gistfile1.md

Front-end build setup

Tools used

• node.js - JavaScript Runtime
• Gulp - Task Runner
• Bower - Package manager

Configure environment

1. Install node.js follow instructions on node.js homepage: nodejs.org

2. In the GUI root dir (where package.json is) run in terminal:

    npm install
   

   This installs all the node modules listed as dev-dependencies in package.json including Gulp and Bower.

3. Now we need Gulp installed globally so we can run gulp commands from terminal:

    npm install -g gulp
   

   If this command cannot be run due to permissions, it is not recommended to use sudo for package management but to change owner of the /usr/local directory instead (more info here):

    sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local
   

4. Run build:

    gulp
   

   This runs all tasks defined as "default" in gulpfile.coffee. Currently:

   • transpile .coffee files into .js -> app/js
   • copy .js files into app/js
   • download bower dependencies to lib folder
   • copy non-bower libs to lib folder
   • injects .js dependencies into index.html template

   This is all for a build

Run watcher for development

For a file watcher, which will automatically compile coffeescript into js, and which copies source js files into app/ directory, run:

    gulp watch

to be done:

1. LESS lib bower - broken link due to version number in filename (wrong main file too) - is hardcoded for now
2. LESS to CSS
3. for production build also concatenation and minification is possible