gulp-sidekick

Tired of bouncing your node server every single time there is a change? Fret no longer! Gulp-node-sidekick watches your node files and bounces the server on change.

Want to add more gulp tasks? Branch it and create a specific set of gulp task per project. This is really meant to be a boiler plate =)

Setup

install Node http://nodejs.org/download/

node -v to see if you already have it installed

Next install gulp

sudo npm install -g gulp

---

Installation

parent-dir
	|
 	-gulp-node-side-kick
 	|
 	-my-node-project

git clone gulp-node-sidekick next to your project directory.

Once you have cloned down this repo you will have to install the dependencies of gulp-watch.

npm install

Fire err up

cd into gulp-node-side-kick dir and fire up gulp using: gulp --serverDir=my-node-project nodeFile=app.js

Necessary flag:

--serverDir=my-node-project will tell gulp-node-sidekick where your project directory is.

Optional flag:

--nodeFile=app.js the name of your node file. By default it is server.js

--debug will start run node debug server.js so that you may debug the server you are watching.

---

Bigger projects

gulp-node-sidekick listens to all js file changes. So if you are making changes to your Front-End work, you really don't need your server to bounce. In that case you may want to separate your app files.

parent-dir
	|
	-gulp-node-side-kick
	|
	-my-node-project
		|
		-app
			|
			-server.js

Instead of passing in just the name of the directory pass in the pathname --serverDir=my-node-project/app

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Smaller projects

Say you only want to look at changes of static files in a sibling directory. ( Currently only js/css/html ) Fire up gulp --staticDir=my-project

Necessary flag:

--staticDir=NameOfStaticDir will tell gulp-sidekick which directory to watch for static files changes.

BUT WAIT THERE's MORE! you also have add this script tag to your html file you want to watch:

<script src="http://localhost:35729/livereload.js?snipver=1"></script>

Just be sure to remove it ( or not ) before you commit. This is what connects your client to livereload.

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TODOS

• gulp-watch plugin to watch new/deleted files
• rails watching capabilities
• add sass compiling
• minification/uglifier for production

Version

0.0.2 - the Beginning =)