$ Is not defined scripts Gulp task - node.js

Question

Hi I am trying to run my scripts task in gulp. My scripts path is defined as follows:
scripts: {
coffee: [
'app/assets/scripts/**/*.coffee'
],
js: [
'src/js/*',
'src/js/**/*'
],
map: ['src/js/**/*.map']
},
My original file paths are located in root/src/js/ and I want my scripts to be placed in their minified version inside root/app/assets/scripts/.
My gulp task is as follows:
gulp.task('scripts', function() {
return gulp.src('app/scripts/**/*.js')
.pipe($.if('*.js', $.uglify({preserveComments: 'some'})))
.pipe($.sourcemaps.init())
.pipe($.concat('app.js'))
.pipe($.sourcemaps.write('./'))
.pipe(gulp.dest('app/assets/scripts'));
});
But for some reason I keep getting this error
[13:28:46] ReferenceError: $ is not defined
at Gulp.<anonymous> (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\gulpfile.js:165:9)
at module.exports (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\node_modules\gulp\node_
modules\orchestrator\lib\runTask.js:34:7)
at Gulp.Orchestrator._runTask (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\node_module
s\gulp\node_modules\orchestrator\index.js:273:3)
at Gulp.Orchestrator._runStep (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\node_module
s\gulp\node_modules\orchestrator\index.js:214:10)
at Gulp.Orchestrator.start (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\node_modules\g
ulp\node_modules\orchestrator\index.js:134:8)
at C:\Users\Myuser\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\gulp\bin\gulp.js:129:2
0
at process._tickCallback (node.js:355:11)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:503:11)
at startup (node.js:129:16)
at node.js:814:3
UPDATE
Hey I think you are both right. $ was not defined and should be $ = require('gulp-load-plugins')();. However now that I am running scripts, I get the following error:
[15:24:46] TypeError: undefined is not a function
at Gulp.<anonymous> (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\gulpfile.js:166:13)
at module.exports (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\node_modules\gulp\node_
modules\orchestrator\lib\runTask.js:34:7)
at Gulp.Orchestrator._runTask (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\node_module
s\gulp\node_modules\orchestrator\index.js:273:3)
at Gulp.Orchestrator._runStep (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\node_module
s\gulp\node_modules\orchestrator\index.js:214:10)
at Gulp.Orchestrator.start (C:\Users\Myuser\apps\myapp\node_modules\g
ulp\node_modules\orchestrator\index.js:134:8)
at C:\Users\Myuser\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\gulp\bin\gulp.js:129:2
0
at process._tickCallback (node.js:355:11)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:503:11)
at startup (node.js:129:16)
at node.js:814:3
Again, another vague error "undefined is not a function", is this explicit? Is there a $ function missing?

Answer 1

You probably need to use gulp-load-plugins package:
var $ = require('gulp-load-plugins')({lazy: true});