whaaaaat 0.5.2
Collection of common interactive command line user interfaces, based on Inquirer.js
License: MIT

whaaaaat?
=========

A collection of common interactive command line user interfaces.

Table of Contents
-----------------

1. `Documentation <#documentation>`__

   1. `Installation <#installation>`__
   2. `Examples <#examples>`__
   3. `Quickstart <#quickstart>`__
   4. `Question Types <#types>`__
   5. `Question Properties <#properties>`__
   6. `User Interfaces and Styles <#styles>`__

2. `Windows Platform <#windows>`__
3. `Support <#support>`__
4. `Contributing <#contributing>`__
5. `Acknowledgments <#acknowledgements>`__
6. `License <#license>`__

Goal and Philosophy
-------------------

**``whaaaaat``** strives to be an easily embeddable and beautiful
command line interface for `Python <https://python.org/>`__.
**``whaaaaat``** wants to make it easy for existing Inquirer.js users to
write immersive command line applications in Python. We are convinced
that its feature-set is the most complete for building immersive CLI
applications. We also hope that **``whaaaaat``** proves itself useful to
Python users.

**``whaaaaat``** should ease the process of - providing *error feedback*
- *asking questions* - *parsing* input - *validating* answers - managing
*hierarchical prompts*

**Note:** **``whaaaaat``** provides the user interface and the inquiry
session flow. > If you're searching for a scaffolding utility, then
check out `banana <https://github.com/finklabs/banana>`__, the
whaaaaat's sister utility.

Documentation
-------------

Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like most Python packages whaaaaat is available on `PyPi <TODO>`__.
Simply use pip to install the whaaaaat package

.. code:: shell

    pip install whaaaaat

Quickstart
~~~~~~~~~~

Like Inquirer.js, using inquirer is structured into two simple steps:

-  you define a **list of questions** and hand them to **prompt**
-  promt returns a **list of answers**

.. code:: python

    from __future__ import print_function, unicode_literals
    from whaaaaat import prompt, print_json

    questions = [
        {
            'type': 'input',
            'name': 'first_name',
            'message': 'What\'s your first name',
        }
    ]

    answers = prompt(questions)
    print_json(answers)  # use the answers as input for your app

A good starting point from here is probably the examples section.

Examples
~~~~~~~~

Most of the examples intend to demonstrate a single question type or
feature:

-  bottom-bar.py
-  expand.py
-  list.py
-  password.py
-  when.py
-  checkbox.py
-  hierarchical.py
-  pizza.py - demonstrate using different question types
-  editor.py
-  input.py
-  rawlist.py

Question Types
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

``questions`` is a list of questions. Each question has a type.

List - ``{type: 'list'}``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Take ``type``, ``name``, ``message``, ``choices``\ [, ``default``,
``filter``] properties. (Note that default must be the choice ``index``
in the array or a choice ``value``)

.. figure:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finklabs/whaaaaat/develop/docs/images/input-prompt.png
   :alt: List prompt

   List prompt

--------------

Raw List - ``{type: 'rawlist'}``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Take ``type``, ``name``, ``message``, ``choices``\ [, ``default``,
``filter``] properties. (Note that default must the choice ``index`` in
the array)

.. figure:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finklabs/whaaaaat/develop/docs/images/raw-list.png
   :alt: Raw list prompt

   Raw list prompt

--------------

Expand - ``{type: 'expand'}``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Take ``type``, ``name``, ``message``, ``choices``\ [, ``default``]
properties. (Note that default must be the choice ``index`` in the
array. If ``default`` key not provided, then ``help`` will be used as
default choice)

Note that the ``choices`` object will take an extra parameter called
``key`` for the ``expand`` prompt. This parameter must be a single
(lowercased) character. The ``h`` option is added by the prompt and
shouldn't be defined by the user.

See ``examples/expand.py`` for a running example.

|Expand prompt closed| |Expand prompt expanded|

--------------

Checkbox - ``{type: 'checkbox'}``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Take ``type``, ``name``, ``message``, ``choices``\ [, ``filter``,
``validate``, ``default``] properties. ``default`` is expected to be an
Array of the checked choices value.

Choices marked as ``{checked: true}`` will be checked by default.

Choices whose property ``disabled`` is truthy will be unselectable. If
``disabled`` is a string, then the string will be outputted next to the
disabled choice, otherwise it'll default to ``"Disabled"``. The
``disabled`` property can also be a synchronous function receiving the
current answers as argument and returning a boolean or a string.

.. figure:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finklabs/whaaaaat/develop/docs/images/checkbox-prompt.png
   :alt: Checkbox prompt

   Checkbox prompt

--------------

Confirm - ``{type: 'confirm'}``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Take ``type``, ``name``, ``message``\ [, ``default``] properties.
``default`` is expected to be a boolean if used.

.. figure:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finklabs/whaaaaat/develop/docs/images/confirm-prompt.png
   :alt: Confirm prompt

   Confirm prompt

--------------

Input - ``{type: 'input'}``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Take ``type``, ``name``, ``message``\ [, ``default``, ``filter``,
``validate``] properties.

.. figure:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finklabs/whaaaaat/develop/docs/images/input-prompt.png
   :alt: Input prompt

   Input prompt

--------------

Password - ``{type: 'password'}``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Take ``type``, ``name``, ``message``\ [, ``default``, ``filter``,
``validate``] properties.

.. figure:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finklabs/whaaaaat/develop/docs/images/password-prompt.png
   :alt: Password prompt

   Password prompt

--------------

Editor - ``{type: 'editor'}``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Take ``type``, ``name``, ``message``\ [, ``default``, ``filter``,
``validate``] properties

Launches an instance of the users preferred editor on a temporary file.
Once the user exits their editor, the contents of the temporary file are
read in as the result. The editor to use is determined by reading the
$VISUAL or $EDITOR environment variables. If neither of those are
present, notepad (on Windows) or vim (Linux or Mac) is used.

Question Properties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A question is a dictionary containing question related values:

-  type: (String) Type of the prompt. Defaults: input - Possible values:
   input, confirm, list, rawlist, expand, checkbox, password, editor
-  name: (String) The name to use when storing the answer in the answers
   hash. If the name contains periods, it will define a path in the
   answers hash.
-  message: (String\|Function) The question to print. If defined as a
   function, the first parameter will be the current inquirer session
   answers.
-  default: (String\|Number\|Array\|Function) Default value(s) to use if
   nothing is entered, or a function that returns the default value(s).
   If defined as a function, the first parameter will be the current
   inquirer session answers.
-  choices: (Array\|Function) Choices array or a function returning a
   choices array. If defined as a function, the first parameter will be
   the current inquirer session answers. Array values can be simple
   strings, or objects containing a name (to display in list), a value
   (to save in the answers hash) and a short (to display after
   selection) properties. The choices array can also contain a
   Separator.
-  validate: (Function) Receive the user input and should return true if
   the value is valid, and an error message (String) otherwise. If false
   is returned, a default error message is provided.
-  filter: (Function) Receive the user input and return the filtered
   value to be used inside the program. The value returned will be added
   to the Answers hash.
-  when: (Function, Boolean) Receive the current user answers hash and
   should return true or false depending on whether or not this question
   should be asked. The value can also be a simple boolean.
-  pageSize: (Number) Change the number of lines that will be rendered
   when using list, rawList, expand or checkbox.

User Interfaces and Styles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TODO

Windows Platform
----------------

**``whaaaaat``** is build on prompt\_toolkit which is cross platform,
and everything that you build on top should run fine on both Unix and
Windows systems. On Windows, it uses a different event loop
(WaitForMultipleObjects instead of select), and another input and output
system. (Win32 APIs instead of pseudo-terminals and VT100.)

It's worth noting that the implementation is a "best effort of what is
possible". Both Unix and Windows terminals have their limitations. But
in general, the Unix experience will still be a little better.

For Windows, it's recommended to use either cmder or conemu.

Support
-------

Most of the questions are probably related to using a question type or
feature. Please lookup and study the appropriate examples.

Issue on Github TODO link

For many issues like for example common Python programming issues
stackoverflow might be a good place to search for an answer. TODO link

Visit the finklabs slack channel for announcements and news. TODO link

Contributing
------------

Unit test Unit test are written using pytest. Please add a unit test for
every new feature or bug fix.

Documentation Add documentation for every API change. Feel free to send
typo fixes and better docs!

We're looking to offer good support for multiple prompts and
environments. If you want to help, we'd like to keep a list of testers
for each terminal/OS so we can contact you and get feedback before
release. Let us know if you want to be added to the list.

Acknowledgments
---------------

Many thanks to our friends at Inquirer.js. We think they did a great job
developing the tooling to support the nodejs technology.

License
-------

Copyright (c) 2016-2017 Mark Fink (twitter: @markfink) Licensed under
the MIT license.

.. |Expand prompt closed| image:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finklabs/whaaaaat/develop/docs/images/expand-prompt-1.png
.. |Expand prompt expanded| image:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finklabs/whaaaaat/develop/docs/images/expand-prompt-2.png