grunt-amd-dist

grunt-amd-dist is a grunt task to build JavaScript projects which use the AMD format.

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.0

Installataion

From the same directory as your Gruntfile, run

npm install grunt-amd-dist

Then add the following line to your Gruntfile:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-amd-dist');

You can verify that the task is available by running grunt --help and checking that "amd-dist" is under "Available tasks".

Usage

grunt-amd-dist reads two sections of your config: amd-dist and requirejs. amd-dist can contain these properties (example from deferreds.js):

'amd-dist': {
    all: {
        options: {
            //remove requirejs dependency from built package (almond)
            standalone: true,
            //build standalone for node or browser
            env: 'node',
            //env: 'browser',
            exports: 'deferreds'
        },
        //Grunt files configuration object for which to trace dependencies
        //(more: http://gruntjs.com/configuring-tasks)
        files: [{
            src: 'src/deferreds/**/*.js',
            dest: 'dist/deferreds.js'
        }]
    }
},

requirejs is a standard r.js configuration object. grunt-amd-dist uses basePath, paths, and packages (all optional) to transform file names to AMD module names. If the mainConfigFile property is given, the configuration in that file will be mixed-in to the requirejs property with a lower precedence (that is, in the case of a conflicting configuration property, requirejs will always "win" against mainConfigFile).

Once these options are in place, grunt amd-dist will run grunt-amd-dist.

Standalone build

The standalone option will cause the built file to export an object containing all AMD modules which were part of the build. Depending on the env option, this returned object is assigned to module.exports (node) or window.<config:dist.exports>. Object keys are the module names, values are the modules.

Why?

The r.js optimizer already performs the main purpose of grunt-amd-dist, so why use this grunt task? Well, the main use case for grunt-amd-dist is building library projects, where a build should include all files. Normally, AMD libraries should be used as-is and built by the consumer as part of their own projects' builds (to minimize the amount of library code included to what is actually used). A library built through grunt-amd-dist, then, would normally be intended as an alternative for consumers who do not want to use an AMD loader. With that in mind, here's what grunt-amd-dist provides:

1. Can specify files instead of module names, and use grunt's globbing to cut down on typing included files explicitly.
2. Built script can export an object containing all included modules, for use outside AMD loaders.
3. Can export for node or browsers.