Watching multiple "file arrays" in gruntjs - gruntjs

Question

So in my config file, I'm statically defining the css files to watch, along with some html partials. (eventually I will minimatch with exclusions .. I'm just going with first pass right now)
Originally I was storing these in the grunt config object, but struggled to get the output I wanted, so I moved them out of the initConfig method and into the wrapping function:
Original pass:
grunt.initConfig({
cssFiles: [ ... list of files ... ],
htmlFiles: [ ... list of files ...],
watch: {
reload: {
files: ['<%= cssFiles.concat(htmlFiles).join(",") %>']
}
}
});
I tried several variations of this (with and without join), as an example.
Current "Working" version:
module.exports = function(grunt) {
var cssFiles = ['someFile.css',...'lastFile.css'],
htmlFiles = [ ... ];
grunt.initConfig({
watch: {
reload: {
files: cssFiles.concat(cshtmlFiles)
}
}
});
};
I feel like I should be able to do this without having to move my array's out of the grunt config (although I don't know WHY I feel they should stay there ... I guess I just haven't seen many Gruntfile's with code outside of initconfig)

Answer 1

I'm using a system that stores all the paths I need in a single config object, like so:
grunt.initConfig({
pathTo: {
distcss : './dist/css/master.css',
srcstyles : './lib/styles/**/*.scss',
vendor : './lib/vendor'
},
// tasks...
});
Then, I load those in via underscore templates like in your first example. If your project is structured in a good way then usually just having one minimatch pattern is enough. All my CSS ends up in lib/styles, and any misc. third party stuff is usually in lib/vendor as that is managed through Bower.
With the right directory structure and pattern you shouldn't need a large array of paths. A sample JavaScript project could look like this:
lib
└── src
├── app
└── tests
Then your minimatch pattern to lint your application and test code would just be lib/src/**/*.js, for example.
But what works for you works for you; if you've written a system that you're happy with, regardless of whether you've seen it elsewhere or not, there's no reason to change it. :-)