Flexible build lifecycles for grunt

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.1

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-build-lifecycle --save-dev

Once the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

// Must run after `grunt.initConfig`
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-build-lifecycle');

Inspired by the maven build lifecycle, the lifecycle task allows you to tame your grunt tasks with a consistent build lifecycle.

This means that the process for compiling, testing, and packaging a particular project is clearly defined. For the person building a project, this means that it is only necessary to learn a small set of commands to build any project, and the lifecycle task will ensure they get the results they desired.

In your project's Gruntfile, add a section named lifecycle to the data object passed into grunt.initConfig().

grunt.initConfig({
    lifecycle: {
        validate: [
            'jshint',
            'csslint'
        ],
        compile: [
            'coffee',
            'compass'
        ],
        test: [
            'connect:test',
            'karma:unit'
        ],
        package: [
            'concat',
            'uglify'
        ],
        'integration-test': [
            'karma:e2e'
        ],
        verify: [],
        install: [],
        deploy: [
            'server'
        ]
    },

    // other tasks...
});

// Must run after `grunt.initConfig`
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-build-lifecycle');

This will create the following grunt tasks: validate, compile, test, package, integration-test, verify, install, and deploy. Running any of these tasks will run all the preceding lifecycle tasks sequentially.

For example, grunt test runs the validate, compile, and test tasks.

You can run build phases individually with grunt phase-<name>, where name is one of the lifecycles.

For example, based on the above example grunt phase-compile runs the coffee and compass tasks.

Additionally, you can skip phases with the --skip parameter.

For example, grunt install --skip=validate,test will skip the validate and test phases.

To skip all tests phases, use --skipMatch=test.

Perhaps maven-ish build cycles are not your thing, you can define your own set of lifecycle phases. Here's another example. Just remember, consistency is a good thing.

grunt.initConfig({
    lifecycle: {
        lint: [
            'jshint',
            'csslint'
        ],
        compile: [
            'coffee',
            'compass'
        ],
        unit-test: [
            'connect:test',
            'karma:unit'
        ],
        package: [
            'concat',
            'uglify'
        ],
        e2e-test: [
            'karma:e2e'
        ],
        run: [
            'server'
        ]
    },

    // other tasks...
});

// Must run after `grunt.initConfig`
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-build-lifecycle');

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using Grunt.