Available on Nuget: http://nuget.org/List/Packages/ManyConsole
Thanks to Daniel González for providing some additional documentation: http://dgondotnet.blogspot.dk/2013/08/my-last-console-application-manyconsole.html
NDesk.Options is a great library for processing command-line parameters. ManyConsole extends NDesk.Options to allow building console applications that support separate commands.
If you are not familiar with NDesk.Options, you should start by using that: http://www.ndesk.org/Options. Add ManyConsole when you feel the urge to differentiate commands (you'll still need the NDesk.Options usage).
ManyConsole provides a console interface for the user to list available commands, call and get help for each.
To use ManyConsole:
- Create a command line app referencing the ManyConsole nuget.
- Have Program.Main call ConsoleCommandDispatcher (see https://github.com/fschwiet/ManyConsole/blob/master/SampleConsole/Program.cs)
- You can use ConsoleCommandDispatcher to find commands in an assembly, or not.
- To add a command to your console application, inherit from ConsoleCommand.
- See the sample comands at https://github.com/fschwiet/ManyConsole/tree/master/SampleConsole
- Commands can be forced to show the user the help text by throwing an exception of type: ConsoleHelpAsException
- There are a handful of methods you can call from the derived class's constructor to add metadata to the command. Use autocompete to find them.
Run this from NuGet Package Management Console:
Install-Package ManyConsole
Drop this in to automatically load all of the commands that we'll create next:
public class Program
{
public static int Main(string[] args)
{
var commands = GetCommands();
return ConsoleCommandDispatcher.DispatchCommand(commands, args, Console.Out);
}
public static IEnumerable<ConsoleCommand> GetCommands()
{
return ConsoleCommandDispatcher.FindCommandsInSameAssemblyAs(typeof(Program));
}
}
Create a command with one optional, one required and a short and long description:
public class PrintFileCommand : ConsoleCommand
{
private const int Success = 0;
private const int Failure = 2;
public string FileLocation { get; set; }
public bool StripCommaCharacter { get; set; }
public PrintFileCommand()
{
// Register the actual command with a simple (optional) description.
IsCommand("PrintFile", "Quick print utility.");
// Add a longer description for the help on that specific command.
HasLongDescription("This can be used to quickly read a file's contents " +
"while optionally stripping out the ',' character.");
// Required options/flags, append '=' to obtain the required value.
HasRequiredOption("f|file=", "The full path of the file.", p => FileLocation = p);
// Optional options/flags, append ':' to obtain an optional value, or null if not specified.
HasOption("s|strip:", "Strips ',' from the file before writing to output.",
t => StripCommaCharacter = t == null ? true : Convert.ToBoolean(t));
}
public override int Run(string[] remainingArguments)
{
try
{
var fileContents = File.ReadAllText(FileLocation);
if (StripCommaCharacter)
fileContents = fileContents.Replace(",", string.Empty);
Console.Out.WriteLine(fileContents);
return Success;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.Error.WriteLine(ex.Message);
Console.Error.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
return Failure;
}
}
}
Ok, now when you run it, it should work:
>ManyConsoleDocumentation PrintFile -f "C:\HelloWorld.txt"
Extra parameters specified: C:\HelloWorld.txt
'PrintFile' - Quick print utility.
This can be used to quickly read a file's contents while optionally stripping out the ',' character.
Expected usage: ManyConsoleDocumentation.exe PrintFile <options>
<options> available:
-f, --file The full path of the file.
-s, --strip Strips ',' from the file before writing to
output.
It doesn't work and thinks we specified an invalid parameter. This is because options that are followed by a parameter must have an '=' symbol, so update the two commands with f|file= and s|strip=, it should now work:
>ManyConsoleDocumentation PrintFile -f "C:\HelloWorld.txt"
Executing PrintFile (Quick print utility.):
FileLocation : C:\HelloWorld.txt
StripCommaCharacter : False
Hello, world!
>ManyConsoleDocumentation PrintFile -f "C:\HelloWorld.txt" -s true
Executing PrintFile (Quick print utility.):
FileLocation : C:\HelloWorld.txt
StripCommaCharacter : True
Hello world!
Now you can easily supply multiple commands with their own set of unique arguments:
public class EchoCommand : ConsoleCommand
{
public string ToEcho { get; set; }
public EchoCommand()
{
IsCommand("Echo", "Echo's text");
HasRequiredOption("t|text=", "The text to echo back.", t => ToEcho = t);
}
public override int Run(string[] remainingArguments)
{
Console.Out.WriteLine(ToEcho);
return 0;
}
}
Here's how the help looks, plus help for our two commands:
>ManyConsoleDocumentation help
Available commands are:
Echo - Echo's text
PrintFile - Quick print utility.
help <name> - For help with one of the above commands
>ManyConsoleDocumentation help PrintFile
'PrintFile' - Quick print utility.
This can be used to quickly read a file's contents while optionally stripping out the ',' character.
Expected usage: ManyConsoleDocumentation.exe PrintFile <options>
<options> available:
-f, --file=VALUE The full path of the file.
-s, --strip=VALUE Strips ',' from the file before writing to
output.
>ManyConsoleDocumentation help Echo
'Echo' - Echo's text
Expected usage: ManyConsoleDocumentation.exe Echo <options>
<options> available:
-t, --text=VALUE The text to echo back.