Building Node.js Apps with Grunt

Last updated 11 May 2015

Grunt is a generic task-runner for Node.js projects with a huge library of plugins (grunt-contrib-*). By automating tasks, you can streamline processes for your project (and reduce human error on your team).

This article walks through automating Node.js builds with Grunt on Heroku. You can follow along with your own project, or clone our example from GitHub.

Use the official language support

This tutorial is based on the premise that you’re using Heroku’s official Node.js support, which includes support for Grunt. If you’re using a third-party buildpack, remove it:

$ heroku buildpacks:clear

Provide a Gruntfile in your project

Grunt is configured via Gruntfile.js, which should exist at the root of your project alongside package.json. For this example, we’ll use a simple Gruntfile:

module.exports = function(grunt) {

  // Project configuration.
  grunt.initConfig({
    pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
    uglify: {
      options: {
        banner: '/*! <%= pkg.name %> <%= grunt.template.today("yyyy-mm-dd") %> */\n'
      },
      build: {
        src: 'src/factorial.js',
        dest: 'build/factorial.min.js'
      }
    }
  });

  // Load the plugin that provides the "uglify" task.
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');

  // Default task(s).
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['uglify']);
};

This configuration provides a single task: uglify, which will build src/factorial.js into a minified build/factorial.min.js.

Install Grunt and necessary plugins

You should always install npm modules locally (without the -g, or global, option), so that all of your project’s dependencies are tracked in package.json. All grunt projects will need grunt and grunt-cli, which you can install like this:

$ npm install --save --save-exact grunt grunt-cli

You’ll also need to install any Grunt plugins used by your project. For this example, we’re using grunt-contrib-uglify:

$ npm install --save --save-exact grunt-contrib-uglify

Specify your Grunt task in a postinstall script

To use Grunt as a build tool, we need the uglify task to be run after npm modules have been installed, but before we start our app. That’s exactly what the postinstall script does in package.json:

"scripts": {
    "postinstall": "grunt uglify",
    "start": "node server.js"
  }

Ignore generated files

You shouldn’t track generated files in git; since they depend on already-tracked files, it’s just a recipe for collisions. Add any generated paths to .gitignore so your Grunt tasks don’t trigger changes in your source control:

node_modules
build/*.js

Check the build

You can easily run your automated workflow locally. If you don’t have a project set up, feel free to clone the example:

$ git clone https://github.com/heroku-examples/node-grunt.git
$ cd node-grunt

Now, ensure that the postinstall script generates a minified file in /build:

$ npm install

> node-grunt@1.0.0 postinstall /Users/hloftis/heroku/node-grunt
> grunt uglify

Running "uglify:build" (uglify) task
>> 1 file created.

Done, without errors.

Nice! Now, any team member who clones your project will automatically get the latest, built assets when running npm install.

Deploy to Heroku

$ git push heroku master

If you watch the build output, you’ll see the Grunt task running:

remote: -----> Building dependencies
remote:        Restoring node modules from cache
remote:        Pruning unused dependencies
remote:        valid
remote:        Installing node modules
remote:
remote:        > node-grunt@1.0.0 postinstall /tmp/build_cd7bdaa2b503b380953ec249de0df1b9
remote:        > grunt uglify
remote:
remote:        Running "uglify:build" (uglify) task
remote:        >> 1 file created.
remote:
remote:        Done, without errors.

Summary

Adding grunt functionality is simple: just use the postinstall hook of npm to ensure a grunt task gets executed as part of the build process.