node-seeli ( C-L-I )

Object orientated, event driven CLI module

var cli = require("seeli")
 var Test = new cli.Command({
    description:"diaplays a simple hello world command"
    ,usage:[
        "Usage: cli hello --interactive",
        "Usage: cli hello --name=john",
        "Usage: cli hello --name=john --name=marry --name=paul -v screaming"
    ]
    ,flags:{
        name:{
            type:[ String, Array ]
            ,shorthand:'n'
            ,description:"The name of the person to say hello to"
        }
        ,excited: {
            type:Boolean
            ,shorthand: 'e'
            ,description:"Say hello in a very excited manner"
            ,default:false
        }
        ,volume:{
            type:String
            ,choices:['normal', 'screaming']
            ,default:'normal'
            ,shorthand:'v'
        }
    }
    ,run: function( cmd, data, cb ){
        var out = [];

        for( var x =0; x< data.name.length; x++ ){
            var value = "Hello, " + data.name[x]
            if( data.excited ){
                value += '!'
            }
            out.push( value );

        }
        out = out.join('\n');

        out = data.value == 'screaming' ? out.toUpperCase() : out;
        cb( null, out );
    }
});
cli.use('test', Test)
cli.run();

now you will have a fully functional test command with help and an interactive walk through

node cli.js help test 
node cli.js test --help
node cli.js test --interactive
node cli.js test --name=mark --name=sally --no-excited

Options

Flag Options

• type ( required ): The type of input that is expected. Boolean types to not expect input. The present of the flag implies true. Additionally, boolean flags allow for --no-<flag> to enforce false. If you want to accept muliple values, you specify type as an array with the first value being the type you which to accept. For example [String, Array ] means you will accept multiple string values.
• descrption: a description of the flag in question.
• shorthand: An options short hand flag that will be expanded out to the long hand flag.
• default: A value to return if the flag is omitted.
• choices: Used only during an interactive command. Restricts the users options only to the options specified
• skip: if set to true this flag will be omitted from the interactive command prompts
• event: if set to true the command will emit an event withe the same name as the flag with the value that was captured for that flag

Auto Help

Seeli will generate help from the usage string and flags

Asyncronous

Your defined run function will be passed a done function to be called when your command has finished. This allows you to do complex async operations ond I/O. The done callback accepts an error, if their is one, and the final output to be displayed for your command.

Events

Instances of the seeli Command or Commands the inherit from it as also instances of the EventEmitter class. By default any flag that has its event option set to true will emit an event with the value of of the flag before the run function is executed.

var EventCommand = new cli.Command({
    args:[ '--one', '--no-two']
  , flags:{
        one:{
            type:Boolean
            ,event:true
        }
        ,two:{
            type:Boolean
            ,event:true
        }
    }
  , run: function( cmd, data, done ){
      done( null, data.one && data.two )
  }
});

EventCommand.on('one', function( value ){
    assert.equal( true, value );
});

EventCommand.on('two', function( value ){
    assert.equal( false, value )
});

EventCommand.on('content', function( value ){
    assert.equal( false, value );
});

EventCommand.run( null );

Errors

Errors are handled by Node's error domains. Each command will run inside of its own domain and will emit an error event if and error is passed to the done callback from the run method.