Console-Builder

This is a small builder api for a console application. It supports validation, completion and history. Used libraries are jline and guava (compile and runtime).

Build status

Features

• Validation
• Completion
• Conversion
• Guava Optional support
• Extensive enum support (automatic completion, conversion and validation)
• History
• Question specific history
• IOExceptions from jline encapsulated into runtime exceptions
• Builder api
• User input as result of builder

Installation

console-builder is available on maven-central. Add the following to your pom.xml

<dependency>
    <groupId>de.eleon</groupId>
    <artifactId>console-builder</artifactId>
    <version>1.4</version>
</dependency>

Usage

Example 1 (Validation)

String firstName = ConsoleBuilder.ask("Please enter your first name")
        .validateWith(Validators.notEmpty("Empty String not allowed"))
        .validateWith(Validators.regex("[a-zA-Z0-9\\-]{2,}", "Invalid format"))
        .answer();
        
ConsoleBuilder.print("Hello " + firstName);

Result in terminal:

Please enter your first name
> |
Empty String not allowed
Invalid format
                  
Please enter your first name
> a|
Invalid format  
                  
Please enter your first name
> Dominik|
Hello Dominik

Example 2 (completion and validation, enum magic)

public enum Gender { MALE, FEMALE }
...                                
Gender gender = ConsoleBuilder.ask("Please enter your gender")
        .answer(Gender.class, "Please enter valid gender");
Console.print("Gender " + gender.toString());  

Result in terminal:

Please enter your gender     
> robot|
Please enter valid gender

Please enter your gender
> <Tab>|
female   male 
> m<Tab>| 
> male|
Gender male

Example 3 (completion, value transformation)

Integer age = ConsoleBuilder.ask("how old are you?")
        .completeWith(new StringsCompleter("22", "33", "44", "55", "66"))
        .validateWith(validateAge("please enter valid age"))
        .answer(toInteger());          
Console.print("Age " + age);  

Result in terminal:

how old are you?
> <Tab>|
22   33   44   55   66   
> 4<Tab>|
> 44|
Age 44

Example 4 (history with specific file)

String favoriteColor = ConsoleBuilder.ask("What ist your favorite color?")
        .useHistoryFrom("color")
        .answer();                                   
Console.print("Color " + color); 

Result in terminal:

What ist your favorite color?
> red|
Color red

Second run

What ist your favorite color?
> <ArrowUp>|
> red|     
Color red

Example 5, optional question. Validate only if not empty and return answer as Guava Optional

Optional<String> company = ConsoleBuilder.ask("Please enter your company name")
        .validateWith(Validators.regex("[a-zA-Z0-9\\-]{2,}", "Invalid format"))
        .useHistory()
        .optional()
        .answer();

Console.print("company: " + company.or("-");

Result in terminal:

Please enter your company name
> x
Invalid format

Please enter your company name
>
company: -

Example 6, combined questions

Person person = new Person(
        Ask.ask("Please enter first name").validateWith(Validators.notEmpty("Empty not allowed")).answer(),
        Ask.ask("Please enter gender").answer(Gender.class, "Please enter valid gender"),
        Ask.ask("Please enter age").answer(toInteger())
);

Console.print("person: " + person);

Result in terminal:

Please enter first name
> Buzz Lightyear

Please enter gender
> male 

Please enter age
> 25

person: Person{name=Buzz Lightyear, gender=MALE, age=25}

How to run console-builder-example

console-builder-example is configured to a single runnable jar with maven-assembly-plugin. Run it with

wget http://search.maven.org/remotecontent?filepath=de/eleon/console-builder-example/1.4/console-builder-example-1.4.jar

java -jar console-builder-example-1.4.jar

Known issues

exec-maven-plugin

console-builder is based on jline. Within my terminal I have problems with the combination of jline and the exec-maven-plugin. After finishing the programm, my terminal doesn't work right and I have to close it and open a new one.

Run inside of IDE

If you wan't to run it from your IDE (tested with IntelliJ Idea and Eclipse), start it with the following property.

System.setProperty("jline.terminal", "jline.UnsupportedTerminal");

Completion and history are not supported within the IDE console.