mtyson/consoleui

Tiny java library that enables simple UI elements on ANSI console based terminals

Console UI

Tiny java library that provides simple UI elements on ANSI console based terminals. ConsoleUI is inspired by Inquirer.js which is written in JavaScript.

Intention

I was impressed by JavaScript based Yeoman which leads the user through the process of creating new projects by querying with a simple user interface on the console. An investigation how this is done, brought me to Inquirer.js which implements a very simple and intuitive set of controls for checkbox, list and text input.

Because I didn't found anything comparable to this in the Java eco system, I decided to write Console UI as a library with the same easy 'look and feel'. Some parts of the API are also comparable, but Console UI is not a Java clone of Inquirer.js.

Features

Console UI currently supports:

• Text input with completion and GNU ReadLine compatible editing
• Checkboxes
• Lists
• Expandable Choices (multiple key based answers for a question with help and optional list navigation)
• Yes/No-Questions

Dependencies

Console UI uses jansi and jline for the dirty console things.

Test Run

You can get an idea how the project works by looking at de.codeshelf.consoleui.Basic. You can run this by executing the following from the project root:

gradlew fatJar java -jar build/libs/consoleui-all-0.0.10.jar