Introduction to Gulp.js 11: Production Build, Server and Jekyll

This is the 11th part of my series, Introduction to Gulp.js. Today I will start writing the production build task, set up a server to view the production code and build the production site with Jekyll.

In development, I used the default Gulp.js tasks to run the development server, build the assets, and watch for changes. For production, I will need another entry point.

I decided to name my task publish. Later I can get a production build with the command gulp publish.

gulp/tasks/publish.js

var gulp = require("gulp");

/**
 * Run task browsersync:production
 */
gulp.task("publish", ["browsersync:production"]);

I put this file on the same level as the default.js file. This task is short: It does one thing. Start a BrowserSync task for production. This way I can have a look at the production site before deploying it to my server.

BrowserSync for Production

All production tasks will live in a folder production/ inside gulp/tasks/. I name the tasks of development and production the same but put them in different folders.

gulp/config.js

browsersync: {
  development: {
    ...
  },
  production: {
    server: {
      baseDir: [production]
    },
    port: 9998
  }
}

The only differences to the browsersync of development are these: I serve the production folder and use a different port for the server. This way, I can run development and production in parallel.

gulp/tasks/production/browser-sync.js

var gulp = require("gulp");
var browsersync = require("browser-sync");
var config = require("../../config").browsersync.production;

/**
 * Start a server and watch changes with BrowserSync
 */
gulp.task("browsersync:production", ["build:production"], function () {
  browsersync(config);
});

This task is boring. It starts the production build.

Build Task for Production

gulp/tasks/production/build.js

var gulp = require("gulp");
var runSequence = require("run-sequence");

/**
 * Run all tasks needed for a build in the defined order
 */
gulp.task("build:production", function (callback) {
  runSequence(
    "delete",
    "jekyll:production",
    ["sass", "scripts", "images", "copy:fonts"],
    "base64",
    ["optimize:css", "optimize:js", "optimize:images", "optimize:html", "copy:fonts:production"],
    "revision",
    "rev:collect",
    callback
  );
});

A lot is going on in this task: I run tasks in a specific order with run-sequence. First, I delete the assets folder for fresh creation. Then I run the Jekyll build for production, and create the development assets as I did in development. And after this is finished, I start with optimizing my assets and revisioning the files.

Jekyll for Production

The Jekyll task is similar except for two things: I create my site to the production folder and I add another config file _config.build.yml as an option (be careful, add no space between two files).

My Jekyll production config overwrites values as the url, hide future posts (future: false), or hides drafts (show_drafts: false).

gulp/config.js

jekyll: {
  development: {
    ...
  },
  production: {
    src:    src,
    dest:   production,
    config: '_config.yml,_config.build.yml'
  }
}

gulp/tasks/production/jekyll.js

var gulp = require("gulp");
var cp = require("child_process");
var browsersync = require("browser-sync");
var config = require("../../config").jekyll.production;

/**
 * Build the Jekyll Site
 */
gulp.task("jekyll:production", function (done) {
  browsersync.notify("Compiling Jekyll (Production)");

  return cp
    .spawn(
      "bundle",
      [
        "exec",
        "jekyll",
        "build",
        "-q",
        "--source=" + config.src,
        "--destination=" + config.dest,
        "--config=" + config.config,
      ],
      { stdio: "inherit" }
    )
    .on("close", done);
});

Conclusion

This concludes the 11th part of my series Introduction to Gulp.js. Today, I started to work on the production part of my website, including a server to view the production site and generate a production build of my Jekyll site.

View Source on GitHub