Gulp is a task runner used for automating the development workflow. With Gulp, you can do a lot of stuff including, linting your JavaScript files, minifying your JavaScript and CSS files, renaming your files, running your unit tests, starting your development server, etc.
To use Gulp with Node.js, follow the steps below:
1. **Install Gulp as a global package**\\ In your terminal window, type the following command to install Gulp globally: \`\`\` npm install —global gulp \`\`\`
1. **Initialize your project directory**\\ Navigate into your project directory. If you do not have a package.json file in your project directory, you can create one using: \`\`\` cd /your-project-directory npm init \`\`\` Follow the prompts and a package.json file will be created for you at the root of your project directory.
1. **Install Gulp into your project as a development dependency**\\ Now, install Gulp in your project devDependencies typing the following command: \`\`\` npm install —save-dev gulp \`\`\`
1. **Create a Gulp file**\\ Create a new file in your project root directory named gulpfile.js.
1. **Use Gulp tasks**\\ Gulp tasks are written in this gulpfile.js. Here is a basic task \`\`\`js var gulp = require(‘gulp’);
// Define a task called ‘hello‘ gulp.task(‘hello’, function() { console.log(‘Hello, World!’); }); \`\`\`1. **Run the Gulp task**\\ You can run the gulp task from the terminal by typing: \`\`\` gulp hello \`\`\` You will then see ‘Hello, World!’ printed in the console.
The beauty of Gulp lies in its ability to watch files and re-run tasks when those files change. It can also optimize assets like CSS, Javascript, and images.
For more advanced usage of Gulp, you’d want to look into using plugins (which can be found on npm) for tasks like minification, live reloading, running a server etc. Each plugin is installed as a separate npm package and then required at the top of your gulpfile.js.
