MenuMan

By Tyson Jones

A simple terminal-style menu for obtaining user input. Inspried heavily by inquirer.

Usage

var menu = new Menu(
    Questions.NumberInput<int>("money", "How much money do you have?", defaultValue: 33),
    Questions.TextInput("lastName", "What is your last name?", defaultValue: "Tyson"),
    Questions.ListInput("favoriteFood", "What is your favorite food?", availableFoods),
    Questions.CheckboxInput("favoriteSongs", "What are your favorite songs?", availableSongs),
    Questions.ConfirmInput("isWeird", "Are you weird?"));
    
var answers = menu.Go();
Console.WriteLine(answers.Get<int>("money")); // Prints 33 or whatever I typed in.
// Or you can cast the result manually.
Console.WriteLine((int)answers["money"]);

API

• Menu class

  Represents a menu object with a fixed number of questions. Constructed by the only available constructor.

  Constructor Signature

  public Menu(params IQuestion[] questions)

  Methods

  • Go
    • Shows the menu. Each question handed to the constructor is asked in the order they were handed to the constructor.
    • Returns a Dictionary<string, object> where the keys represents the question keys and the values represent the user's responses.

• NumberInput<T> class

  Represents a simple single-line text input that filters out all non-numeric keys and only accepts valid input for the given numeric type. Constructed by the Questions.NumericInput<T> method.

  The answers object type is T.

  Signature

  public static IQuestion NumberInput<T>(string key, string questionText, Func<Dictionary<string, object>, bool> condition = null, T? defaultValue = null) where T : struct;

  Parameters

  • T - The numeric type desired to be used for parsing and validation.
  • key - The question key.
  • questionText - The question message to display to the user.
  • condition - Optional. A predicate to determine if the question should be asked. The current answers are passed as the only parameter.
  • defaultValue - Optional. The default value of T to prompt to the user.

• ConfirmInput class

  Represents a boolean input in the form of Yes/No. Constructed by the Questions.ConfirmInput method.

  The answers object type is YesNo.

  Signature

  public static IQuestion ConfirmInput(string key, string questionText, Func<Dictionary<string, object>, bool> condition = null, YesNo defaultValue = YesNo.Yes);

  Parameters

  • key - The question key.
  • questionText - The question message to display to the user.
  • condition - Optional. A predicate to determine if the question should be asked. The current answers are passed as the only parameter.
  • defaultValue - Optional. This value will be selected if the user presses enter immediately after prompted for input.

• CheckboxInput class

  Represents a listbox for selecting multiple items. Constructed by the Questions.NumericInput method.

  The answers object type is string[].

  Signature

  public static IQuestion CheckboxInput(string key, string questionText, string[] options, Func<Dictionary<string, object>, bool> condition = null, bool allowEmptyInput = false, string[] defaultValue = null, int pageSize = 10, bool disableSearch = false, bool showSearchOptions = true);

  Parameters

  • key - The question key.
  • questionText - The question message to display to the user.
  • options - The items to display in the listbox.
  • condition - A predicate to determine if the question should be asked. The current answers are passed as the only parameter.
  • allowEmptyInput - If true, an empty string array can be returned if the user selected no items.
  • defaultValue - The items that will start out selected when the listbox is shown.
  • pageSize - An options array larger than this number will force the user to scroll to see all available choices.
  • disableSearch - If true, the user will be unable to filter the choices.
  • showSearchOptions - If false, the helper lines shown at the bottom of the terminal showing your current search mode and some selection options will not be shown.

• ListInput class

  Represents a listbox for selecting a single item. Constructed by the Questions.ListInput method.

  The answers object type is string.

  Signature

  public static IQuestion ListInput(string key, string questionText, string[] options, Func<Dictionary<string, object>, bool> condition = null, bool allowEmptyInput = false, string defaultValue = "", int pageSize = 10, bool disableSearch = false, bool showSearchOptions = true);

  Parameters

  • key - The question key.
  • questionText - The question message to display to the user.
  • options - The items to display in the listbox.
  • condition - Optional. A predicate to determine if the question should be asked. The current answers are passed as the only parameter.
  • allowEmptyInput - Optional. If true, null can be returned if the user's search term has filtered out all available items.
  • defaultValue - Optional. The default selection to highlight when the listbox is shown. If this item isn't present in the options array, the first item in the options array will be highlighted.
  • pageSize - Optional. An options array larger than this number will force the user to scroll to see all available choices.
  • disableSearch - Optional. If true, the user will be unable to filter the choices.
  • showSearchOptions - Optional. If false, the helper line shown at the bottom of the terminal showing your current search mode will not be shown.

• TextInput class

  Represents a simple single-line text input. Constructed by the Questions.TextInput method.

  The answers object type is string.

  Signature

  public static IQuestion TextInput(string key, string questionText, Func<Dictionary<string, object>, bool> condition = null, bool allowEmptyInput = false, string defaultValue = "");

  Parameters

  • key - The question key.
  • questionText - The question message to display to the user.
  • condition - Optional. A predicate to determine if the question should be asked. The current answers are passed as the only parameter.
  • allowEmptyInput - Optional. If true, the empty string is accepted as valid input.
  • defaultValue - Optional. The default string to prompt to the user.

• Get extension method

  Attempts to retrieve the value at the specified key in the answers dictionary, casting the result to T if successful and returning the default value for T if unsuccessful. If the cast is unsuccessful, an exception will be thrown.

  Signature

  public static T Get<T>(this IDictionary<string, object> dictionary, string key)

  Parameters

  • T - The type to which to cast the result.
  • dictionary - The input dictionary.
  • key - The key.