Terminal-Web

Simple command-line terminal for your browser app.

Web apps are great. But sometimes instead of all the double-clicks, mouse pointers, taps and swipes across the screen - you just want good old keyboard input. This terminal runs in a browser, desktop or mobile. It provides a simple and easy way to extend the terminal with your own commands.

Enjoy.

How to use

Include terminal.js and terminal.css in your HTML:

<script src="terminal.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="terminal.css">

Define an HTML div tag where the terminal will be contained:

<div id="terminal"></div>

Create a new terminal instance and convert the DOM element into a live terminal.

var terminal = new Terminal('terminal', {}, {});

This won't be terribly useful because by default the terminal doesn't define any commands. It's meant to be extended. Let's define some:

var terminal = new Terminal('terminal', {}, {
  execute: function(cmd, args) {
    switch (cmd) {
      case 'clear':
        terminal.clear();
        return '';

      case 'help':
        return 'Commands: clear, help, theme, version, ls, ll, cd, pwd, cat, sudo, open, rm, rmdir, mkdir, touch, echo, date, hostname, grep, tail, ping <br>';

      case 'theme':
        if (args && args[0]) {
          if (args.length > 1) return 'Too many arguments';
          else if (args[0].match(/^dark-light|dark|white|kali|ubuntu$/)) { terminal.setTheme(args[0]); return ''; }
          else return 'Invalid theme';
        }
        return terminal.getTheme();

      case 'ver':
      case 'version':
        return '1.0.2';

      default:
        // Unknown command.
        return false;
    };
  }
});

This gives us 21 commands: clear, help, theme, version, ls, ll, cd, pwd, cat, sudo, open, rm, rmdir, mkdir, touch, echo, date, hostname, grep, tail, ping. Go ahead and try it out using our live example.

Features

Welcome message

The default welcome message is empty but you can set it to be anything.

var terminal = new Terminal('terminal', {welcome: 'Welcome to awesome terminal!'}, {});

Command-line history

History is automatically kept track of. You can use up and down arrow keys to go through the command-line history, just like a standard shell.

Prompt and separator

You can change the prompt. The default is an empty prompt with a > separator. Set the prompt option to change.

var terminal = new Terminal('terminal', {prompt: 'C:\\', separator: '>'}, {});

This will display the prompt like this: C:\>

Theme

There are 6 built-in themes:

• dark-light
• dark
• white
• kali
• ubuntu
• hacker

dark-light theme is the default

dark is a clean modern theme that's white on black, while the white theme is black on white.

If you're nostalgic about the old-school CRT monitors then the dark-light theme is for you.

Set the theme in options:

var terminal = new Terminal('terminal', {theme: 'dark-light'}, {});

Or alternatively use the API to change the theme after creating the terminal object.

Command extensions

The default terminal doesn't provide any built-in commands. You must define your own set of commands. This can be done through options when creating the object.

var terminal = new Terminal('terminal', {}, {
  execute: function(cmd, args) {
    switch (cmd) {
      case 'hello':
        return 'world';

      // Place your other commands here.

      default:
        // Unknown command.
        return false;
    };
  }
});

When executing commands you can run whatever code you want. Just return a string that you want to be displayed in the terminal as the output of your command. The example above would produce:

> hello
world
> 

Return false to indicate that this is an unknown command.

You can have more than one command set and you can list them out one after another:

var terminal = new Terminal('terminal', {}, {
  execute: function(cmd, args) {
    switch (cmd) {
      case 'hello': return 'world';
      default: return false;
    };
  }
},{
  execute: function(cmd, args) {
    switch (cmd) {
      case 'echo': return args[0];
      default: return false;
    };
  }
});

You might want to use multiple command sets, for example, if your app has modules that hook into the terminal independently.

Local storage persistence

Command-line history is persisted using HTML5 local storage.

API

Clear the screen

terminal.clear();

Change the theme

terminal.setTheme('dark-light');

Sets CSS class terminal-dark-light on the terminal DOM element. The three built-in themes are dark-light, dark, white, kali, ubuntu and hacker. You can also make your own theme and pass in your theme's name into setTheme.

To retrieve the name of the active theme, use getTheme.

console.log(terminal.getTheme());

Set the prompt

terminal.setPrompt('test');

Because the default separator is $ this will display:

test>

You can set the separator in options while creating the Terminal object. At this time it's not possible to change the separator after the terminal is created.

Prompt can be changed at any time.