe(sass())
        .pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/css'));
}

gulp.task('build', build);
gulp.task('watch', function() {
    gulpBeer.server.start();
    gulp.watch('./src/css/*.scss', ['build']);
});

Otherwise, if you prefer start it automatically, take a look at the option server.autostart in the "customize handler" section.

Customize Handler

If you like, you can customize the error handler function and the error server.

First of all require the custom module:

var gulpBeerFactory = require('gulp-beer/custom');

This will return a factory for the error handler function, which accepts some options as first parameter.

var errorHandler = gulpBeerFactory(options);

Options

consoleError [function] : the function that will be used to print the error in the console.

It receives the error object as first argument, decorated with a custom property:

• serverUrl [string | false]: the link to the custom error server related to this specific error

title [string] Title of the system notification

sound [boolean | string] Notification sound as described here

icon [boolean | string] Notification sound as described here

server [object | false] Server configuration object. If false the server start will be prevented also if started manually.

Server configuration object accepts the following properties:

• port [number] : Port on which the server will listen
• autostart [boolean] : If true, the server will be started automatically
• silent [boolean] : Silents server console output