Question

I’m starting a project at work and was wondering what the best build tool to use would be.

The whole thing is written in CoffeeScript, using AngularJS for the client-side and NodeJS for the server.

There are several components to the app:

• An iPad app
• An iPhone app (different functionality from the ipad)
• A CMS for the apps
• A NodeJS server

There is tons of shared code between all these, again all written in CoffeeScript.

I’d like a build tool where I can list which app uses what code (much of it shared) and it would build each app’s javascript files into a seperate folder.

For example, I would setup a folder called ‘/compiled/ipad/’ which has index.html, and folders for js, css, img, etc. I would list what compiled coffee files I want thrown into /compiled/ipad/js (some of it from /src/shared/*.coffee, some of it from /src/ipad/*.coffee, etc) and what files I want thrown into /compiled/ipad/css. I would want it to be able to easily concatenate files how I want, too.

It would also compile my tests, from /src/test/ipad into /compiled/test/ipad/*.js.

All my client-side unit tests are written using testacular and I’m not sure what I’ll write the server-side unit tests in yet.

What build tool/configuration is the best approach here? A Makefile? Something like Grunt? I’m honestly new to the whole build scene.

edit: Decided to go with Browserify. You can find my solution to make it work with Angular here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/angular/ytoVaikOcCs

Answer 1

I would put all the shared code into Node.js modules and create a project that looks something like the following:

Project
|~apps/
| |~cms/
| | `-app.js
| |~ipad/
| | `-app.js
| |~iphone/
| | `-app.js
| `~node/
|   `-app.js
|~libs/
| |-module.js
| `-module2.js
|~specs/
| |~cms/
| | `-app.js
| |~ipad/
| | `-app.js
| |~iphone/
| | `-app.js
| `~node/
|   `-app.js
| `~libs/
|   |-module.js
|   `-module2.js
`-Makefile

I would then use something like Browserify (there are others) to make the client-side apps where needed. That way instead of having a build file where you say what you need you actually have real apps importing modules.