The jake-utils is a collection of useful functions for using Jake.

Note: As a package, it does un-orthodox things like creating global functions and attempting to make everything run synchronously. This design decision was made in order to be consistent with Jake, and behave similarly to a "build system".

Usage

In your Jakefile, simply add the following code near the top:

require('jake-utils');

You will then have a number of functions you an use.

Mocha Tests

My favorite test harness is Mocha.

You can now do something like:

mochaTests({
    directory: "test",
    files    : /test\-.*\.js/,
    coverage : true,
    reporter : 'tap',
    output   : 'test/results.tap'
});

This restores the console.log() before running any of the tests.

Note: Using Mocha with log4js means that your TAP results get wonky when all console.log() calls get interspersed with the TAP code.

Display Messages

You can have obnoxious headers around your tasks, to make it stand out more when you are looking at builds on Jenkins.

task('api', function() {
    start("Generating the Internal Documentation");

    // ...

    end("View documents in '%s'", apidest);
});

Lint Analysis using JSHint

We have a nice wrapper around the JSHint utility for analyzing all the files found in the directories specified. For example:

desc("Lints all of the script files in the source directories");
task('lint', function(){
    start("Analyzing the Script Files");

    var codelib    = [ 'services' , 'routes', 'resources' ];
    lint( codelib );

    end();
});

Concatenate files

The method concat is available to concatenate multiple files into one. The method resolves patterns in filenames, and has options to add a header, separators, and a footer to the concatenated file. Example:

desc("Concatenates all source files into library");
task('concat', function(){
    start("Concatenating the source files");

    var result = concat({
        src: [
            './src/main.js',
            './src/extra.js',
            './src/functions/**',
        ],
        dest: './lib/mylibrary.js',           // optional
        header: '// license information...',  // optional
        separator: '\n',                      // optional
        footer: '// the end...'               // optional
    });

    // returned result is an object containing:
    //     {String} code   The concatenated data
    //     {String} src    The list with resolved filenames

    end();
});

Markdown File Conversion

The markdown function converts a markdown-formatted file into an HTML file using the marked parser.

desc("Converts README into HTML File);
task('readme', function(){
    start("Converting the README into a web page");
    markdown( "README.md", "pub/README.html");
    end();
});

The function takes an optional third parameter for marked-specific options.

Minify using uglify-js

The method minify is available to minify a source file using uglify-js. The method accepts one source file, or an array with multiple source files, and resolves patterns in the filenames. Example:

desc("Minify the library");
task('minify', function(){
    start("Minifying library");

    var result = minify({
        src:  './lib/mylibrary.js',
        dest: './lib/mylibrary.min.js',       // optional
        options: {},                          // uglify-js options. optional
        header: '// license information...',  // optional
        separator: '\n',                      // optional
        footer: '// the end...'               // optional
    });

    // returned result is an object containing:
    //     {String} code   The concatenated data
    //     {String} src    The list with resolved filenames

    end();
});

Replace patterns in files

The method replace can be used to replace patterns in files, for example to fill in today's date or the version number of the package. The patterns can be a string or a regular expression. The list with source files can contain patterns. Example:

desc("Replace version and date in source files");
task('replace', function(){
    start("Replace version and date in source files");

    var result = replace({
        replacements: [
            {pattern: '@@date',    replacement: today()},
            {pattern: '@@version', replacement: version()}
        },
        src: [
         'main.js',
         'other/*.js'
        ]
    });

    // returned result is an object containing:
    //     {String} src    The list with resolved filenames

    end();
});

Utility functions

Other utility methods are:

var p = pkg();              // package.json contents
var v = version();          // version number from package.json
var d = today();            // formatted date of today
var data = read(filename);  // read data (fs.readFileSync)
write(filename, data);      // write data (fs.writeFileSync)