flour

Flour
==========


Flour is a set of simple build tools for your Cakefiles.

Changelog

!image

Usage

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'

Adapters

These are the current adapters and the required modules:

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* CoffeeScript: coffee-script
* LESS: less
* Stylus: stylus

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* Javascript: uglify-js

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* Javascript: 'jshint'

Creating new adapters is very easy, take a look at the adapters/ folder for guidance.

Reference

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Compile CoffeeScript, LESS, Stylus, Handlebars templates:

compile(file, [destination], [callback])

##### Usage

compile 'app.coffee', 'app.js'

compile 'cold.coffee', 'app.js', (output) ->
console.log 'Done!'

compile 'cold.coffee', (output) ->
console.log output.transform()

Some compilers may accept options that will get proxied to their respective
libraries. For example, you can disable compression for LESS or Stylus with

flour.compilers.less.compress = false
flour.compilers.styl.compress = false

Or customize the LESS include path with

flour.compilers.less.paths = ['/path/to/my/less/libs/']

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Compile, minify and join a set of files:

bundle(files, destination)

##### Usage

// 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'

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Watch files for changes:

watch(files, action)

##### Usage

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'

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Check file syntax (uses JSHint):

lint(file, [options], [globals]) # see http://www.jshint.com/options/

#### Usage

task 'lint', ->

lint 'scripts/*.js'

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Minify files (currently only Javascript using UglifyJS):

minify(file, [destination], [callback])

Extensibility

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

Tips

#### Disable the JS minifier during development

task 'watch', ->
flour.minifiers.disable 'js'

watch 'scripts/*.coffee', -> invoke 'build'

#### Pre-compile Hogan templates

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'

Why use flour?

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.

#### Changelog

##### v0.5.7
- fixes for CoffeeScript v1.7

##### v0.5.4
- enable options forwarding for minifiers
- fix bundle behaviour when no output path given

##### v0.5.2
- coffeescript sourcemap support

##### v0.5.1
- pass through all options to adapters. white-listing is not mantainable.
- add markdown compiler

##### v0.5
- flour.minifiers.disable('js'), enables/disables all if no argument given
- compile handlebars *.hbs templates

##### v0.4.12
- expand paths containing patterns inside bundle() array argument (#22)

##### v0.4.11
- mkdir_p on compile (#20)

##### v0.4.10
- compatibility fix for CoffeeScript 1.5.0

##### v0.4.9
- 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

##### v0.4.8
- output to multiple files with flour.compile 'src/.coffee', '' and variations

##### v0.4.5 / v0.4.6
- handle single file path as input for bundle()
- better handling of wildcard paths using minimatch

##### v0.4.4
- add back support for uglify-js < 2.0

##### v0.4.0
- tests!
- fix file buffer bug
- accept options for adapters, enables disabling compression for LESS and Stylus

##### v0.3.3
- bugfixes

##### v0.3.2
- add node-hound as a dependency for file watching
- watch whole directory trees: watch src/, -> invoke 'build' (listens for new files and deletes too)
- fix error handlers leak

##### v0.3.1
- fix extension handling bug

##### v0.3.0
- flour doesn't install it's adapter dependencies anymore, it's up to you to add them to your project's package.json`