Flour is a set of simple build tools for your Cakefiles.
Add flour and your required pre-processors/compilers to your package.json:
{
"name": "dancingrobot",
...
"dependencies": {
"flour": "",
"uglify-js": "",
"coffee-script": ""
},
...
}
Then run npm install, and require 'flour' at the top of your Cakefile. A few methods are available in the global scope.
This is what a typical Cakefile could look like:
require 'flour'
task 'build:coffee', ->
compile 'coffee/app.coffee', 'js/app.js'
task 'build:less', ->
compile 'less/main.less', 'css/main.css'
task 'build:plugins', ->
bundle [
'vendor/underscore.js'
'vendor/hogan.js'
'vendor/backbone.js'
], 'js/plugins.js'
task 'build', ->
invoke 'build:plugins'
invoke 'build:coffee'
invoke 'build:less
task 'watch', ->
invoke 'build:less'
invoke 'build:coffee'
watch 'less/*.less', -> invoke 'build:less'
watch 'coffee/app.coffee', -> invoke 'build:coffee'
task 'lint', 'Check javascript syntax', ->
lint 'js/feature.js'
(if the global pollution hurts your feelings you can remove them with flour.noConflict(). That will bring the global object back to it's previous state)
Each of these functions accepts either a file path or a list of files. Simple wildcard paths (*.xxx) are allowed. For example:
watch [
'less/main.less'
'less/reset.less'
'less/print.less'
], -> invoke 'build:less'
You can also access the resulting output by passing a callback:
compile 'coffee/app.coffee', (output) ->
# do something with the compiled output
mail.send subject: 'Project file', to: 'grandma@hotmail.com', body: output
# verify the CoffeeScript compiler output
compile 'coffee/app.coffee', 'js/app.js', -> lint 'js/app.js'
These are the current adapters and the required modules:
- CoffeeScript:
coffee-script - LESS:
less - Stylus:
stylus
- Javascript:
uglify-js
- Javascript: 'jshint'
Creating new adapters is very easy, take a look at the adapters/ folder for guidance.
Compiles CoffeeScript, LESS or Stylus files:
compile(file, [destination], [callback])
compile 'app.coffee', 'app.js'
compile 'cold.coffee', 'app.js', (output) ->
console.log 'Done!'
compile 'cold.coffee', (output) ->
console.log output.transform()
You can disable compression for LESS or Stylus with
flour.compilers.less.compress = false
flour.compilers.styl.compress = false
Compile, minify and join a set of files:
bundle(files, destination)
// preservers the list order
bundle [
'lib/jquery.js'
'lib/underscore.js'
'lib/backbone.js'
], 'js/bundle.js'
// system-dependent order
bundle 'js/*.js', 'js/all.js'
Watch files for changes:
watch(files, action)
watch 'src/app.coffee', ->
compile 'lib/app.js'
# best used with predefined tasks:
task 'build', ->
bundle '*.coffee', 'app.js'
task 'watch', ->
watch [
'modules.coffee'
'user.coffee'
'main.coffee'
], ->
invoke 'build'
# or simply
task 'watch', ->
watch '*.coffee', -> invoke 'build'
Check file syntax (uses JSHint):
lint(file, [options], [globals]) # see http://www.jshint.com/options/
task 'lint', ->
lint 'scripts/*.js'
Minify files (currently only Javascript using UglifyJS):
minify(file, [destination], [callback])
You can add new minifiers and compilers to flour:
flour.minifiers['dumb'] = (file, cb) ->
file.read (code) ->
cb code.replace(/\s*/, '')
flour.compilers['odd'] = (file, cb) ->
odd = require 'odd-lib'
file.read (code) ->
cb odd.compile code
task 'watch', ->
flour.minifiers['js'] = null
watch 'scripts/*.coffee', -> invoke 'build'
flour.compilers['mustache'] = (file, cb) ->
hogan = require 'hogan.js'
file.read (code) ->
cb "App.templates['#{file.base}']=${hogan.compile code, asString: true};"
task 'build:templates', ->
bundle 'views/*.mustache', 'resources/views.js'
While Grunt, brewerjs, H5BP-build-script, Yeoman and other similar projects have the same (and some more advanced) capabilities, they are increasingly complex to setup.
The goal of Flour is to provide a small and simple API that caters for the most common build tasks, without requiring you to adjust your project structure, install command-line tools or create long configuration files.
- fix lint callback arguments
- breaking change: call callback only once when watching multiple files. each file is a key in the results object
- add yuicompress option for LESS compiler
- output to multiple files with
flour.compile 'src/*.coffee', '*'and variations
- handle single file path as input for bundle()
- better handling of wildcard paths using minimatch
- add back support for uglify-js < 2.0
- tests!
- fix file buffer bug
- accept options for adapters, enables disabling compression for LESS and Stylus
- bugfixes
- add node-hound as a dependency for file watching
- watch whole directory trees:
watchsrc/`, -> invoke 'build' (listens for new files and deletes too) - fix error handlers leak
- fix extension handling bug
- flour doesn't install it's adapter dependencies anymore, it's up to you to add them to your project's
package.json