Chapter 9. Client-side task automation
This chapter covers
- Understanding what task runners are and how they help you
- Working with task runner tasks for development
- Creating a client-side build process
When you develop software, you’ll often find yourself repeating certain tasks over and over throughout the development lifecycle. These tasks can include performing particular development steps for a given language, running tests, and creating builds. To assist in the automation of these tasks, many task-based automation tools (or task runners) have been created. Some, such as Make, have been around for a long time. Others, such as the one used in this chapter’s examples, are fairly recent by comparison.
Task runners come in all shapes and sizes, metaphorically speaking. Some run on a particular platform, whereas others are cross-platform. Some target a particular build language, and others are cross-language tools. Many of these tools have traditionally focused more on the build process.