Is it possible not to mention all the script file paths in grunt?

Question

I am using gruntjs and usemin task. I added this to my html file:

<!-- build:js scripts/all.js -->
<script src="../../core/module.js"></script>
<script src="../../core/base/alerts/alert-item.js"></script>
<script src="../../core/base/alerts/alerts-list.js"></script>
<script src="../../core/base/base_model.js"></script>
<script src="../../core/base/cursor.js"></script>
<script src="../../core/...<another script>...."></script>
<script src="../../core/...<another script>...."></script>
<script src="../../core/...<another script>...."></script>
<script src="../../core/...<another script>...."></script>
<!-- endbuild -->

As you can see, all the scripts are located in ../../core How can I tell usemin to take first ../../core/module.js and then ../../core/**/* without mention each and every file?
Is this possible at all?

Answer 1

For grunt task configurations you can use globing patterns to build a file list dynamically.

Have a look at the two consecutive paragraphs on 'Globbing patterns' and 'Building the files object dynamically' in the gruntjs doc: http://gruntjs.com/configuring-tasks#globbing-patterns

If you paste your usimin task configuration, it would be possible to help you building the right pattern

Answer 2

EDIT:

Based upon the comment and the fact you don't control all the code, an alternative to usemin would be to use a 'src' and 'dist' directory structure as demonstrated in the sample gruntfile to handle the bulk move/concat/uglify.

1. In the source HTML, reference the file that will be generated in your 'dist' directory by the grunt tasks.
2. Configure grunt-watch to copy, concat and uglify the files from 'src' upon a change.
3. When you need to test or upload to production, you can do it out of 'dist' without worrying about what scripts may have been added or changed in 'src'.
4. If you are just adding new files from the other project, you can create and call a 'build' task that does the same three tasks as grunt-watch does in #3.

If you poke around, you can find examples of this approach in several javascript frameworks that you can borrow and modify to your needs. This article might be useful.

Original:

Based upon this and your other question asked today, it sounds like usemin might not be the right tool for your need. Something like require.js would cut the number of script tags in your HTML but would shift the need to enumerate them to a different file/location...and your complaint seems to be with writing all of the scripts as a manifest/list in the code.

Grunt offers a way to handle files en masse, but that's best utilized when copying directories or doing other similar low-risk bulk work. Thus, you can find ways to get usemin to bulk load without logic, but I suggest it is generally bad practice to "load all the javascripts". ...but if that's what you want, I would ask you why a bulk concatenate and uglify isn't the answer.

The benefits of a manifest or explicitly listing the files become more visible as a project grows in size or complexity. An innocent mistake that adds/removes a file from the directory can cause confusion and the cause isn't instantly clear. Listing the files explicitly in the HTML would cause usemin to throw an error if one was missing in the directory and later, you can also audit the directory to see what is still lingering even though it is no longer used. Globbing them would not offer either of these benefits.

Without a manifest, things can be solved through judicious use of a VCS and a review of changes since the last commit...but that's not as easy or as fun as saying "Hey, script.js got deleted and that's causing usemin to barf so somebody owes me a beverage for replacing the file and getting the build working again!"