What is Grunt? Advantages & disadvantages of using Grunt.

Grunt is a command-line JavaScript task runner utilizing the Node.js platform. A tool used to automatically perform frequent tasks, therefore, automating these tasks means a massive increase in productivity.

If you are developing websites, then Grant will almost always be an enhancement for you. Grunts are also a good option for things like websites.

How to use grunt.js?

Grunt is built on NodeJS — its only requirement.
NodeJS does not install your system do not work GruntJS

A front-end developer and you use Sass, need to minimize your stylesheets and scripts (asset files), its use to grunt and on that, you want to see changes in real-time in your browser.

For using Grunt we need typical workflow a below picture:

1. Install Node.js and Grunt.
2. Create package.json and list dependencies (Grunt and plugins)
3. Install NPM modules.
4. Create Gruntfile.js.
5. Configure tasks you need to run.

In order to get started, you’ll want to install Grunt command-line interface (CLI) globally.

The initial project folder structure should look like this:

The Grunt for the project first needs to (The grunt-CLI used to run grunt command). We install it via npm. So we need to fill package.json and list grunt as a dependency and devdepndency some plugins which will perform the tasks:

Note: After changing your package.json you have to run npm install to install our new packages. ( Fun fact: you can automate this with Grunt )

And the Gruntfile.js:

Note: If you have a lot of grunt tasks to load, it may be a good idea to use a plugin instead of writing grunt.loadNpmTasks(…) for every task .

Benefits of Grunt

• Multiple file size decrease on the folder then after page load fast on browser
• Grunt plugin using, your perform minification, compilation, and files easily testing.
• Easily work with a new codebase use Grunt plugin because it contains less infrastructure.
• It speeds up the development workflow and enhances the performance of projects.

Dis-benefits of Grunt

• Every time npm packages are updated, you need to wait until the writer of the Grunt plugin update it.
• All task is designed to do specified work. If you want to extend a specified task, then you need to use some tricks to get the work done.
• Grunt plugins cover large data of configuration parameters for separate plugins. normally, Grunt plugin configuration files are longer.