Build multi client project with requirejs and grunt

Question

I'm working on a project where the main code based should be used by a bunch of different client. So we have a requirejs project and my initial idea is to have simple bootstrap.js file that will require an app.js files that is different for every client.

bootstrap.js

requirejs(['app'],function(app){
  //some initial code here
  app.start();
}

So the project structure will be look like this:

|_bootstrap.js
|_commonModules
  |_someModule.js
|_client1
  |_app.js
  |_modules
    |_module.js
|_client2
  |_app.js
  |_modules
    |_module.js

So my ideas is to compile the app for every client using requirejs' r compiler and set the path to app in every compilation to clientX/app.js by crearting a new build.js for every step like this:

({    
  paths: {
    "app": "client1/app"
  }
})

So at the moment I have a grunt build task that is using a bunch of other tasks like uglify, usemin, md5 and so on. Can I create a new task that use this task but changing the requireJs settings for every client? Or is there a better way to achieve my goals?

Andreas Köberle Andreas Köberle · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-27T07:52:26

So after all it wasn't that hard. The cool thing is that you can change the configuration for the actual running task and that you can call previous defined task in a running task.

//this was the old task to build one distribution
grunt.registerTask('build', ['clean:build', 'copy:build', 'useminPrepare', 'usemin', 'requirejs', 'concat', 'uglify', 'mincss', 'md5', 'manifest', 'copy:toClientFolder']); 

grunt.registerTask('buildAll', function() {
  ['client1', 'client2'].forEach(function(client) {
    //before every build task run a task to change the config
    grunt.task.run('updateConfig:' + client, 'build');
  });
});

  //we need to change the config in a separate task,
  //otherwise, change the config just in the forEach, would result in the same 
  //config for both task, using the client2 settings
  grunt.registerTask('updateConfig', function(client) {
    var requireJsName = 'requirejs.compile.options.name';
    var clientFolder = 'copy.toClientFolder.files';
    grunt.config(requireJsName, 'clients/' + client + '/Bootstrap');
    grunt.config(clientFolder, [
      {expand: true, cwd: 'dist', src: '**', dest: 'dist_' + client}
    ]);
  });

And a app.js file for a client looks like this:

requirejs.config({
  paths: {
    'commonModules/someModule': 'clients1/modules/module'
  }
});

requirejs(['boootstrap',
  'commonModules/someModule1'],

  function(boootstrap, someModule1) {
    $(function() {
      boootstrap();
      someModule1();
    });
  });

Build multi client project with requirejs and grunt

1 Answers