grunt-rendr-stitch

Use Stitch to package up your modules for use with Rendr.

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.1

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-rendr-stitch --save-dev

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

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-rendr-stitch');

The "rendr_stitch" task

Overview

In your project's Gruntfile, add a section named rendr_stitch to the data object passed into grunt.initConfig().

In this example, you can see how to use options.dependencies and options.aliases.

grunt.initConfig({
  rendr_stitch: {
    compile: {
      options: {
        dependencies: [
          'assets/vendor/**/*.js'
        ],
        npmDependencies: {
          underscore: '../rendr/node_modules/underscore/underscore.js'
        },
        aliases: [
          {from: 'node_modules/rendr/shared', to: 'rendr/shared'},
          {from: 'node_modules/rendr/client', to: 'rendr/client'}
        ]
      },
      files: {
        dest: 'public/bundle.js',
        src: [
          'app/**/*.js',
          'node_modules/rendr/shared/**/*.coffee',
          'node_modules/rendr/client/**/*.coffee'
        ]
      }
    }
  }
});

The rendr_stitch task shown above will output a single file named bundle.js that includes all dependencies, npm dependencies, plus your app source files.

We can then use Stitch in the browser to require any of the source files. Stitch allows you to use the same syntax to require modules in client and server code.

var UserShowView = require('app/views/user_show_view');

Aliases allow us to use the the same paths for requiring NPM modules in both Node.js and in the browser. For example:

var BaseView = require('rendr/shared/base/view');

In Node.js, this path will tell the module loader to look into the NPM module named rendr to find the specified module. In the browser, we can do the same thing because we've bundled node_modules/rendr/shared/**/*.coffee and set up an alias to rendr/shared.

Options

options.dependencies

Type: Array Default value: []

An array of file glob patterns to pass as dependencies to stitch.createPackage(). These files are prepended to the bundled JavaScript package as-is, without being wrapped as a Stitch module. This is useful for third-party client-side only files, such as jQuery, that aren't wrapped in a CommonJS module.

options.npmDependencies

Type: Object Default value: {}

An object containing a list of files to pass as dependencies to stitch.createPackage(). Unlike options.dependencies, the files listed in options.npmDependencies are each wrapped as a Stitch module. This is useful for third-party files that are installed via npm and are used on both the client and server, such as Backbone.

options.npmDependencies is optional and can be omitted.

options.aliases

Type: Array Default value: []

Aliases provide a way to do fancy bundling of Stitch packages in order to replicate something like NPM module paths from Node. Each element in the array is an object with from and to properties. For example:

dependencies: [
  {from: 'some/path/on/disk', to: 'fancy/path/in/client'}
]

Suppose the some/path/on/disk directory looks like this:

|- util.js
|- lib/something.js

Then, in the client-side you can require the module using the aliased path:

var something = require('fancy/path/in/client/lib/something');

Files

files.dest

Type: String Default value: ``

dest is the file that the Stitch modules will be output to.

files.src

Type: Array Default value: []

An array of files that is appended to the list of files in options.dependencies and options.npmDependencies. The entire list of files is then inserted into files.dest.

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using Grunt.

Release History

0.0.8

Better support for multi tasks.

0.0.6

Use path.normalize() with npmDependencies for more flexibility.

0.0.5

Add npmDependencies option for packaging NPM modules for browser.

0.0.4

Swap out stitch dependency for fork that supports Windows file paths.

0.0.3

Clean tmp dir on every run, to prevent picking up old files.

0.0.1

Initial release.