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Asked: 2026-06-10T03:52:13+00:00

I’m very keen to make use of some build techniques in my Javascript/Web App

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I’m very keen to make use of some build techniques in my Javascript/Web App development such as

  • Concatentation
  • Minification
  • Image replacement with data:uri’s
  • Build vs Source *
  • App Cache Manifest generation *

It’s those last two that I haven’t found an answer for yet.

Build vs Source

By this I mean having a “source” version of my HTML and Javascript that is untouched so that I do not have to build each time to preview a change. All of my JS files are separate <script> tags as usual with the build vs updating these script sections with the final concatenated versions. To be honest I feel like I’m missing something here with all of these new Javascript build systems as this seems like an obvious need but I can’t find anyone else talking about it. How is everyone else dealing with this?.. Build on each change during development?? surely not.

App Cache Manifest generation

This explains itself – walk through my source tree and build up a manifest and insert it into my <html> tag.

I’ve searched for these two with no luck – any pointers?
I’d be on the road with a killer build system if it wasn’t for those two.

Thanks!!!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Re: Build vs Source

    It sounds like you’re already familiar with grunt. You may want to consider looking into the grunt node-build-script plugin.

    It adds a number of new tasks, notably grunt mkdirs and grunt copy which duplicates your project directory into a separate staging folder and then copies your optimised project into a publish folder. If I’m not mistaken, this is what you mean by keeping an ‘untouched’ version of your source files?

    Running grunt server will then serve up the contents of your publish files on localhost. You could always point your web server to your initial project directory if you want to examine your application in its unoptimised state.

    node-build-script adds a bunch of other super convenient tasks, such as image optimisation, automatic file revving and substitution. It’s incredibly easy to use and super customisable.

    I have a basic single page template which uses node-build-script which also may be of interest.

    Re: App Cache Manifest generation

    I believe this used to be part of node-build-script but was since removed, see 1, 2

    There would be nothing stopping you from creating a custom grunt task that utilised something like confess.js however.

    Finally, it looks like Google’s upcoming Yeoman might be worth keeping an eye on if you’re not already!

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