tilda

Tiny module for building command line tools.

Features

• Human readable syntax and easy to use
• Supports custom options and commands
• Auto parse the command line arguments
• Supports reading the stdin data
• Opens prompts in the command line if the value is required but was not provided

☁️ Installation

$ npm i --save tilda

📋 Example

#!/usr/bin/env node

// ./index.js -f tux 'Hello World!'
//  ______________
// < Hello World! >
//  --------------
//    \
//     \
//         .--.
//        |o_o |
//        |:_/ |
//       //   \ \
//      (|     | )
//     /'\_   _/`\
//     \___)=(___/
//
// Help output
// -----------
//
// ./index.js --help
// Usage: cowsay <command> <text> [options]
//
// Configurable speaking cow (and a bit more)
//
// Commands:
//   list  List the cow templates.
//
// Options:
//   -e, --eye <str>      The eye string.
//   -T, --tongue <str>   The tongue string.
//   -f, --cowfile <cow>  The cowfile.
//   -v, --version        Displays version information.
//   -h, --help           Displays this help.
//
// Examples:
//   $ cowsay 'Hello there!'
//   $ cowsay -e '*-' 'Heyyy!
//   $ cowsay -T '++' 'I have a nice tongue!
//
// Well, this is just a tiny example how to use Tilda.
// Documentation can be found at https://github.com/IonicaBizau/tilda.

"use strict";

const Tilda = require("tilda")
    , cowsay = require("cowsay")
    ;

let p = new Tilda({
    name: "cowsay"
  , version: "1.0.0"
  , description: "Configurable speaking cow (and a bit more)"
  , documentation: "https://github.com/IonicaBizau/tilda"
  , examples: [
        "cowsay 'Hello there!'"
      , "cowsay -e '*-' 'Heyyy!"
      , "cowsay -T '++' 'I have a nice tongue!"
    ]
  , notes: "Well, this is just a tiny example how to use Tilda."
  , args: [{
        name: "text"
      , type: String
      , desc: "The text to display."
      , stdin: true
    }]
}, {
    stdin: true
}).option([
    {
        opts: ["eye", "e"]
      , desc: "The eye string."
      , name: "str"
    }
  , {
        opts: ["tongue", "T"]
      , desc: "The tongue string."
      , name: "str"
    }
  , {
        opts: ["cowfile", "f"]
      , desc: "The cowfile."
      , name: "cow"
      , default: "default"
    }
]).action([
    {
        name: "list"
      , desc: "List the cow templates."
      , options: [
            {
                opts: ["list", "l"],
                desc: "Display as list",
            }
        ]
    }
]).on("list", action => {
    cowsay.list((err, list) => {
        if (err) { return this.exit(err); }
        let str = list.join(action.options.list.is_provided ? "\n" : ", ")
        console.log(str);
    });
}).main(action => {
    console.log(cowsay.say({
        text: action.stdinData || action.args.text || " "
      , e: action.options.eye.value
      , T: action.options.tongue.value
      , f: action.options.cowfile.value
    }));
});

❓ Get Help

There are few ways to get help:

1. Please post questions on Stack Overflow. You can open issues with questions, as long you add a link to your Stack Overflow question.
2. For bug reports and feature requests, open issues. 🐛
3. For direct and quick help, you can use Codementor. 🚀

📝 Documentation

TildaOption(input)

The TildaOption class used for creating option objects.

Params

• Object input: An object containing the following fields:
• name (String): The option name (optional).
• description (String): The option description.
• opts (Array): An array of aliases (e.g. ["age", "a"]).
• default (Anything): The default value.
• handler (Function): The option handler which will be called when the option is found in the arguments. The first parameter is the option object and the second argument is the action where the option belongs to.
• required (Boolean): A flag representing if the option is mandatory or not (default: false).
• type (Class|String): The type class (e.g. String) or its stringified representation (e.g. "string").
• prompt (Boolean|Object): If false, it will disable the prompt even if the option is required. If it's an object, it will passed as options to prompt-sync.

Return

• TildaOption The TildaOption instance.
• description (String): The option description.
• opts (Array): An array of aliases (e.g. ["age", "a"]).
• aliases (Array): An array of strings containing the computed aliases, the single letter ones being the first (e.g. ["-n", "--name"]).
• value (null|String|DefaultValue): The option value which was found after processing the arguments.
• def (Anything): The provided default value.
• is_provided (Boolean): A flag if the option was or not been provided.
• handler (Function): The handler function.
• required (Boolean): The required value.
• type (Class|String): The option value type.
• prompt (Boolean|Object): The prompt settings..

TildaAction(info, options)

The TildaAction class used for creating action objects.

This is extended EventEmitter.

Params

• String|Object info: The path to a containing the needed information or an object containing:

• description|desc (String): The action description.

• name (String): The action name.

• bin (Object): A package.json-like bin field (optional).

• args (Array): An array of strings/objects representing the action argument names (default: []).

• examples (Array): An array of strings containing examples how to use the action.

• notes (String): Additional notes to display in the help command.

• documentation (String): Action-related documentation.

• Object options: An object containing the following fields (if provided, they have priority over the info object):

• args (Array): An array of strings/objects representing the action argument names (default: []).

• examples (Array): An array of strings containing examples how to use the action.

• notes (String): Additional notes to display in the help command.

• documentation (String): Action-related documentation.

Return

• TildaAction The TildaAction instance containing:
• options (Object): The action options.
• description (String): The action description.
• name (String): The action name.
• uniqueOpts (Array): An array of unique options in order.
• _args (Array): The action arguments.
• argNames (Array): The action argument names.
• args (Object): The arguments' values.
• examples (Array): An array of strings containing examples how to use the action.
• notes (String): Additional notes to display in the help command.
• documentation (String): Action-related documentation.
• stdinData (String): The stdin data.

readInfo(info)

Converts the info input into json output.

Params

• String|Object info: The info object or path to a json file.

Return

• Object The info object.

option(input)

Adds one or more options to the action object.

Params

• Array|Object input: An array of option objects or an object passed to the TildaOption class.

Tilda(info, options)

Creates the parser instance.

Params

• Object info: The info object passed to TildaAction.
• Object options: The options passed to TildaAction, extended with:
• defaultOptions (Array): Default and global options (default: help and version options).
• argv (Array): A cutom array of arguments to parse (default: process arguments).
• stdin (Boolean): Whether to listen for stdin data or not (default: false).

Return

• Tilda The Tilda instance containing:
• actions (Object): An object containing the action objects.
• version (String): The version (used in help and version outputs).
• argv (Array): Array of arguments to parse.
• _globalOptions (Array): The global options, appended to all the actions.
• actionNames (Array): Action names in order.

globalOption(input)

Adds a global option for all the actions.

Params

• Array|Object input: The option object.

action(input, opts)

Adds a new action.

Params

• Object input: The info object passed to TildaAction.
• Array opts: The action options.

exit(msg, code)

Exits the process.

Params

• String|Object msg: The stringified message or an object containing the error code.
• Number code: The exit code (default: 0).

parse()

Parses the arguments. This is called internally.

This emits the action names as events.

displayVersion()

Returns the version information.

Return

• String The version information.

displayHelp(action)

Displays the help output.

Params

• TildaAction action: The action you want to display help for.

main(cb)

Append a handler when the main action is used.

Params

• Function cb: The callback function.

convertTo(classConst, input, opts)

Converts an input into a class instance.

Params

• Class classConst: The class to convert to.
• Object|Array input: The object info.
• Object opts: The options object (optional).

Return

• TildaAction|TildaOption The input converted into a class instance.

😋 How to contribute

Have an idea? Found a bug? See how to contribute.

💖 Support my projects

I open-source almost everything I can, and I try to reply everyone needing help using these projects. Obviously, this takes time. You can integrate and use these projects in your applications for free! You can even change the source code and redistribute (even resell it).

However, if you get some profit from this or just want to encourage me to continue creating stuff, there are few ways you can do it:

• Starring and sharing the projects you like 🚀

• —I love books! I will remember you after years if you buy me one. 😁 📖

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• Bitcoin—You can send me bitcoins at this address (or scanning the code below): 1P9BRsmazNQcuyTxEqveUsnf5CERdq35V6

  

Thanks! ❤️

💫 Where is this library used?

If you are using this library in one of your projects, add it in this list. ✨

• 3abn—A 3ABN radio client in the terminal.
• ajs—Asynchronous templating in Node.js
• babel-it—Babelify your code before npm publish.
• blah—A command line tool to optimize the repetitive actions.
• bloggify (by Bloggify)—We make publishing easy.
• bloggify-cli—CLI for Bloggify.
• bloggify-tools—Interactive command line tool to help you win at Bloggify.
• cli-confeti—Confeti in your terminal.
• cli-confetti—Confetti in your terminal.
• cli-emoji—Big emojis in your terminal.
• cli-gh-cal—GitHub like calendar graphs in command line.
• cli-sunset—A fancy command line tool for knowing the sunset time.
• exec-limiter-cli—Run multiple shell commands in parallel, but with a limit.
• fengine (by nuintun)—A development tool for f2e
• flight-tracker—A flight tracker in your command line.
• git-stats—Local git statistics including GitHub-like contributions calendars.
• git-stats-html—Turn git-stats result into HTML output.
• git-unsaved—Scan your projects directory for dirty git repositories.
• gitlist (by lucasgatsas)—Gitlist OS
• idy-cli—CLI a for generating random string.
• machine-ip—Update your public ip information in a git repository.
• mastodon-create-account (by Sandro Hawke)—create a user account from cmd line or function call
• mastodon-get-token (by Sandro Hawke)—Do the oauth dance to get a user's access token, knowing the password.
• mastodon-register-app (by Sandro Hawke)—Do the little oauth dance to register an app
• mdy—View markdown files in the command line with ANSI styled images.
• np-init-cli—CLI for starting a new npm package.
• nuvi—Happy birthday, Nuvi!
• obj2env-cli (by Bloggify)—Create .env files in your terminal.
• packy—Set default fields in your package.json files.
• pull-from-source—Pulls the changes from the source repository in the forked one.
• ship-release—Publish new versions on GitHub and npm with ease.
• tester-init—Init tests for tester.
• tilda-cowsay—Example how to use tilda to build a cowsay app
• tilda-init—Init cli applications.
• tithe—Organize and track the tithe payments.
• vivah—Happy birthday, Linda!
• web-term—A full screen terminal in your browser.

📜 License

MIT © Ionică Bizău