using assets from stream rather than loading them

[nlundquist]

In my use case it would be much easier to integrate gulp-useref if it were possible for it to concatenate files in the order defined in the html source; but instead of using the html resource paths as a reference for where to load the files it used them as the identifiers for ordering the files of the incoming stream which have already been loaded / compiled / moved during the previous steps in the pipeline to virtual paths / names that match those in the html source. Has this design ever been considered?

I also think this furthers the gulp plugin design goal of "do one thing".

[jonkemp]

This has been considered before #30.

I don't see how it furthers the goal of "do one thing". This plugin integrates a module called useref into the gulp flow.

It's not a a bad idea but it's outside the scope of this plugin.

[nlundquist]

If this feature is outside the scope of the plugin, #30 will never be worked on? The issue should should be considered closed?

Fair enough re: "do one thing" and your "one thing" being wrapping useref. It appears to me that the useref module does multiple things (load block assets & concat assets into blocks) and an effort to make its interface more gulp-like would include breaking these functions into composable units.

Thanks for the quick response.

[jonkemp]

Maybe it's not outside the scope, but it would require a rewrite and a major version change. I don't have the time for it right now nor do I know how to do it, so to me it is probably better done in a separate plugin. If someone else has the time and knows how to do it and wants to propose this here, it would be welcome.

As far as do one thing being the goal, it's not always that easy. That was surely my intent when I started, but it was clear from users that it wasn't very useful without concatenation and minification of assets. Do one thing is a good goal, but its just that. Is it really possible to break all these tasks into separate plugins when they are all dependent on one another? Currently, it seems like a good idea, but nobody knows how to do it.

[nlundquist]

No doubt it won't be as easy as wrapping the useref API. It just wasn't built for streaming concat. I'll attempt to find some time to explore if it would be plausible for a gulp plugin to wrap / monkey-patch some of the useref modules private functions to help provide this modularized, stream enabled API. If unsuccessful, adding this feature may require significant redevelopment of useref to use streams throughout, which would be understandably outside of scope.