Console Menu

Simple and small library to construct and manage a page based interface in the console.

Primary use case is to build more complex interfaces in the console and being able to structure/navigate these in a tree like manner. Additional features include being able to navigate the interface when not focused (optional) as well as repeatedly updating a page until input has been detected. This library currently only works under Windows, as it uses Windows specific system calls to implement the additional features.

Preparing/Compiling the library

This library uses premake5 as its build system. Clone the repository into your project, include the library in your premake5.lua file, and link against it.

$ git clone https://github.com/BjoernBoss/console-menu.git

The lua file checks for some variables to determine the locations for its file generation:

rootLocationPath: Location of the actual build files (if variable is undefined, defaults to ./build)
rootTargetDir:    Location of the target binary files (if variable is undefined, defaults to ./bin/{config})
rootObjectDir:    Location of the intermediate object files (if variable is undefined, defaults to ./build/{config})

An alternative to using premake5 is to just include the files into the project:

console-menu.h
console-menu.cpp

No configuration is needed, appart from using C++17.

Using the library

In order to use the library the menu::Instance interface needs to be implemented:

menu::Instance
    /* called on starting of the menu session */
    - virtual void init();

    /* called on termination of the menu session */
    - virtual void teardown();

    /* called to identify the root page to be used as entry point by menu::Host */
    - virtual const char* root() = 0;

This interface describes one active menu session. Every page in your interface needs to implement the menu::Page interface:

menu::Page:
    /* called on first attachment of page to menu::Host */
    - virtual void init();

    /* called on release of page from menu::Host */
    - virtual void teardown();

    /* called when page is opened into the active page stack */
    - virtual void load();

    /* called when page is being removed from active page stack */
    - virtual void unload();

    /* called if the page implements logic between frames, needs to be activated in the menu::Layout (will be called until it returns false or the user has selected an option) */
    - virtual bool update();

    /* called to construct the actual layout of the page */
    - virtual menu::Layout construct() = 0;

    /* called to evaluate the selection of the user */
    - virtual menu::Behavior evaluate(EntryId id) = 0;

Afterwards a menu::Host object needs to be constructed, which will run the menu:

menu::Host* host = menu::Host::acquire(false);

MyInterface interface;
host->run(&interface);

host->release();

Example of the layout of one page

+-------------------------------- some header ---------------------------------+
 Some textual information
 This is still part of that information
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  [00] - exit
  [01] - return
  [02] - option 1
  [03] - option 2
  [04] - option 3
  [05] - another option
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

 Response from the last Page.
 This is some result...

select an option (CTRL + NUMPAD; abort: '+'; backspace: '-'):