Gulp hook before 'cordova build xxx'

Question

I have my gulpfile.js with some tasks and I want to execute one task when I do cordova build

I created a before_build folder inside of the hooks folder with a simple console.log("a")in a js file.

But whe I run for example cordova build android it says 'console' is undefined, I have to do something else to run Javascript? I couldn´t find more info.

Thanks!

EDIT:

I added #!/usr/bin/env node at the top of my .js file and the console.log works but now I want to do gulp myTask and is throwing to me gulp is not defined

Perionychium

Answer 1

You can run it without leaving Node by pasting this code into the file before_build/010_compile_css.js:

#!/usr/bin/env node

var gulp = require('gulp');
var path  = require('path');

var rootdir = process.argv[2];
var gulpfile = path.join(rootdir, 'gulpfile.js');

process.stdout.write('Compiling SCSS');

require(gulpfile);

//interaction
gulp.start('scss');

James

Will gulp.start() complete synchronously as Cordova hooks require? – Entozoon

I found that gulp.start() is deprecated and scheduled to be removed: github.com/gulpjs/gulp/issues/505 .. Though that was a year ago! – Entozoon

Latest Cordova no longer recommending using hooks folder, it will be deprecated soon. Please use JS method instead as per suggest by @David Douglas – Cartel

Answer 2

I found I had to use __dirname to require the 'gulpfile.js' file.

#!/usr/bin/env node

module.exports = function(context) {
  var Q = context.requireCordovaModule('q');
  var deferral = new Q.defer();

  var path = require('path'),
      gulp = require('gulp'),
      gulpfile = path.join(__dirname, 'gulpfile');
  require(gulpfile);

  gulp.start('myTask').once('task_stop', function(){
      console.log('myTask done');
      deferral.resolve();
  });

  return deferral.promise;
}

NB: The 'gulpfile.js' and 'hook.js' are in same directory here. You can set custom path to hook js file in Cordova's config.xml file:

<hook type="before_build" src="app/hook.js" />

Pinkerton

Also beware that Cordova hook scripts act from the root project directory so you may run into file path issues if your gulpfile.js operates from within a sub-directory. – Pinkerton

Answer 3

Finally I could run the command, here is my .js file inside hooks/before_build

#!/usr/bin/env node
var sys = require('sys')
var exec = require('child_process').exec;
function puts(error, stdout, stderr) { sys.puts(stdout) }
exec("gulp", puts);

Perionychium

not the best solution since you're creating a new process from node to run another node script (gulp). – Camper

@Camper so, what do you think it's a better solution? – Perionychium