Grunt Configuration Factory

Reduce the size of Gruntfile.js and easily find configuration by building a config from individual JSON or Javascript configuration files.

Install

npm install grunt-config-factory

When to choose JSON or Javascript

Choose JSON configuration when your plugin configuration is static.

Choose Javascript configuration when your plugin requires injecting an object such as global settings (e.g. project name to be used by multiple plugins).

Getting Started

Create a directory within your project to house your individual JSON or Javascript configuration files.

mkdir grunt_config

JSON Configuration Files

Create a JSON file which will house the plugin's configuration.

Note: The filename must match the plugin's expected configuration property name.

As an example, if we wanted to configure grunt-contrib-connect we need to call the file connect.json because grunt-contrib-connect expects the property name to be connect.

touch grunt_config/connect.json

The contents of the file:

# grunt_config/connect.json
{
  "server": {
    "options": {
      "port": 9001,
      "base": "www-root"
    }
  }
}

Javascript Configuration Files

Create a Javascript file which will house the plugin's configuration.

Note: The filename must match the plugin's expected configuration property name.

As an example, if we wanted to configure grunt-contrib-connect we need to call the file connect.js because grunt-contrib-connect expects the property name to be connect.

touch grunt_config/connect.js

The contents of the file:

# grunt_config/connect.js
module.exports = function(context) {
  return {
    server: {
      options: {
        port: context.connect.port,
        base: "www-root"
      }
    }
  };
};

Configuring Gruntfile.js

Generate the configuration within your Gruntfile.js

# Gruntfile.js

module.exports = function(grunt) {
  var context = { connect: { port: 8000 } }; // Optional. You could pass grunt around.
  var config = require('grunt-config-factory').build('./grunt_config', context); // Second parameter is optional. Will only be passed to Javascript files.
  grunt.initConfig(config);

  grunt.registerTask('default', []);
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-connect');
};

What the plugin does

It gets a list of JSON and/or Javascript files from the given configuration directory and creates a configuration object much the same way you would do manually.

Given the following grunt plugins:

• grunt-contrib-connect
• grunt-karma

And using the following configuration directory:

grunt_config/
 - connect.json
 - karma.js

The returned object would be the same as if we had returned:

{
  connect: require('./grunt_config/connect.json'),
  karma: require('./grunt_config/karma.js')(context)
}