Creates a mini development environment for serving static content.

Gulpfile.js

var gulp  = require('gulp'),
    gutil = require('gulp-util');

var paths = {
    css:  'assets/css/**/*.css',
    html: 'assets/html/**/*.html',
    js:   'assets/js/**/*.js',
    img:  'assets/images/**/*.{png,jpg,jpeg,gif}'
};

/**
 * Configure Express server.
 * Serve static files on port 3000
 */
gulp.task('express', function() {
  var express = require('express'),
      path    = require('path'),
      app     = express(),
      port    = 3000;

  app.use(express.static(path.resolve('./dist')));
  app.listen(port);
  gutil.log('Listening on port: ' + port);
});

/**
 * Automatically add vendor prefixes and minify CSS files.
 */
gulp.task('css', function() {
  gulp.src(paths.css)
    .pipe(require('gulp-autoprefixer')())
    .pipe(require('gulp-csso')())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/css'));
});

/**
 * Copy HTML files to dist folder.
 * Could be replaced with a templating
 * preprocessor like LESS.
 */
gulp.task('html', function() {
  gulp.src(paths.html)
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./dist'));
});

/**
 * Uglify JS files.
 */
gulp.task('js', function() {
  gulp.src(paths.js)
    .pipe(require('gulp-uglify')())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/js'));
});

/**
 * Compress PNG, JPEG, GIF files.
 */
gulp.task('img', function() {
  gulp.src(paths.img)
    .pipe(require('gulp-imagemin')())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./dist/images'));
});

/**
 * Create watch tasks to trigger LiveReload
 * to inject styles and scripts and refresh on HTML changes.
 * Requires: LiveReload browser plugin.
 */
gulp.task('watch', function() {
  var server = require('gulp-livereload')();

  [ // Add watch tasks here
    gulp.watch(paths.html, ['html']),
    gulp.watch(paths.js, ['js']),
    gulp.watch(paths.css, ['css']),
    gulp.watch(paths.img, ['img'])
  ]
    .forEach(function(task) {
      task.on('change', function(file) {
        server.changed(file.path);
      });
    });
});

gulp.task('build', ['html', 'css', 'js', 'img']);
gulp.task('default', ['build', 'express', 'watch']);

package.json

{
  "name": "gulp-static-server",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "description": "Gulp tasks working together to serve static content.",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "gulp"
  },
  "license": "WTFPL",
  "devDependencies": {
    "gulp-livereload": "~1.2.0",
    "gulp-util": "~2.2.14",
    "gulp": "~3.5.6",
    "gulp-uglify": "~0.2.1",
    "gulp-autoprefixer": "0.0.6",
    "gulp-csso": "~0.2.6",
    "gulp-imagemin": "~0.1.5"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "~3.5.0"
  }
}