How to include scripts automatically in a yeoman/grunt project?

Question

I have a working yeoman project. I am using grunt-usemin.

To include javascripts, I do this in index.html:

<!-- build:js scripts/includes.js -->
<script src="/bower_components/jquery/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/underscore/underscore-min.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/angular/angular.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/angular-route/angular-route.min.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/angular-resource/angular-resource.min.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/angular-sanitize/angular-sanitize.min.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/angular-ui-date/src/date.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/angulartics/src/angulartics.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/angulartics/src/angulartics-ga.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/jquery-ui/ui/jquery-ui.js"></script>
<script src="/assets/vendor/bootstrap.2.3.1.min.js"></script>
... a few more libs like that

<script src="/scripts/config.processed.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/app.js"></script>

<script src="/scripts/controllers/first_controller.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/controllers/second_controller.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/controllers/third_controller.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/controllers/fourth_controller.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/controllers/fith_controller.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/controllers/sixth_controller.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/controllers/seventh_controller.js"></script>
... 20 more like that

<script src="/scripts/directives/first_directive.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/directives/second_directive.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/directives/third_directive.js"></script>
... 10 more like that

<script src="/scripts/services/first_service.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/services/second_service.js"></script>
...

<script src="/scripts/filters/first_filter.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/filters/second_filter.js"></script>
...
<!-- endbuild -->

This is verbose. I would like to be able to do something like this:

In index.html:

<!-- build:js scripts/includes.js -->

<!-- library includes as before -->
<script src="/bower_components/jquery/jquery.min.js"></script> 
<script src="/bower_components/underscore/underscore-min.js"></script>
...

<!-- Replace application includes with this: -->
<script src="<% '/scripts/**/*.js' %>"></script>

<!-- endbuild -->

Patrickpatrilateral

Answer 1

I used grunt-include-source

Install it:

npm install grunt-include-source --save-dev

In Gruntfile:

Load it before initConfig:

module.exports = function (grunt) {
  ...
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-include-source');

Configure includeSource itself in initConfig:

grunt.initConfig({
  ...,
  includeSource: {
      options: {
        basePath: 'app',
        baseUrl: '/',
      },
      server: {
        files: {
          '.tmp/index.html': '<%= yeoman.app %>/index.html'
        }
      },
      dist: {
        files: {
          '<%= yeoman.dist %>/index.html': '<%= yeoman.app %>/index.html'
        }
      }
    }

Add this task where you want (here, I add it to the build task):

grunt.registerTask('build', [
    'clean:dist',
    'includeSource:dist',
    'useminPrepare',
    ...

Add it to the watch task:

watch: {
  ...,
  includeSource: {
    files: ['<%= yeoman.app %>/index.html'],
    tasks: ['includeSource:server']
  }

Change useminPrepare (if you use yeoman)

useminPrepare: {
  // changed from app to dist, to take index.html processed by includeSource in dist
  html: '<%= yeoman.dist %>/index.html',
  options: {
    dest: '<%= yeoman.dist %>'
  }
},

I've used to subtasks: dist and server to generate the index.html in different directories.

---

Edit: How to include your javascripts in index.html:

<!-- build:js({.tmp,dist,app}) /scripts/application.js -->
<!-- vendor, external -->
<script src="/bower_components/jquery/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/underscore/underscore-min.js"></script>
<script src="/assets/vendor/underscore.extentions.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/angular/angular.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/select2/select2.js"></script>
<script src="/bower_components/angular-ui-select2/src/select2.js"></script>

<!-- entry point -->
<script src="/scripts/config.processed.js"></script>
<script src="/scripts/app.js"></script>

<!--include everything in scripts/ except files directly inside scripts (without subdirectory) -->
<!-- include: "type": "js", "files": ["scripts/**/*.js", "!scripts/*.js"] -->

<!-- endbuild -->

If you want to include everything scripts, do this:

<!-- include: "type": "js", "files": "scripts/**/*.js" -->

Patrickpatrilateral

What was your HTML index file like? I followed everything but cannot find how to make it work because I dont know the HTML comment tags, Thanks! – Quotable

I'm using Yeoman with angular and ionic/cordova and for this example (which works, thanks!) you need to think of /www as the distribution folder. For example, includeSource:dist should point to www/index.html. – Shiner

Also, my grunt file has require('load-grunt-tasks')(grunt); so I didn't need to use loadNpmTasks() – Shiner

Alternatively, you can just create the file in the same directory (overwrite) using grunt serve, and configure it to load into www on build – Shiner

Thank you. I cannot help but remark that this seems like it's needlessly complicated, but that's hardly your fault. – Reconstructionist

The update helped me a lot. Had just messed up the index file. Agree with @casey,grunt-include-source is (or should not be) neccesary :) +1 for the good explanation. – Ketch