The document discusses the use of Grunt, a JavaScript task runner, to automate repetitive tasks in web development, enabling developers to focus on more critical tasks such as accessibility. It provides practical examples of setting up Grunt, including configuration files like `package.json` and `gruntfile.js`, and shows how to perform actions like minifying JavaScript, linting code, and combining CSS. Additionally, it suggests resources for further learning and outlines the benefits of using Grunt for efficient development workflows.

1. Let Grunt do the work,
focus on the fun!
Dirk Ginader, Google, 2013
@ginader http://dir.kg/slides

2. Let Grunt do the endlessly
repetitive tedious tasks, focus
on the important stuff
like Accessibility!
Dirk Ginader, Google, 2013

3. Let Grunt do the work,
focus on the fun!
Dirk Ginader, Google, 2013

4. Why Build scripts?

5. Because great
Developers
are lazy.

6. Because great
Developers
are lazy.
FACT.

7. time
spent
task sizenon-geek
geek does it manually
makes fun of geek’s
complicated method
loses
does it
manually
gets
annoyed
writes script
to automate
runs script
wins

8. Build systems have
been around for ages
• Make
• Maven
• and so many more ...
• Ant
• Rake

9. They’re all great and
powerful and all...

10. Minify with Ant
<target name="js-compile-all" description="Compile JavaScript files with Closure"
unless="skip-js-compile">
<echo>Compiling JS files in ${input.scripts.dir} in closure...</echo>
<apply executable="java" dest="${output.scripts.dir}">
<arg value="-jar"/>
<arg path="${jar.lib.dir}/closure-compiler.jar"/>
<arg line="--js"/>
<srcfile/>
<arg line="--js_output_file"/>
<targetfile/>
<fileset dir="${output.scripts.dir}" includes="**/*-main.debug.js" />
<mapper type="glob" from="*-main.debug.js" to="*-main.min.js"/>
</apply>
<echo>Finished compiling JS files</echo>
</target>
http://mechanics.flite.com/blog/2012/06/19/why-we-use-node-dot-js-and-grunt-to-build-javascript/

12. How much I liked to
configure with XML?

14. I’m a Front End
Developer!

15. I like Javascript

16. I like LOVE Javascript

18. Just one year ago
Ben Alman did me a
great favor:

19. GRUNT
The JavaScript Task Runner

20. written in Javascript

21. using the node
package manager

23. FAST adoption rate
• jQuery
• Modernizr
• Adobe
• twitter
• ...

24. because it’s easy!

25. System Setup:

26. download and install
node.js from:
http://nodejs.org/

29. $ npm install -g grunt-cli

31. Project Setup:

32. 2 important Files:
package.json
Gruntfile.js

33. package.json

34. {
"name": "jQuery-Accessible-Tabs",
"version": "1.9.7",
"homepage": "http://github.com/ginader/Accessible-Tabs",
"author": {
"name": "Dirk Ginader",
"url": "http://ginader.com"
},
"devDependencies": {
}
}
https://npmjs.org/doc/json.html

35. Gives you:
• Variables you can use in your script
i.e. version and name
• Dev Dependencies that allows you to
quickly install all required npm modules

36. {
"name": "jQuery-Accessible-Tabs",
"version": "1.9.7",
"homepage": "http://github.com/ginader/Accessible-Tabs",
"author": {
"name": "Dirk Ginader",
"url": "http://ginader.com"
},
"devDependencies": {
}
}
https://npmjs.org/doc/json.html

37. $ npm install grunt --save-dev

39. {
"name": "jQuery-Accessible-Tabs",
"version": "1.9.7",
"homepage": "http://github.com/ginader/Accessible-Tabs",
"author": {
"name": "Dirk Ginader",
"url": "http://ginader.com"
},
"devDependencies": {
"grunt": "~0.4.0"
}
}
https://npmjs.org/doc/json.html

40. $ npm install
install all the defined
Dependencies in one go

41. Gruntfile.js

42. Minify with Grunt
http://mechanics.flite.com/blog/2012/06/19/why-we-use-node-dot-js-and-grunt-to-build-javascript/
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
uglify: {
dist: {
src: 'dist/myfile.js',
dest: 'dist/myfile.min.js'
},
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['uglify']);
};

43. Minify with Ant
<target name="js-compile-all" description="Compile JavaScript files with Closure"
unless="skip-js-compile">
<echo>Compiling JS files in ${input.scripts.dir} in closure...</echo>
<apply executable="java" dest="${output.scripts.dir}">
<arg value="-jar"/>
<arg path="${jar.lib.dir}/closure-compiler.jar"/>
<arg line="--js"/>
<srcfile/>
<arg line="--js_output_file"/>
<targetfile/>
<fileset dir="${output.scripts.dir}" includes="**/*-main.debug.js" />
<mapper type="glob" from="*-main.debug.js" to="*-main.min.js"/>
</apply>
<echo>Finished compiling JS files</echo>
</target>
http://mechanics.flite.com/blog/2012/06/19/why-we-use-node-dot-js-and-grunt-to-build-javascript/

45. Minify with Grunt
http://mechanics.flite.com/blog/2012/06/19/why-we-use-node-dot-js-and-grunt-to-build-javascript/
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
uglify: {
dist: {
src: 'dist/myfile.js',
dest: 'dist/myfile.min.js'
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['uglify']);
};

46. Minify with Grunt
http://mechanics.flite.com/blog/2012/06/19/why-we-use-node-dot-js-and-grunt-to-build-javascript/
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
uglify: {
dist: {
src: 'dist/myfile.js',
dest: 'dist/myfile.min.js'
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['uglify']);
};

47. Minify with Grunt
http://mechanics.flite.com/blog/2012/06/19/why-we-use-node-dot-js-and-grunt-to-build-javascript/
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
uglify: {
dist: {
src: 'dist/myfile.js',
dest: 'dist/myfile.min.js'
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['uglify']);
};

48. let’s see what it does!
$ grunt

51. easy to add more
$ npm i grunt-contrib-jshint --save-dev

53. add JS Linting
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
jshint: {
all: ['*.js']
},
uglify: {
dist: {
src: 'myfile.js',
dest: 'myfile.min.js'
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['jshint','uglify']);
};
https://npmjs.org/package/grunt-contrib-jshint

56. tired of typing already?
$ grunt watch

57. watch: {
gruntfile: {
files: [ 'Gruntfile.js', 'js/myfile.js'],
tasks: ['jshint']
}
}
https://npmjs.org/package/grunt-contrib-watch

61. add data from package.json
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
jshint: {
all: ['*.js']
},
uglify: {
options: {
banner: '/*! <%= pkg.name %>' +
' <%= grunt.template.today("yyyy-mm-dd") %> */n'
},
dist: {
src: 'myfile.js',
dest: 'myfile.min.js'
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['jshint','uglify']);
};

62. {
"name": "jQuery-Accessible-Tabs",
"version": "1.9.7",
"homepage": "http://github.com/ginader/Accessible-Tabs",
"author": {
"name": "Dirk Ginader",
"url": "http://ginader.com"
}
}
https://npmjs.org/doc/json.html

63. add data from package.json
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
jshint: {
all: ['*.js']
},
uglify: {
options: {
banner: '/*! <%= pkg.name %>' +
' <%= grunt.template.today("yyyy-mm-dd") %> */n'
},
dist: {
src: '<%= pkg.name %>.js',
dest: '<%= pkg.name %>.min.js'
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['jshint','uglify']);
};

64. add data from package.json
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
jshint: {
all: ['*.js']
},
uglify: {
options: {
banner: '/*! <%= pkg.name %>' +
' <%= grunt.template.today("yyyy-mm-dd") %> */n'
},
dist: {
src: '<%= pkg.name %>.js',
dest: '<%= pkg.name %>.<%= pkg.version %>.min.js'
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['jshint','uglify']);
};

65. minify and combine CSS
cssmin: {
compress: {
options: {
banner: '<%= banner %>'
},
files: {
'project.min.css': ['1.css','2.css', '...']
}
}
}
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-cssmin');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['jshint','uglify', 'cssmin']);
https://npmjs.org/package/grunt-
contrib-cssmin

66. optimize Images
imagemin: {
dist: {
options: {
optimizationLevel: 3
},
files: {
// 'destination': 'source'
'dist/img.png': 'src/img.png',
'dist/img.jpg': 'src/img.jpg'
}
}
}
grunt.registerTask('default', ['imagemin']);
https://npmjs.org/package/grunt-
contrib-imagemin

67. but it’s more than just
optimizations

68. Build HTML Pages
markdown: {
all: {
files: ['readme.markdown','version-history.markdown'],
template: 'web/template.html',
dest: 'web',
options: {
gfm: true,
codeLines: {
before: '<span>',
after: '</span>'
}
}
}
}
https://npmjs.org/package/
grunt-markdown

69. remove debug code
removelogging: {
dist: {
src: 'js/jquery.tabs.min.js',
dest: 'js/jquery.tabs.min.js'
}
}
https://npmjs.org/package/
grunt-remove-logging

70. compile Sass/Compass
// setup Compass/Sass to load from existing config.rb
compass: {
dist: {
options: {
config: 'config.rb'
}
}
}
https://npmjs.org/package/
grunt-contrib-compass

71. ...but Kitt will tell you all about that
in the next Session :-)

72. and Livereload!
https://npmjs.org/package/
grunt-contrib-livereload

73. all done? deploy!

74. FTP upload dance?

75. https://npmjs.org/
package/grunt-rsync

77. Scaffolding

78. $ npm install -g grunt-init

79. many templates for
grunt-init
• Gruntfile
• Grunt plugin
• jQuery plugin
• node.js
• ...

80. $ git clone git://
github.com/gruntjs/grunt-
init-jquery.git ~/.grunt-
init/jquery

81. $ grunt-init jquery

83. The opinions I expressed here represent my own
and not necessarily those of my employer.
btw:We’re hiring! Talk to me :-)
Thank you! Questions?

84. Resources
• Grunt: http://gruntjs.com/
• Great article: http://dir.kg/grunt.workflow
• Extending Grunt big time: http://yeoman.io
• Me: http://dir.kg/me
• @ginader on twitter
• the example projects: http://github.com/ginader/
• http://ginader.com
• http://dir.kg/slides