Builds and moves the client-side scripts necessary for running the Galaxy webapps. There's no need to use this system unless you are modifying or developing client-side scripts.

The base dependencies you'll need are Node.js and the Node Package Manager (npm). See nodejs.org for more information.

Simple Full Build

The simplest way to rebuild the entire client to incorporate any local changes is to run the 'client' rule in the Galaxy makefile, which is in the repository root. This will also ensure any local node modules are installed.

make client

Detailed Build Instructions

Once npm is installed, install the grunt task manager and its command line into your global scope:

npm install -g grunt grunt-cli

Next, from within this directory, install the local build dependencies:

cd client
npm install

You're now ready to re-build the client scripts after modifying them.

Rebuilding

There are two methods for rebuilding: a complete rebuild and automatic, partial rebuilds while you develop.

A complete rebuild can be done with the following (from the client directory):

grunt

This will:

compress the files in client/galaxy/scripts and place them in static/scripts
generate source maps and place them in static/maps
rebuild the webpack-based client apps

Rebuilding Scripts Only

To re-minify all the individual javascript files:

grunt scripts

Rebuilding Webpack Apps

To rebuild the webpack bundles for apps (compressed for production):

grunt webpack

To rebuild the apps without compression:

grunt webpack-dev

To rebuild without compression and watch and rebuild when scripts change:

grunt webpack-watch

Changing Styles/CSS

The CSS and styling used by Galaxy is also controlled from this directory. Galaxy uses LESS, a superset of CSS that compiles to CSS, for its styling. LESS files are kept in client/galaxy/style/less. Compiled CSS is in static/style/blue.

Use grunt to recompile the LESS in into CSS (from the client directory):

grunt style

Grunt watch

Grunt can also do an automatic, partial rebuild of any files you change as you develop by:

opening a new terminal session
cd client
Watch with:
1. grunt watch to watch the scripts/ folder
2. grunt watch-style to watch the style/ folder

This starts a new grunt watch process that will monitor the files, in the corresponding folder, for changes and copy and rebuild them when they change.

You can stop the watch task by pressing Ctrl+C. Note: you should also be able to background that task if you prefer.

Using a Locally Installed Version of Grunt

A non-global version of grunt and the grunt-cli are installed when using 'npm install'. If you'd rather build with that version, you'll need to use the full, local path when calling it:

./node_modules/.bin/grunt
# or
./node_modules/.bin/grunt watch

The Toolshed Client Build

The commands mentioned above in 'Rebuilding' and 'Grunt watch' also can be applied to toolshed scripts by using the --app=toolshed option:

grunt watch --app=toolshed
grunt --app=toolshed