Open urls and files from a grunt task

Install using npm in the root of your project directory (where your package.json and Gruntfile.js are located)

npm install --save-dev grunt-open

This is used as part of your grunt tasks, between the server and watch tasks

grunt.registerTask('default', ['server', 'open', 'watch']);

You can specify different configurations so that you can set up task chains (see the configuration below for this example's config)

grunt.registerTask('dev', ['server', 'open:dev', 'watch']);
grunt.registerTask('build', ['build', 'server', 'open:build', 'watch:build');

This is a very simple task and takes two configuration parameters, path (required) and app (optional). If app is not specified, the default system browser will be launched

grunt.initConfig({
  open : {
    dev : {
      path: 'http://127.0.0.1:8888/src',
      app: 'Google Chrome'
    },
    build : {
      path : 'http://google.com/',
      app: 'Firefox'
    },
    file : {
      path : '/etc/hosts'
    }
  }
})

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-open');

Type: String

While it may not be common, you may want to delay the openning of your path at a later time of the grunt process. The option openOn allows you to define an event (coming through from grunt.event) that would signal the expected triggering of open. Example:

grunt.initConfig({
  open: {
    delayed: {
      path: 'http://localhost:3000'
      app: 'Google Chrome'
      options: {
        openOn: 'serverListening'
      }
    }
  }
});

grunt.registerTask('server', function () {
  var server = require('myServer');
  server.listen(3000, function (err) {
    if (!err) {
      grunt.log.writeln('Server started');
      grunt.event.emit('serverListening'); // triggers open:delayed
    }
  });
})

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.

• 0.2.2 added app parameter.
• 0.2.0 grunt 0.4.0 support, added and preferring path parameter.
• 0.1.0 initial release

Copyright OneHealth Solutions, Inc

Written by Jarrod Overson

Licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.