---
title: "Introduction to Gulp.js 11: Production Build, Server and Jekyll"
slug: gulp-tutorial-11-production-build-server-and-jekyll
author: Stefan Imhoff
date: 2014-10-28
description: "The ultimate tutorial and guide for Gulp.js: How to write the production task for Jekyll and BrowserSync."
cover: /assets/images/cover/gulp-11.webp
tags: ["code"]
series: gulp
---

This is the 11th part of my series, _Introduction to Gulp.js_. Today I will start writing the production build task, set up a server to view the production code and build the production site with Jekyll.

In development, I used the `default` Gulp.js tasks to run the development server, build the assets, and watch for changes. For production, I will need another entry point.

I decided to name my task `publish`. Later I can get a production build with the command `gulp publish`.

#### gulp/tasks/publish.js

```javascript
var gulp = require("gulp");

/**
 * Run task browsersync:production
 */
gulp.task("publish", ["browsersync:production"]);
```

I put this file on the same level as the `default.js` file. This task is short: It does one thing. Start a BrowserSync task for production. This way I can have a look at the production site before deploying it to my server.

## BrowserSync for Production

All production tasks will live in a folder `production/` inside `gulp/tasks/`. I name the tasks of development and production the same but put them in different folders.

#### gulp/config.js

```javascript
browsersync: {
  development: {
    ...
  },
  production: {
    server: {
      baseDir: [production]
    },
    port: 9998
  }
}
```

The only differences to the `browsersync` of `development` are these: I serve the production folder and use a different port for the server. This way, I can run `development` and `production` in parallel.

#### gulp/tasks/production/browser-sync.js

```javascript
var gulp = require("gulp");
var browsersync = require("browser-sync");
var config = require("../../config").browsersync.production;

/**
 * Start a server and watch changes with BrowserSync
 */
gulp.task("browsersync:production", ["build:production"], function () {
  browsersync(config);
});
```

This task is boring. It starts the production build.

## Build Task for Production

#### gulp/tasks/production/build.js

```javascript
var gulp = require("gulp");
var runSequence = require("run-sequence");

/**
 * Run all tasks needed for a build in the defined order
 */
gulp.task("build:production", function (callback) {
  runSequence(
    "delete",
    "jekyll:production",
    ["sass", "scripts", "images", "copy:fonts"],
    "base64",
    ["optimize:css", "optimize:js", "optimize:images", "optimize:html", "copy:fonts:production"],
    "revision",
    "rev:collect",
    callback
  );
});
```

A lot is going on in this task: I run tasks in a specific order with `run-sequence`. First, I delete the assets folder for fresh creation. Then I run the Jekyll build for production, and create the development assets as I did in development. And after this is finished, I start with optimizing my assets and revisioning the files.

## Jekyll for Production

The Jekyll task is similar except for two things: I create my site to the production folder and I add another config file `_config.build.yml` as an option (be careful, add no space between two files).

My Jekyll production config overwrites values as the `url`, hide future posts (`future: false`), or hides drafts (`show_drafts: false`).

<Banner summary="Speed up development with Jekyll">

To speed up the generation of your site in development, you may set `limit_post: 5`, which will generate the last five posts.

Additionally, I set `future: true` and `show_drafts: true` to see Drafts and Posts with a future date.

</Banner>

#### gulp/config.js

```javascript
jekyll: {
  development: {
    ...
  },
  production: {
    src:    src,
    dest:   production,
    config: '_config.yml,_config.build.yml'
  }
}
```

#### gulp/tasks/production/jekyll.js

```javascript
var gulp = require("gulp");
var cp = require("child_process");
var browsersync = require("browser-sync");
var config = require("../../config").jekyll.production;

/**
 * Build the Jekyll Site
 */
gulp.task("jekyll:production", function (done) {
  browsersync.notify("Compiling Jekyll (Production)");

  return cp
    .spawn(
      "bundle",
      [
        "exec",
        "jekyll",
        "build",
        "-q",
        "--source=" + config.src,
        "--destination=" + config.dest,
        "--config=" + config.config,
      ],
      { stdio: "inherit" }
    )
    .on("close", done);
});
```

## Conclusion

This concludes the 11th part of my series _Introduction to Gulp.js_. Today, I started to work on the production part of my website, including a server to view the production site and generate a production build of my Jekyll site.

<Figure>
  <MoreLink href="https://github.com/kogakure/gulp-tutorial" text="View Source on GitHub" />
</Figure>