FancyGets

This gem exists to banish crusty UX that our users endure at the command line.

For far too long we've been stuck with just gets and getc. When prompting the user with a list of choices, wouldn't it be nice to have the feel of a < select > in HTML? Or to auto-suggest options as they type? Or perhaps offer a password entry with asterisks instead of just sitting silent, which confuses many users?

Read on.

Installation

Very straightforward ... this simple entry in the Gemfile, after which make sure to run "bundle":

gem 'fancy_gets'

Or have it end up in your /usr/lib/ruby/gems/... folder with:

$ gem install fancy_gets

And at the top of any CLI app do the require and include:

require 'fancy_gets'
include FancyGets

And then you can impress all manner of people accustomed to the stark limitations of command line apps. Heck, this even makes them fun again.

gets_list

Imagine you have this cool array of beach things. Have the user pick one.

toys = ["Skimboard", "Volleyball", "Kite", "Beach Ball", "Water Gun", "Frisbee"]
picked_toy = gets_list(toys)
puts "\nBringing a #{picked_toy} sounds like loads of fun at the beach."

And perhaps a little later you'd like to ask again what they'd like, plus give a default of what they had picked before.

new_toy = gets_list(toys, picked_toy)
puts "\nCool!  This time you've brought a #{new_toy}."

If you don't prefer the default > Toy Name < prompts, feel free to have your own prefix and suffix applied to choices as the user arrows up and down, and supply your own prompt text if you like. This is the full syntax for gets_list, and the false indicates it's not doing multiple choice.

another_toy = gets_list(toys, false, nil, "==>", "<== PARTY TIME!", "Use arrows to pick something awesome.")
puts "\nSo much to love about #{another_toy}."

Another cool thing this allows is to change the color of selected items. You may want to check out Michał Kalbarczyk's colorize gem for more info.

another_toy = gets_list(toys, false, nil, "\033[1;31m", "\033[0m <==", "Use arrows to pick something awesome.")
puts "\nSo much to love about #{another_toy}."

Easy to have multiple choices, and bring back an array. In this case it already has chosen the kite and water gun.

picked_toys = gets_list(toys, true, ["Kite", "Water Gun"])
puts "\nYou've picked #{picked_toys.join(", ")}."

You can also pass in parameters as a hash, which brings even more possibility because you can pass in callbacks! Here's how to dynamically update the info line at the bottom to indicate how many things have been chosen so far:

picked_toys = gets_list(
  list: toys,
  is_multiple: true,
  chosen: [],
  prefix: "\033[1;32m>\033[1;35m> \033[0m",
  postfix: "\033[1;35m <\033[1;32m<\033[0m",
  height: 4,
  on_change: proc{ |data|
    "You have chosen #{data[:chosen].count} items"
  }
)
puts "\nAren't callbacks cool?"

You can also set a callback for on_select, which responds when people are arrowing around through the list. With the blocks in both on_change and on_select if a string is returned, it will update what is shown in the info line at the bottom.

gets_auto_suggest

Still using the same cool array of things, let's have the user see auto-suggest text as they type. As soon as the proper term appears, they can hit ENTER and the full string for that item is returned. The search is case and color insensitive.

toys = ["Skimboard", "Volleyball", "Kite", "Beach Ball", "Water Gun", "Frisbee"]
picked_toy = gets_auto_suggest(toys)
puts "\nYou chose #{picked_toy}."

And as above, you can offer a default choice. This can be set with a full or partial string.

new_toy = gets_auto_suggest(toys, picked_toy[0..2])
puts "\nChanging it up for #{new_toy}."

gets_password

The final bit of coolness is a simple guarded password entry. All variables used by the gem are local, so after returning a response any plain text which was entered does not stick around past a garbage collection.

pwd = gets_password
puts "\nI think I heard you whisper, \"#{pwd}\"."

This also allows default text to be provided, although I can't easily think of a circumstance in which that's useful. But perhaps to you it could be.

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome: https://github.com/lorint/fancy_gets.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.