grunt-include-replace

Grunt task to include files and replace variables.

Allows for parameterised file includes:

hello.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<h1>Hello World!</h1>
@@include('/path/to/include/message.html', {"name": "Joe Bloggs"})

message.html

<p>Hello @@name!</p>

Result:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<h1>Hello World!</h1>
<p>Hello Joe Bloggs!</p>

Getting Started

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-include-replace --save-dev

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

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-include-replace');

The "includereplace" task

Overview

The task allows you to preprocess your project file contents by replacing placeholder "variables" and including content from other files. In addition to "global" variables that are replaced in all files you specify, the task introduces the concept of "local" variables, which are passed as parameters to included files.

WARNING: The task does not check for recursive includes.

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

grunt.initConfig({
  includereplace: {
    your_target: {
      options: {
        // Task-specific options go here.
      },
      // Files to perform replacements and includes with
      src: '*.html',
      // Destination directory to copy files to
      dest: 'dist/'
    }
  }
})

Options

options.globals

Type: Object
Default: {}

Global variables available for replacement in all files.

options.prefix

Type: String
Default: @@

Variable/include directive prefix. Careful when changing as it is added to the regular expression used for finding variables to be replaced.

options.suffix

Type: String
Default: ''

Variable/include directive suffix. Careful when changing as it is added to the regular expression used for finding variables to be replaced.

options.includesDir

Type: String
Default: Relative to including file

Directory where includes will be resolved.

options.docroot

Type: String
Default: .

@@docroot is a magic local variable that contains the relative path from the file that uses it to the path specified.

options.encoding

Type: String
Default: utf-8

Encoding files are using.

options.processIncludeContents

Type: Function
Default: undefined

A function called for every included file prior to processing by grunt-include-replace. It is passed the include file contents, local variables and the file path as parameters and should return the (possibly altered) file contents.

Usage Examples

Default Options

includereplace: {
  dist: {
    options: {
      globals: {
        var1: 'one',
        var2: 'two',
        var3: 'three'
      },
    },
    src: '*.html',
    dest: 'dist/'
  }
}

Files array format

includereplace: {
  dist: {
    options: {
      globals: {
        var1: 'one',
        var2: 'two',
        var3: 'three'
      },
    },
    files: [
      {src: 'js/**/*.js', dest: 'dist/', expand: true, cwd: 'src/'},
      {src: '*.css', dest: 'dist/css/', expand: true, cwd: 'src/css'}
    ]
  }
}

Files object format

includereplace: {
  dist: {
    options: {
      globals: {
        var1: 'one',
        var2: 'two',
        var3: 'three'
      },
    },
    files: {
      'dist/js/': ['**/*.js', '!dist/**/*.js'],
      'dist/css/': ['**/*.css', '!dist/**/*.css']
    }
  }
}

Custom Options

The following example allows include statements to appear as comments in HTML files by altering the prefix and suffix. Also all includes are resolved relative to the directory inc/ (relative to your Gruntfile) rather than relative to including file.

includereplace: {
  dist: {
    options: {
      prefix: '<!-- @@',
      suffix: ' -->',
      includesDir: 'inc/'
    },
    src: '*.html',
    dest: 'dist/'
  }
}

Contributing

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.

Release History

2016-04-06 v4.0.0 Grunt 1.x support
2015-08-28 v3.2.0 Pass file path to processIncludeContents
2015-08-04 v3.1.0 Support for non-utf8 encoding
2015-02-05 v3.0.0 Better logging for missing source files
2014-05-05 v2.0.0 Adds globbing on include paths
2013-12-30 v1.2.0 Rename like grunt-contrib-copy by specifying dest filename (for single files)
2013-06-19 v1.1.0 Added magic local variable @@docroot: relative path from the file that uses it to the path specified
2013-06-19 v1.0.0 Refactored files processing code to use Grunt files API properly
2013-05-03 v0.4.0 Support for cwd directive
2013-04-26 v0.3.0 Added new option includesDir - if set all includes resolved relative to that directory
2013-04-19 v0.2.0 Added option processIncludeContents - a function that allows you to alter included file contents
2013-02-18 v0.1.0 Grunt 0.4.x support