In this chapter, we will look at an advanced Grunt concept—the creation and implementation of a custom task. In Chapter 6, Building the Sample Project we looked at how we can create custom tasks in Gruntfile.js; now, we will look at writing a task that will be implemented and used like any of the other tasks that we have been working with throughout the book. We will write a custom task that will reside in the tasks directory, create a configuration in Gruntfile.js, and load and register the custom task. For this plugin, a gzip task will be created to illustrate how you can build and implement your own tasks. You may find it very difficult to come up with a need that has not already been met with an existing plugin created to solve the same problem. Always search NPM for existing plugins. For the rare case that you are unable to find a plugin to meet your needs, this chapter will help you grasp the scope of what needs to be done.

The topic that we are going...