Chapter 2. Getting started with Gulp
This chapter covers
- An introduction to Gulp
- The concepts of streams
- Creating simple tasks to automate tools
- Creating execution pipelines for multifunctional tasks
You start your new workflow by concentrating on the build system. Although this was the last step in the previous chapter, it serves as the necessary foundation for the upcoming elements of our new workflow. The build system deals with a number of tasks that occur in our day-to-day workflow, like concatenating, minifying, and testing our code. The build tool is initialized by the scaffolding tool and integrates the dependency manager’s components into the project. Figure 2.1 shows the part of the build tool in our tooling workflow again.
Figure 2.1. Your workflow setup from chapter 1
![](https://drek4537l1klr.cloudfront.net/baumgartner/Figures/02fig01_alt.jpg)
Gulp is the foundation for your workflow automation. It’s the first element that’s being initialized by the scaffolding tool, and it integrates components into the project. Also, because it’s creating an actively used development environment, it will become one of the most used and integral parts of your development cycles.