krakenjs / Grumbler

Grumbler

https://medium.com/@bluepnume/introducing-grumbler-an-opinionated-javascript-module-template-612245e06d00

A template for writing distributable javascript libraries.

Javascript libraries are fun to write. Setting up all of the boilerplate to get your build up and running is not so fun.

This module provides a forkable module template, which you can use to kick-start a new javascript library. Once you've done that, feel free to come back and switch out the tooling for whatever you prefer.

Features

• Build minified and unminified versions of your code, with source maps
• Use ES2015 out of the box
• Write headless Karma / Mocha tests, which run in Chrome Headless and other browsers, with code coverage reports
• Integrate with Travis CI out of the box
• Write error free, type-safe code with ESLint, Flow-Type, and Flow-Runtime

Technologies

• babel
• eslint
• flowtype
• flow-runtime
• karma
• phantomjs
• chrome headless
• mocha
• istanbul
• webpack
• npm
• travis

Quick Start

Getting Started

• Fork the module
• Run setup: npm run setup
• Start editing code in ./src and writing tests in ./tests
• npm run build

Building

npm run build

Tests

• Edit tests in ./test/tests

• Run the tests:

  npm run test
  

Testing with different/multiple browsers

npm run karma -- --browser=PhantomJS
npm run karma -- --browser=Chrome
npm run karma -- --browser=Safari
npm run karma -- --browser=Firefox
npm run karma -- --browser=PhantomJS,Chrome,Safari,Firefox

Keeping the browser open after tests

npm run karma -- --browser=Chrome --keep-open

Publishing

Before you publish for the first time:

• Delete the example code in ./src, ./test/tests and ./demo
• Edit the module name in package.json
• Edit README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md

Then:

• Publish your code: npm run release to add a patch
  • Or npm run release:path, npm run release:minor, npm run release:major

FAQ

• Who is this for?

  • Anyone who wants to get started quickly on a javascript library without setting up a lot of boilerplate
  • Anyone who wants a fairly healthy opinionated set of defaults to get started with
  • Anyone new to writing front-end modules, who doesn't want to immediately research which modules to use to build their code

• Who this is not for?

  • Anyone who needs/wants tight control over their project, and which specific build tools they want to use

• Why use technology X/Y/Z?

  Probably because it's been a good fit for us in the past. We wanted our focus to be around (fairly) standardized javascript as much as possible, rather than compiled-to-javascript languages, hence the use of babel, flow, etc.

• So you just took a bunch of build-tools and daisy-chained them together?

  Yep, pretty much. This is not anything remotely technically impressive, or new, or innovative. It's just a healthy set of defaults to get started with if you're building a front-end distributable library.

• Can I improve this template?

  By all means, please feel to raise a PR, but if it's a big change, try to open an issue first so we can chat!

• What about support for React, Ember, framework X or Y?

  Wanted to keep this module as framework-agnostic as possible. Not to mention there are already pretty good boilerplates out there for whatever framework you're using, I'll bet. Otherwise please feel free to be my guest and fork grumbler-superawesomeframework if it's helpful.