Dependencies

  • chalk: colorize the output

  • clear: clears the terminal screen

  • clui: draws command line tables, gauges and spinners

  • figlet: creates ASCII art from text

  • inquirer - create interactive command line user interface

  • minimist - parses argument options

  • preferences - manage CLI application encrypted preferences

chalk

  • chalk.<style>[.<style>...](string, [string...])

    chalk.red.bold.underline(‘Hello’, ‘World’)

  • chalk`string {<style> <style>… string} string`

    chalk`There are { bold 5280 feet } in a mile `

clear

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const clear = require('clear')
clear()

clui

Display

  • Gauge

  • PrograssBar

  • Sparklines

  • Spinners

on Terminal

figlet

Display ASCII font on Terminal

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figlet.text('Boo', {
  font: 'Ghost',
  horizontalLayout: 'default',
  verticalLayout: 'default'
}, function (err, data) {
  if (err) return console.log(err)
  return console.log(data)
})
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figlet.textSync('Boo', {
  font: 'Ghost',
  horizontalLayout: 'default',
  verticalLayout: 'default',
})

inquirer

A collection of common interactive command line user interface.

  • inquirer.prompt(questions) => promise

    • questions an Array containing Question Object(using the reactive interface, you can also pass a Rx.observable instance)

      • Question Object:
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      // {
      //   type: string, //['input', 'confirm', 'list', 'rawlist', 'expand', 'checkbox', 'password', 'editor']
      //   name: string, // the name to use when storeing the answer in the answer hash
      //   message: string|function,  // The question to print, if defined as a function, the first parameter will be the current inquirer session answer
      //   default: string|number|array|function, // default value to use
      //   choices: array|function,
      //   validate: function, // receive the user input and answers hash, should return true if the value is valid, and an error message(string) otherwise. If a false is returned, a default error message is provided.
      //   filter: function, //
      //   when: function|boolean, //
      //   pageSize: number, //
      // }

      minimist

preferences

Make CLI globally available

Add a shebang line to the top of index.js

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#!/usr/bin/env node

Then add a bin prototype to package.json.

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"bin": {
  "cli-init": "./index.js"
}