Builder

Builder takes your npm tasks and makes them composable, controllable from a single point, and flexible.

npm is fantastic for controlling dependencies, tasks (via scripts) and general project workflows. But a project-specific package.json simply doesn't scale when you're managing many (say 5-50) very similar repositories.

Enter Builder. Builder is "almost" npm, but provides for off-the-shelf "archetypes" to provide central sets of package.json scripts, dependencies and devDependencies. The rest of this page will dive into the details and machinations of the tool, but first here are a few of the rough goals and motivations behind the project.

• Single Point of Control: A way to define a specific set of tasks / configs / etc. for one "type" of project. For example, we have an ever-expanding set of related repos for our Victory project which all share a nearly-identical dev / prod / build workflow.
• Flexibility: There are a number of meta tools for controlling JavaScript workflows / development lifecycles. However, most are of the "buy the farm" nature. This works great when everything is within the workflow but falls apart once you want to be "just slightly" different. Builder solves this by allowing fine grain task overriding by name, where the larger composed tasks still stay the same and allow a specific repo's deviation from "completely off the shelf" to be painless.
• You Can Give Up: One of the main goals of builder is to remain very close to a basic npm workflow. So much so, that we include a section in this guide on how to abandon the use of Builder in a project and revert everything from archetypes back to vanilla npm package.json scripts, dependencies and devDependencies.

Overview

At a high level builder is a tool for consuming package.json scripts commands, providing sensible / flexible defaults, and supporting various scenarios ("archetypes") for your common use cases across multiple projects.

Builder is not opinionated, although archetypes are and typically dictate file structure, standard configurations, and dev workflows. Builder supports this in an agnostic way, providing essentially the following:

• NODE_PATH, PATH enhancements to run, build, import from archetypes so dependencies and configurations don't have to be installed directly in a root project.
• A task runner capable of single tasks (run) or multiple concurrent tasks (concurrent).
• An intelligent merging of package.json scripts tasks.

... and that's about it!

Usage

To start using builder, install and save builder and any archetypes you intend to use. We'll use the builder-react-component archetype as an example.

Note: Most archetypes have an ARCHETYPE package and parallel ARCHETYPE-dev npm package. The ARCHETYPE package contains almost everything needed for the archetype (prod dependencies, scripts, etc.) except for the devDependencies which the latter ARCHETYPE-dev package is solely responsible for bringing in.

Global Install

For ease of use, one option is to globally install builder and locally install archetypes:

$ npm install -g builder
$ npm install --save builder-react-component
$ npm install --save-dev builder-react-component-dev

Like a global install of any Node.js meta / task runner tool (e.g., eslint, mocha, gulp, grunt) doing a global install is painful because:

• You are tied to just one version of the tool for all projects.
• You must also globally install the tool in CI, on servers, etc.

... so instead, we strongly recommend a local install described in the next section!

To help you keep up with project-specific builder requirements, a globally-installed builder will detect if a locally-installed version of builder is available and switch to that instead:

$ /GLOBAL/PATH/TO/builder
[builder:local-detect] Switched to local builder at: ./node_modules/builder/bin/builder-core.js

... now using local builder! ...

Local Install

To avoid tying yourself to a single, global version of builder, the option that we endorse is locally installing both builder and archetypes:

$ npm install --save builder
$ npm install --save builder-react-component
$ npm install --save-dev builder-react-component-dev

However, to call builder from the command line you will either need to augment your PATH variable with a shell configuration (Mac/Linux) like:

export PATH="./node_modules/.bin:${PATH}"
# ... OR ...
export PATH="${PATH}:./node_modules/.bin"

or call the longer ./node_modules/.bin/builder instead of builder from the command line.

Configuration

After builder is available, you can edit .builderrc like:

---
archetypes:
  - builder-react-component

to bind archetypes.

... and from here you are set for builder-controlled meta goodness!

Builder Actions

Display general or command-specific help (which shows available specific flags).

$ builder help
$ builder help <action>

Run builder help <action> for all available options. For a quick overview:

builder run

Run a single task from script. Analogous to npm run <task>

$ builder run <task>

Flags:

• --builderrc: Path to builder config file (default: .builderrc)
• --tries: Number of times to attempt a task (default: 1)
• --setup: Single task to run for the entirety of <action>.

builder concurrent

Run multiple tasks from script concurrently. Roughly analogous to npm run <task1> | npm run <task2> | npm run <task3>, but kills all processes on first non-zero exit (which makes it suitable for test tasks).

$ builder concurrent <task1> <task2> <task3>

Flags:

• --builderrc: Path to builder config file (default: .builderrc)
• --tries: Number of times to attempt a task (default: 1)
• --setup: Single task to run for the entirety of <action>.
• --queue: Number of concurrent processes to run (default: unlimited - 0|null)
• --[no-]buffer: Buffer output until process end (default: false)

Note that tries will retry individual tasks that are part of the concurrent group, not the group itself. So, if builder concurrent --tries=3 foo bar baz is run and bar fails twice, then only bar would be retried. foo and baz would only execute once if successful.

builder envs

Run a single task from script concurrently for each item in an array of different environment variables. Roughly analogous to:

$ FOO=VAL1 npm run <task> | FOO=VAL2 npm run <task> | FOO=VAL3 npm run <task>

... but kills all processes on first non-zero exit (which makes it suitable for test tasks). Usage:

$ builder envs <task> <json-array>
$ builder envs <task> --envs-path=<path-to-json-file>

Examples:

$ builder envs <task> '[{ "FOO": "VAL1" }, { "FOO": "VAL2" }, { "ENV1": "VAL3" }]'
$ builder envs <task> '[{ "FOO": "VAL1", "BAR": "VAL2" }, { "FOO": "VAL3" }]'

Flags:

• --builderrc: Path to builder config file (default: .builderrc)
• --tries: Number of times to attempt a task (default: 1)
• --setup: Single task to run for the entirety of <action>.
• --queue: Number of concurrent processes to run (default: unlimited - 0|null)
• --[no-]buffer: Buffer output until process end (default: false)
• --envs-path: Path to JSON env variable array file (default: null)

Tasks

The underlying concept here is that builder script commands simply are npm-friendly package.json script commands. Pretty much anything that you can execute with npm run <task> can be executed with builder run <task>.

Builder can run 1+ tasks based out of package.json scripts. For a basic scenario like:

{
  "scripts": {
    "foo": "echo FOO",
    "bar": "echo BAR"
  }
}

Builder can run these tasks individually:

$ builder run foo
$ builder run bar

Sequentially via || or && shell helpers:

$ builder run foo && builder run bar

Concurrently via the Builder built-in concurrent command:

$ builder concurrent foo bar

With concurrent, all tasks continue running until they all complete or any task exits with a non-zero exit code, in which case all still alive tasks are killed and the Builder process exits with the error code.

Archetypes

Archetypes deal with common scenarios for your projects. Like:

• builder-react-component: A React component
• A React application server
• A Chai / jQuery / VanillaJS widget

Archetypes typically provide:

• A package.json with builder-friendly script tasks.
• Dependencies and dev dependencies to build, test, etc.
• Configuration files for all script tasks.

In most cases, you won't need to override anything. But, if you do, pick the most granular scripts command in the archetype you need to override and define just that in your project's package.json script section. Copy any configuration files that you need to tweak and re-define the command.

Task Resolution

The easiest bet is to just have one archetype per project. But, multiple are supported. In terms of scripts tasks, we end up with the following example:

ROOT/package.json
ROOT/node_modules/ARCHETYPE_ONE/package.json
ROOT/node_modules/ARCHETYPE_TWO/package.json

Say we have a .builderrc like:

---
archetypes:
  - ARCHETYPE_ONE
  - ARCHETYPE_TWO

The resolution order for a script task (say, foo) present in all three package.json's would be the following:

• Look through ROOT/package.json then the configured archetypes in reverse order: ARCHETYPE_TWO/package.json, then ARCHETYPE_ONE/package.json for a matching task foo
• If found foo, check if it is a "passthrough" task, which means it delegates to a later instance -- basically "foo": "builder run foo". If so, then look to next instance of task found in order above.

Special Archetype Tasks

Archetypes use conventional scripts task names, except for the following special cases:

• "npm:postinstall"
• "npm:preversion"
• "npm:version"
• "npm:test"

These tasks are specifically actionable during the npm lifecycle, and consequently, the archetype mostly ignores those for installation by default, offering them up for actual use in your project.

As an additional restriction, non-npm:FOO-prefixed tasks with the same name (e.g., FOO) may call then npm:-prefixed task, but not the other way around. So

// Good / OK
"npm:test": "builder run test-frontend",
"test": "builder run npm:test",

// Bad
"npm:test": "builder run test",
"test": "builder run test-frontend",

Tips, Tricks, & Notes

Project Root

Builder uses some magic to enhance NODE_PATH to look in the root of your project (normal) and in the installed modules of builder archetypes. This latter path enhancement sometimes throws tools / libraries for a loop. We recommend using require.resolve("LIBRARY_OR_REQUIRE_PATH") to get the appropriate installed file path to a dependency.

This comes up in situations including:

• Webpack loaders
• Karma included files

The other thing that comes up in our Archetype configuration file is the general requirement that builder is running from the project root, not relative to an archetype. However, some libraries / tools will interpret "./" as relative to the configuration file which may be in an archetype.

So, for these instances and instances where you typically use __dirname, an archetype may need to use process.cwd() and be constrained to only ever running from the project root. Some scenarios where the process.cwd() path base is necessary include:

• Webpack entry points, aliases
• Karma included files (that cannot be require.resolve-ed)

Other Process Execution

The execution of tasks generally must originate from Builder, because of all of the environment enhancements it adds. So, for things that themselves exec or spawn processes, like concurrently, this can be a problem. Typically, you will need to have the actual command line processes invoked by Builder.

Terminal Color

Builder uses exec under the hood with piped stdout and stderr. Programs typically interpret the piped environment as "doesn't support color" and disable color. Consequently, you typically need to set a "force color" option on your executables in scripts commands if they exist.

Why Exec?

So, why exec and not spawn or something similar that has a lot more process control and flexibility? The answer lies in the fact that most of what Builder consumes is shell strings to execute, like script --foo --bar "Hi there". Parsing these arguments into something easily consumable by spawn and always correct is quite challenging. exec works easily with straight strings, and since that is the target of scripts commands, that is what we use for Builder.

I Give Up. How Do I Abandon Builder?

Builder is designed to be as close to vanilla npm as possible. So, if for example you were using the builder-react-component archetype with a project package.json like:

"scripts": {
  "postinstall": "builder run npm:postinstall",
  "preversion": "builder run npm:preversion",
  "version": "builder run npm:version",
  "test": "builder run npm:test",
  /* other deps */
},
"dependencies": {
  "builder": "v2.0.0",
  "builder-react-component": "v0.0.5",
  /* other deps */
},
"devDependencies": {
  "builder-react-component-dev": "v0.0.5",
  /* other deps */
}

and decided to no longer use Builder, here is a rough set of steps to unpack the archetype into your project and remove all Builder dependencies:

• Copy all ARCHETYPE/package.json:dependencies to your PROJECT/package.json:dependencies (e.g., from builder-react-component). You do not need to copy over ARCHETYPE/package.json:devDependencies.
• Copy all ARCHETYPE/package.json:scripts to your PROJECT/package.json:scripts that do not begin with the builder: prefix. Remove the npm: prefix from any scripts tasks and note that you may have to manually resolve tasks of the same name within the archetype and also with your project.
• Copy all ARCHETYPE-dev/package.json:dependencies to your PROJECT/package.json:devDependencies (e.g., from builder-react-component-dev)
• Copy all configuration files used in your ARCHETYPE into the root project. For example, for builder-react-component you would need to copy the builder-react-component/config directory to PROJECT/config (or a renamed directory).
• Review all of the combined scripts tasks and:
  • resolve duplicate task names
  • revise configuration file paths for the moved files
  • replace instances of builder run <task> with npm run <task>
  • for builder concurrent <task1> <task2> tasks, first install the concurrently package and then rewrite to: concurrent 'npm run <task1>' 'npm run <task2>'

... and (with assuredly a few minor hiccups) that's about it! You are Builder-free and back to a normal npm-controlled project.

Versions v1, v2, v3

The builder project effectively starts at v2.x.x. Prior to that Builder was a small DOM utility that fell into disuse, so we repurposed it for a new wonderful destiny! But, because we follow semver, that means everything starts at v2 and as a helpful tip / warning:

Treat v2.x as a v0.x release

We'll try hard to keep it tight, but at our current velocity there are likely to be some bumps and API changes that won't adhere strictly to semver until things settle down in v3.x-on.