Browser Sync + Gulp

How to use the browser-sync module with gulp.

Follow @browserSync for news & updates.

##About

For a full list of features, please visit https://github.com/shakyShane/browser-sync

##Usage

First, install browser-sync as a development dependency:

npm install browser-sync --save-dev

Then, use it within gulpfile.js:

var gulp = require('gulp');
var browserSync = require('browser-sync');

// Static server
gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
    browserSync.init(null, {
      server: {
        baseDir: "./"
      }
    });
});


// or...


// Proxy to existing vhost (version 0.7.0 & greater)
gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
    browserSync.init(null, {
      proxy: "yourlocal.dev"
    });
});

// Proxy to existing vhost (before version 0.7.0) * Seriously? time to upgrade.
gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
    browserSync.init(null, {
      proxy: {
        host: "yourlocal.dev",
        port: 80
      }
    });
});

There's a full list of available options on the module's repo.

##NOTE: at least version 0.8.0 is required for the following examples!##

###Auto reload & CSS injecting Streams are now supported in BrowserSync, so you can call reload when all your tasks are complete & all browsers will be informed of the changes.

Gulp + SASS + CSS Injecting

Because BrowserSync only cares about your CSS when it's finished compiling - make sure you call reload after gulp.dest

var gulp = require('gulp');
var browserSync = require('browser-sync');
var sass = require('gulp-sass');

// browser-sync task for starting the server.
gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
    browserSync.init(null, {
        server: {
            baseDir: "./"
        }
    });
});

// Sass task, will run when any SCSS files change & BrowserSync will auto-update browsers
gulp.task('sass', function () {
    gulp.src('scss/styles.scss')
        .pipe(sass({includePaths: ['scss']}))
        .pipe(gulp.dest('css'))
        .pipe(browserSync.reload({stream:true}));
});

// Default task to be run with `gulp`
gulp.task('default', ['sass', 'browser-sync'], function () {
    gulp.watch("scss/*.scss", ['sass']);
});

Browser Reloading

Sometimes you might just want to reload the page completely (for example, after processing a bunch of JS files) - you can do that by passing once as an option. This will stop reload being call multiple times.

// start server
gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
    browserSync.init(null, {
        server: {
            baseDir: "./"
        }
    });
});

// process JS files and reload all browsers when complete.
gulp.task('js', function () {
    gulp.src('js/*js')
        .pipe(browserify())
        .pipe(uglify())
        .pipe(gulp.dest('dist/js'))
        .pipe(browserSync.reload({stream:true, once: true}));
});

// use default task to lauch BrowserSync and watch JS files
gulp.task('default', ['browser-sync'], function () {
    gulp.watch("js/*.js", ['js']);
});

Reloading manually

If the streams support doesn't suit your needs, you can fire the reload method manually by wrapping it in a task. This example will compile & auto-inject CSS just as before, but when HTML files are changed, the browsers will be reloaded instead.

// Start the server
gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
    browserSync.init(null, {
        server: {
            baseDir: "./"
        }
    });
});

// Compile SASS & auto-inject into browsers
gulp.task('sass', function () {
    gulp.src('scss/styles.scss')
        .pipe(sass({includePaths: ['scss']}))
        .pipe(gulp.dest('css'))
        .pipe(browserSync.reload({stream:true}));
});

// Reload all Browsers
gulp.task('bs-reload', function () {
    browserSync.reload();
});

// Watch scss AND html files, doing different things with each.
gulp.task('default', ['browser-sync'], function () {
    gulp.watch("scss/*.scss", ['sass']);
    gulp.watch("*.html", ['bs-reload']);
});

###Screencasts Coming soon. If you want to see anything specific covered in the screencasts, please ask me @shaneOsbourne

##Support If you've found Browser-sync useful and would like to contribute to its continued development & support, please feel free to send a donation of any size - it would be greatly appreciated!