Travis Maynard - Getting Started with Gulp - Second Edition

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

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First published: January 2015

Second edition: April 2017

Production reference: 1260417

ISBN 978-1-78728-373-2

www.packtpub.com

Travis Maynard is a software engineer who focuses on minimalism and simplicity. He is currently creating software at JazzHR to help growing companies find and hire great employees. Prior to his work at JazzHR, he designed web frameworks and user experiences at West Virginia University to serve their education and marketing efforts.
In his spare time, he actively contributes to the open source software community and occasionally writes about the Web.

Sugan Gopalakrishnan is an Associate Lead at Nagarro Pvt. Ltd, where he is a technical lead for multiple web applications. He has vast experience working on mobile and web applications while working for a wide range of companies, from start-ups to global brands. When he is not building software, he is either reading a book, or travelling, or doing both.

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I wrote this book to provide developers with a simple and inviting way to learn about Gulp and the tools that are required to use it. My goal is to keep the content simple and remain aware of the intimidation that I experienced while learning Gulp myself. With this in mind, I wanted to create content that wouldn't assume too much from beginners, while maintaining a steady pace to keep even experienced readers engaged.

, Introducing Gulp, focuses on helping you understand the languages and tools that you will use. You will learn how to use Gulp to perform automated tasks for your development workflow.

, Getting Started, deals with getting your local environment set up by installing any software that is needed to move forward. You will learn how to use a command-line interface and take a look at the anatomy of a gulpfile.

, Understanding the Basics of Gulp, explains the basics of Gulp and how its various methods interact with one another to create a gulpfile. You will learn how to use npm to install plugins and prepare yourself with the necessary knowledge to write your own tasks and gulpfile.

, Performing Tasks with Gulp, demonstrates how to create a set of base tasks for handling common workflow processes such as concatenating, minifying, and pre-processing your files.

, Creating Advanced Tasks, explores ways to improve our gulpfile by introducing new tasks and modifying our previous tasks to be more robust. This chapter also covers when and why to use Node.js modules instead of Gulp plugins. You will learn how to create various tasks that will run a static server, sync your project files with your browser(s), and implement Browserify and Babel to take advantage of the latest JavaScript features.