Build Tool Boilerplate

A simple boilerplate for using NPM tasks to build and compile JavaScript, CSS, and image files.

Version 2 adds watch and server tasks, and removes the need for Windows-specific tasks.

Install

• Install Node.js.
• Download the NPM Build Tool Boilerplate.

Quick Start

Each task has just one or two dependencies (except for image optimization), so I recommend deleting the ones you don't need before running npm install. Learn more in the documentation below.

1. In bash/terminal/command line, cd into your project directory.
2. Run npm install.
3. Run npm run build.

Documentation

This is a boilerplate that you can use as a starting point for your projects.

Running Tasks · JavaScript · Sass => CSS · SVG Optimization · Image Optimization · Copy Files · Clean · Complete Build · Watch for Changes · Server

Running Tasks

The boilerplate uses the npm run command to run tasks. These work on macOS, Linux, and Windows systems.

# Main Tasks
npm run js     # compile and minify
npm run css    # compile and minify Sass into CSS
npm run svg    # optimize SVGs with SVGO
npm run img    # optimize image files
npm run copy   # copy files from the src/copy directory as-is into /dist
npm run clean  # delete the /dist directory
npm run build  # run all tasks
npm run watch  # watch for changes and rebuild
npm run server # run a localhost server that reloads when files change

# Modular Tasks
npm run watch-js     # watch for changes to the /js directory
npm run watch-css    # watch for changes to the /css directory
npm run watch-svg    # watch for changes to the /svg directory
npm run watch-img    # watch for changes to the /img directory
npm run watch-copy   # watch for changes to the /copy directory
npm run build-dirty  # run a new build without deleting the /dist directory
npm run server-start # start a server without watching for changes

JavaScript

The boilerplate uses rollup.js with the terser plugin to parse, compile, and minify JavaScript files.

{
    "devDependencies": {
        "rollup": "^2.6.1",
        "rollup-plugin-terser": "^7.0.2"
    }
}

In the rollup.config.js file, there's a configs object that you can use to control what rollup.js does.

// Configs
var configs = {
    name: 'MyProject',                // Global namespace to use for IIFEs [optional]
    files: ['main.js', 'detects.js'], // The files to process
    formats: ['iife', 'es'],          // The formats to output - will be added as a suffix to the filename (ex. main.es.js)
    default: 'iife',                  // Files with this format will not have a format suffix [optional]
    pathIn: 'src/js',                 // The source directory for your JS files
    pathOut: 'dist/js',               // The directory to compile JS files into
    minify: true,                     // If true, a minified version will also be created with the .min suffix
    sourceMap: false                  // If true, sourcemaps are created for each processed file †
};

A banner is automatically generated from your package.json data.

It includes the project name and version, a copyright notice with the current year and the package author name, the license type, and a link to the project repository.

If a configs.name property is included, that will be used. If not, the banner defaults to the name property in your package.json file.

// Banner
var banner = `/*! ${configs.name ? configs.name : pkg.name} v${pkg.version} | (c) ${new Date().getFullYear()} ${pkg.author.name} | ${pkg.license} License | ${pkg.repository.url} */`;

To concatentate multiple files into one, use the ES modules import feature.

// myplugin.js
// This will compile into /dist/js/myplugin.js, and will include helpers.js, app.js, and event-listeners.js

import * as Helpers from './helpers.js';
import app from './app.js';
import './event-listeners.js';

JavaScript files should be in the src/js directory. Use this task to run the build.

npm run js

Note for FireFox users: ensure that 'Use Source Maps', and 'Show original sources' options are enabled in Developer Tools.

Sass => CSS

The boilerplate uses the Node implementation of dart-sass to parse .scss files into CSS.

{
    "devDependencies": {
        "sass": "^1.26.5"
    }
}

In the sass.js file, there's a configs object that you can use to control what dart-sass does.

// Configs
var configs = {
    name: 'MyProject',    // The name to use in the file banner
    files: ['main.scss'], // The files to process
    pathIn: 'src/scss',   // The source directory for your Sass files
    pathOut: 'dist/css',  // The directory to compile CSS files into
    indentType: 'tab',    // The type of indenting to use ['tab'|'spaces']
    indentWidth: 1,       // How many tabs or spaces to indent
    minify: true,         // If true, a minified version will also be created with the .min suffix
    sourceMap: false,     // If true, sourcemaps are created for each processed file †
};

A banner is automatically generated from your package.json data.

It includes the project name and version, a copyright notice with the current year and the package author name, the license type, and a link to the project repository.

If a configs.name property is included, that will be used. If not, the banner defaults to the name property in your package.json file.

// Banner
var banner = `/*! ${configs.name ? configs.name : pkg.name} v${pkg.version} | (c) ${new Date().getFullYear()} ${pkg.author.name} | ${pkg.license} License | ${pkg.repository.url} */`;

Sass files should be in the src/scss directory. Use this task to run the build.

npm run css

Note for FireFox users: ensure that 'Use Source Maps', and 'Show original sources' options are enabled in Developer Tools.

SVG Optimization

The boilerplate uses svgo to remove the cruft that gets added to SVG files by many editors.

{
    "devDependencies": {
        "svgo": "^1.3.2"
    }
}

For accessibility reasons, the boilerplate disables the settings that remove the title element and viewBox attribute.

You can make additional command line configurations under the svg tasks in the scripts property of the package.json file.

svgo -f src/svg dist/svg -r --disable=removeViewBox,removeTitle

SVGs should be in the src/svg directory. Use this task to run the build.

npm run svg

Image Optimization

The boilerplate uses imagemin, with the MozJPEG, pngcrush, pngquant, and zopfli plugins.

(Yea, that's kind of lot, isn't it?)

{
    "devDependencies": {
        "imagemin-cli": "^6.0.0",
        "imagemin-mozjpeg": "^8.0.0",
        "imagemin-pngcrush": "^6.0.0",
        "imagemin-pngquant": "^8.0.0",
        "imagemin-zopfli": "^6.0.0"
    }
}

Image files should be in the src/img directory. Use this task to run the build.

npm run img

Copy Files

The boilerplate uses recursive-fs to provide a cross-OS copying solution. This package is also used for the clean task, so only remove it if you're deleting both tasks.

{
    "devDependencies": {
        "recursive-fs": "^2.1.0"
    }
}

If you have files you want copied as-is, place them in the src/copy directory.

Use this task to run the build.

npm run copy

Clean

The boilerplate uses recursive-fs to provide a cross-OS recursive directory deleting solution. This package is also used for the copy task, so only remove it if you're deleting both tasks.

{
    "devDependencies": {
        "recursive-fs": "^2.1.0"
    }
}

You can delete the /dist directory before running a build to clean up any junk that might have ended up there. The build task runs this task before doing anything else.

npm run clean

Complete Build

You can run all of your build tasks in a single command.

Use this task to run the build.

npm run build

If you want to run your build without first deleting the /dist directory, run this task instead.

npm run build-dirty

Regardless of which task you use, be sure to delete any tasks you're not using from the build-dirty task under scripts in your package.json file first. The npm-run-all -p command is used to run all tasks in parallel (see below for more details).

# default build-dirty task
npm-run-all -p js css svg img copy

Watch for Changes

The boilerplate uses Chokidar CLI to watch for changes to the /src directory and run tasks in response.

{
    "devDependencies": {
        "chokidar-cli": "^2.1.0"
    }
}

Use this task to watch for changes and run a build. It will also run a fresh build when it starts.

npm run watch

If you only want to watch for changes to a specific directory in /src, you can use a task-specific watcher task.

npm run watch-js   # watch for changes to the /js directory
npm run watch-css  # watch for changes to the /css directory
npm run watch-svg  # watch for changes to the /svg directory
npm run watch-img  # watch for changes to the /img directory
npm run watch-copy # watch for changes to the /copy directory

Server

The boilerplate uses Browsersync to run a local server and automatically update it whenever your files change.

{
    "devDependencies": {
        "browser-sync": "^2.26.14"
    }
}

Use this task to watch for changes. It will also run the watch task, and automatically rebuild whenever a file in /src changes.

npm run server

If you want to run the server without the watch task, run this task instead.

npm run server-start

Core Dependencies

The boilerplate uses npm-run-all to run tasks consistently across different operating systems, and in parallel.

{
    "devDependencies": {
        "npm-run-all": "^4.1.5"
    }
}

The npm-run-all package removes the need for Windows-specific tasks.

It also allows you to run tasks in parallel. By running all of the tasks in the build tasks at the same time, you dramatically reduce the build time. This is also what makes it possible to run a localhost server and watch for file changes in one task.

In other words, don't remove this dependency.

Why does this exist?

For years, I've been an avid Gulp user. Gulp is great. But it's also a lot.

I wanted a simpler, more resilient, leaner set of build tools.

I'm tired of having to repair my build anytime I don't use it for a few months. I'm tired of installing 270mb of node_modules dependencies to build a simple website or web app.

With NPM, you can build a simplish build tool that does just what you want (and nothing more) with a fraction of the footprint.

❤️ Major kudos to Keith Cirkel for teaching me about this years ago, before I was ready to hear it.