I needed to use Grunt and Bower with Laravel for a project. So, I did some digging, and found Harianto van Insulide tutorial. He used somethings similar with what I needed, so I followed his tutorial and made my own modifications. So this is the result!

Installing Dependencies

Composer

If you don’t have composer installed, just enter the following:

$ curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php

Ruby/Sass

If you use Windows , you need to download ruby: https://www.ruby-lang.org/pt/downloads/.

For Mac OS X , ruby already comes installed.

For Linux machine, you can download via apt-get or yum.

So, from that just run:

$ gem install compass
$ gem install sass

Laravel

To install, you can download the latest version in a package or use the composer command:

$ composer create-project laravel/laravel --prefer-dist

NodeJS

You can get the installer from NodeJS website: http://nodejs.org/download/.

---

Grunt and Bower

Both can be installed only globally, so if you want them to be installed locally just remove the -g to the command bellow:

$ npm install -g grunt-cli
$ npm install -g bower

Grunt Initialization

Grunt is a task runner, it allows you to automate the tasks of sass compiling, javascript minification, CND upload and every other task you need. Grunt comes with a lot of plugins, so you can just browse on their site to find some awesome ones!

I recommend doing the following commands inside laravel folder, you can do in the project root, but this is a personal choice, just remember of updating the path if you are using a different one.
So as we do with git, we must do with grunt:

$ npm init

You can fill the fields as I did:

name : laravelTutorial
version : 0.1.0
description : This is a Laravel with Grunt, Bower, Foundation and Sass Tutorial made by @gabidavila: http://gabriela.io
entry point : Gruntfile.js
test command : <kbd>Enter</kbd>
git repository : git@github.com:gabidavila/laravel-grunt-bower-foundation.git
keywords : laravel, grunt, foundation, sass, bower
author : Gabriela D'Avila <gabidavila>
license : MIT

A new file will be generated, package.json, there will be the information about your grunt configuration. Most importantly, where it is the Gruntfile.js. Do not worry about the scripts/tests item, you can change it in the future.

{
"name": "laravelTutorial",
"version": "0.1.0",
"description": "This is a Laravel with Grunt, Bower, Foundation and Sass Tutorial made by @gabidavila: http://en.davila.blog.br",
"main": "Gruntfile.js",
"scripts": {
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
"repository": {
"type": "git",
"url": "git remote add origin git@github.com:gabidavila/laravel-grunt-bower-foundation.git"
},
"keywords": [
"laravel",
"grunt",
"foundation",
"sass",
"bower"
],
"author": "Gabriela D'Avila <gabidavila>",
"license": "MIT",
"bugs": {
"url": "https://github.com/gabidavila/laravel-grunt-bower-foundation/issues"
},
"homepage": "https://github.com/gabidavila/laravel-grunt-bower-foundation"
}

Grunt Plugins

In this tutorial I’ll use some features of Grunt:

• Concat: makes all the javascript into a single file (grunt-contrib-concat)
• Uglify: minifies all the javascript (grunt-contrib-uglify)
• PHPUnit: allows us to run PHP unit tests (grunt-phpunit)
• Sass: to compile Sass (grunt-contrib-sass)
  To install is very simple, just run:

# --save-dev saves this plugins in package.json, so just keep them here :)

$ npm install grunt --save-dev
$ npm install grunt-contrib-concat --save-dev
$ npm install grunt-contrib-uglify --save-dev
$ npm install grunt-phpunit --save-dev
$ npm install grunt-contrib-compass --save-dev
$ npm install grunt-contrib-sass --save-dev

# OR a single command :O

$ npm install grunt grunt-contrib-concat grunt-contrib-uglify grunt-phpunit grunt-contrib-compass grunt-contrib-sass --save-dev

The --save-dev  argument includes the plugins in your package.json file.

---

Bower

Bower is a package manager, a better description would be a dependency manager for the frontend, just like Composer does for everything else. You can learn more here: http://bower.io/.

When we ask bower to download our dependency as default it adds a bower_components folder in the same path as the command was made. So, we need to adjust the path to be more organized.

Create a .bowerrc file in your Laravel root:

{
"directory": "public/assets/vendor"
}

This will inform to bower where to download the dependencies.

Installing Foundation and other dependencies

As we do with composer lets create a bower.json file. Initially just add your project name:

{
"name": "laravelTutorial"
}

This file will be updated as dependency are installed with the -S argument. To install foundation:

$ bower install foundation -S

Foundation already install some dependencies, like jQuery, modernizr and fastclick. If you look at your bower.json file you’ll see:

{
"name": "laravelTutorial",
"dependencies": {
"foundation": "~5.3.3"
}
}

And at the public/assets/vendor folder:

public/assets/vendor/
 |-- fastclick
 |-- foundation
 |-- jquery
 |-- jquery-placeholder
 |-- jquery.cookie
 `-- modernizr

I did some organization in the structure of javascript and css, I created the following folders and files:

public/
 |-- assets
 | |-- stylesheets
 | | |-- base.scss # base from foundation
 | | |-- custom.scss # for customs scss
 | | `-- variables.scss # for custom variables
 | `-- javascripts
 | `-- custom.js # for customs javascript
 |-- css
 `-- js

The content of the file  public/assets/stylesheets/base.scss is:

/*
* public/assets/stylesheets/base.scss
* Files from foundation
*/
@import 'variables';
@import '../vendor/foundation/scss/normalize';
@import '../vendor/foundation/scss/foundation';

The variables.scss file is a copy of _settings.scss, so you can customize your scss. You can see the content here.

---

Gruntfile.js

Now is the fun part. Here we will inform how we want grunt to behave. Where do we want it to put the compiled scss file, how to minify the files, etc.

This is a minimum Gruntfile.js template:

//Gruntfile
module.exports = function(grunt) {

//Initializing the configuration object
grunt.initConfig({

// Paths variables
paths: {
// Development where put SASS files, etc
assets: {
css: './public/assets/stylesheets/',
js: './public/assets/javascripts/',
vendor: './public/assets/vendor/'
},
// Production where Grunt output the files
css: './public/css/',
js: './public/js/'

},

// Task configuration
concat: {
//...
},
sass: {
//...
},
uglify: {
//...
},
phpunit: {
//...
},
watch: {
//...
}
});

// Plugin loading

// Task definition

};

Configuring SCSS compiling

In the sass section, add the following:

// Part of Gruntfile.js, this is the sass section
sass: {
css: {
options: {
style: 'compressed',
compass: true
},
// This will get all the scss files in /public/assets/stylesheets
files: [{
expand: true,
cwd: '<%= paths.assets.css %>',
src: '**/*.scss',
dest: '<%= paths.css %>',
ext: '.css',
}],
},
},

// This is at the end of the file, the plugin section:
// Plugin loading
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-compass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-sass');

Note that the end of the file we added the plugin loading for compass and sass. To see if this is working, just execute: grunt sass

The SCSS will be compiled into the public/css/base.css file.

The Javascript

Foundation uses some Javascript dependencies in different locations of the HTML file, so we have modernizr in the head section and jQuery at the footer section, so I think the best approach here is to separate these two, as js_header and js_footer. These two sections will get all the Javascript files and create respectively script_header.js and script_footer.js.

// Part of Gruntfile.js, this is the Concat section
concat: {
options: {
separator: ';',
},
js_header: {
src: [
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>modernizr/modernizr.js',
'<%= paths.assets.js %>custom.js'
],
dest: '<%= paths.js %>expanded/scripts_header.js',
},
js_footer: {
src: [
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>jquery/dist/jquery.js',
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>jquery.cookie/jquery.cookie.js',
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>jquery.placeholder/jquery.placeholder.js',
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>fastclick/lib/fastclick.js',
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>foundation/js/foundation.js'
],
dest: '<%= paths.js %>expanded/scripts_footer.js',
}
},

// This is at the end of the file, the plugin section:
// Plugin loading
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-compass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-sass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-concat');

You can read more about Javascript files setup in Foundation here: http://foundation.zurb.com/docs/javascript.html.

To see if this is working, just execute: grunt concat, and the files will be added int /public/js directory, if you want to concat just the footer or the head section, use grunt concat:js_header or grunt concat:js_footer:

Files Generated by grunt concat

public
 `-- js
 `-- expanded
 |-- scripts_footer.js
 `-- scripts_header.js

Now, the javascript is all in single files as we defined, and to load faster we can minify them. The uglify task will be defined as bellow:

// Part of Gruntfile.js, this is the Uglify section
uglify: {
options: {
// Grunt can replace variables names, but may not be a good idea for you, I leave
// this option as false
mangle: false
},
js: {
// Grunt will search for "**/*.js" when the "minify" task
// runs and build the appropriate src-dest file mappings then, so you
// don't need to update the Gruntfile when files are added or removed.
files: [{
expand: true,
cwd: '<%= paths.js %>',
src: '**/*.js',
dest: '<%= paths.js %>min',
ext: '.min.js',
}],
}
},

// This is at the end of the file, the plugin section:
// Plugin loading
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-compass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-sass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-concat');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');

After run grunt uglify, grunt will create a min folder inside /public/js with two files: script_header.min.js and script_footer.min.js.

Files Generated by grunt uglify

public
 `-- js
 |-- min
 | |-- scripts_footer.min.js
 | `-- scripts_header.min.js
 `-- expanded
 |-- scripts_footer.js
 `-- scripts_header.js

---

PHPUnit

So, if you work with PHPUnit, you can make Grunt run your tests for you. You just have to configure where the test classes are and the bin location. You may not have phpunit installed in your project, for that, add the following line in the composer.json file:

{
"require": {
"laravel/framework": "4.2.*",
"phpunit/phpunit": "4.*"
}
}

And run composer update to install the binary in /vendor/bin.

After, just add the phpunit in Gruntfile.js:

// Part of Gruntfile.js, this is the Uglify section
phpunit: {
classes: {
dir: 'app/tests/' //location of the tests
},
options: {
bin: 'vendor/bin/phpunit',
colors: true
}
},

// This is at the end of the file, the plugin section:
// Plugin loading
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-compass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-sass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-concat');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-phpunit');

Running the tests: grunt phpunit

Bellow the output:

[![Gruntfile_js_-_laravel_-____PhpstormProjects_tutorial_laravel_](http://s3.davila.blog.br/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/Gruntfile_js_-_laravel_-____PhpstormProjects_tutorial_laravel_1-1024x418.png){.img-responsive .img-thumbnail}](http://s3.davila.blog.br/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/Gruntfile_js_-_laravel_-____PhpstormProjects_tutorial_laravel_1.png)

---

At last!

Until now we defined 4 tasks:

• sass
• concat
• uglify
• phpunit

For running all 4 tasks with a single command, you can define a task, I defined that when I run grunt in the terminal, it will run all 4 tasks:

// Plugin loading
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-compass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-sass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-concat');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-phpunit');

// Task definition
grunt.registerTask('default', ['sass', 'concat', 'uglify', 'phpunit']);

The final Gruntfile.js:

//Gruntfile
module.exports = function (grunt) {

//Initializing the configuration object
grunt.initConfig({

// Paths variables
paths: {
// Development where put SASS files, etc
assets: {
css: './public/assets/stylesheets/',
js: './public/assets/javascripts/',
vendor: './public/assets/vendor/'
},
// Production where Grunt output the files
css: './public/css/',
js: './public/js/'

},

// Task configuration
concat: {
options: {
separator: ';',
},
js_header: {
src: [
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>modernizr/modernizr.js',
'<%= paths.assets.js %>custom.js',
],
dest: '<%= paths.js %>expanded/scripts_header.js',
},
js_footer: {
src: [
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>jquery/dist/jquery.js',
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>jquery.cookie/jquery.cookie.js',
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>jquery.placeholder/jquery.placeholder.js',
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>fastclick/lib/fastclick.js',
'<%= paths.assets.vendor %>foundation/js/foundation.js'
],
dest: '<%= paths.js %>expanded/scripts_footer.js',
}
},
sass: {
css: {
options: {
style: 'compressed',
compass: true
},
files: [
{
expand: true,
cwd: '<%= paths.assets.css %>',
src: '**/*.scss',
dest: '<%= paths.css %>',
ext: '.css',
}
],
},
},
uglify: {
options: {
// Grunt can replace variables names, but may not be a good idea for you,
// I leave this option as false
mangle: false
},
js: {
// Grunt will search for "**/*.js" when the "minify" task
// runs and build the appropriate src-dest file mappings then, so you
// don't need to update the Gruntfile when files are added or removed.
files: [
{
expand: true,
cwd: '<%= paths.js %>',
src: '**/*.js',
dest: '<%= paths.js %>min',
ext: '.min.js',
}
],
}
},
phpunit: {
classes: {
dir: 'app/tests/' //location of the tests
},
options: {
bin: 'vendor/bin/phpunit',
colors: true
}
}
});

// Plugin loading
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-compass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-sass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-concat');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-phpunit');

// Task definition
grunt.registerTask('default', ['sass', 'concat', 'uglify', 'phpunit']);
};

---

Conclusion

That’s it! It can be a little overwhelming having to do all of this, but it is worth it because you know can work in a organized way.

Leve a comment bellow if you have any questions.