tu - task unsystem

Use regular node modules for your tasks

tu is a simple module which allows you to:

1. npm install tu
2. Create a Tufile.js or Tufile.coffee file which exports some functions
3. $ tu [function_name]

It can be used for the same purposes as Grunt or Gulp. e.g. compile files, minify them, run a development server, upload to FTP or S3, etc.

Quick example

Tufile.js

var log = require('callback-logger')(),
    server = require('livereload-static-server'),
    watchGlob = require('watch-glob'),
    rimraf = require('rimraf'),
    fs = require('fs-extra'),
    useref = require('useref-file');

exports.dev = function() {
    var livereload = server('tmp', 3001)
    log.success("Server running on port 3001")

    watchGlob('src/**/*', function(changedFile) {
      livereload(changedFile.path);
      log.success("Reloading")
    });
}

exports.build = function() {
    rimraf.sync('build');

    fs.copy('src/images', 'build/images', log('Copied image folder'));

    useref('src/index.html', 'build', { handlers: { js: 'uglify' } },
        log.cb("Replaced references in index.html and wrote <%= _.size(res) %> files"));
}

Using it

$ tu dev
Server running on port 3001
Reloading
Reloading

$ tu build
Replaced references in index.html and wrote 2 files
Copied image folder

Helper modules

Tasks commonly have files as input and other files as output. However, many node modules only expose an interface which uses streams or strings (as they rightfully should).

To prevent always having to fs.readFile and fs.writeFile, some wrapper modules have been created for tasks which usually work with files. Some other modules were extracted from grunt tasks, so that they can be used directly from node.

Some examples of these modules are coffee-files, uglify-files, livereload-static-server and useref-file. For more, see the Examples section below.

Examples

• CoffeeScript (and watch)
• LESS (and watch)
• Minify Javascript
• Concatenate
• useref/usemin (minify HTML blocks)
• Server with livereload (and watch)
• Logging
• Upload files with FTP
• Clean
• Copy
• Anything else

CoffeeScript (and watch)

Using coffee-files

var coffee = require('coffee-files');
var log = require('callback-logger')();

coffee.file('files/coffee/a.coffee', 'tmp/coffee/a1.js');

coffee.file('files/coffee/a.coffee', 'tmp/coffee/a2.js', { sourceMap: true }, log.cb('Built coffee file'));

coffee.glob('*.coffee', 'files/coffee',
            'tmp/coffee/all', { sourceMapDir: 'tmp/coffee/maps', watch: true },
            log.cb('Built <%= res.length %> coffee files'), log.cb('Updated <%= res.outputFile %>'), log.cb('Removed <%= res %> '));

For more information on logging, see the Logging section

LESS (and watch)

Using less-files

var less = require('less-files');
var log = require('callback-logger')();

less.file('files/less/a.less', 'tmp/less/a1.css');

less.file('files/less/a.less', 'tmp/less/a2.css', { sourceMap: true }, log.cb('Built less file'));

less.glob('*.less', 'files/less',
            'tmp/less/all', { sourceMapDir: 'tmp/less/maps', watch: true },
            log.cb('Built <%= res.length %> less files'), log.cb('Updated <%= res.outputFile %>'), log.cb('Removed <%= res %> '));

For more information on logging, see the Logging section

Minify Javascript

Using uglify-files

var uglify = require('uglify-files');
var log = require('callback-logger')();

uglify('files/js/s.js', 'tmp/uglify/s.js.min', log.cb('Minified <%= res.outputFile %>, now has <%= res.outputData.length %> bytes'));

uglify([ 'files/js/s.js', 'files/js/t.js' ], 'tmp/uglify/build.js.min', log.cb('Minified <%= res.outputFile %>, now has <%= res.outputData.length %> bytes'));

For more information on logging, see the Logging section

Concatenate

Using concatenate-files

var concat = require('concatenate-files');
var log = require('callback-logger')();

concat([ 'files/css/a.css', 'files/css/b.css' ], 'tmp/concat/concat.css',
        log.cb('Generated <%= res.outputFile %>'));

concat([ 'files/js/s.js', 'files/js/t.js' ], 'tmp/concat/concat.js', { separator: ';' },
        log.cb('Generated <%= res.outputFile %>'));

For more information on logging, see the Logging section

useref/usemin (minify HTML blocks)

Using useref-file

var useref = require('useref-file');
var log = require('callback-logger')();

useref('files/useref.html', 'tmp/useref',
        log.cb("replaced references in index.html and wrote <%= _.size(res) %> files"))

useref('files/useref.html', 'tmp/useref2', { handlers: { js: 'uglify' } },
        log.cb("replaced references in index.html and wrote <%= _.size(res) %> files"))

For more information on logging, see the Logging section

Server with livereload (and watch)

Using livereload-static-server and watch-glob

var server = require('livereload-static-server'),
    watchGlob = require('watch-glob'),
    log = require('callback-logger')();

var livereload = server('tmp', 3001)
log.success("Server running on port 3001")

watchGlob([ 'tmp/**/*.+(js|css)' ], function(changedFile) {
  livereload(changedFile.path);
  log.success("Reloading")
});

Other possible ways to watch files and trigger livereload:

watchGlob([ 'tmp/**/*' ], { callbackArg: 'absolute' }, livereload);

watchGlob([ 'tmp/**/*.+(js|css)' ], function(changedFile) {
  var reloadedClients = livereload(changedFile.path);
  if(reloadedClients > 0) {
    log.success("reloading " + reloadedClients + " client(s)")
  }
});

For more information on logging, see the Logging section

Logging

The callback-logger module can make it easier to log the result of operations. It exports a cb(successMessage, errorMessage) function which returns another function that may be given as a callback. This may be a good alternative to writing a function which checks the callback result and prints something.

See the other sections for examples of callback-logger being used.

Upload files with FTP

Using ftp-deploy

var FtpDeploy = require("ftp-deploy")
var log = require('callback-logger')();

var ftpDeploy = new FtpDeploy();

var config = {
  username: "...",
  password: "...",
  host: "...",
  port: 21,
  localRoot: 'tmp',
  remoteRoot: "somefolder",
  parallelUploads: 3
};

ftpDeploy.on('uploading', (data) -> log.success("Uploading #{data.filename}"))

ftpDeploy.deploy(config, log.cb("Done uploading"))

For more information on logging, see the Logging section

Clean

Using rimraf

var rimraf = require('rimraf');

rimraf('tmp/coffee/a1.js');

rimraf('tmp/coffee/', log.cb('Cleaned folder'));

Copy

Using fs-extra

var fs = require('fs-extra');

fs.copy('files/foo.txt', 'tmp/copy/foo.txt');

fs.copy('files/coffee', 'tmp/copy/coffee');

Anything else

Just write it directly on the Tufile. If it may be useful for others, consider making a separate module and updating this list.