Update & Redesign ddev describe output (and ddev list and ddev version)

[andy-blum]

The ddev describe output is a bit cluttered and has some pieces missing now. Setting this issue up as meta/discussion to encourage community input.

Below is the current output for a drupal8 project 'example.com'

NAME         TYPE     LOCATION             URL                            STATUS
example.com  drupal8  ~/Sites/example.com  https://example.com.ddev.site  running

Project Information
-------------------
PHP version:      	7.3
NFS mount enabled:	true
Database type:    	mariadb
MariaDB version:  	10.2

URLs
----
https://example.com.ddev.site
https://127.0.0.1:32791
http://example.com.ddev.site
http://127.0.0.1:32792

MySQL/MariaDB Credentials
-------------------------
Username: "db", Password: "db", Default database: "db"

or use root credentials when needed: Username: "root", Password: "root"

Database hostname and port INSIDE container: db:3306
To connect to db server inside container or in project settings files:
mysql --host=db --user=db --password=db --database=db
Database hostname and port from HOST: 127.0.0.1:32790
To connect to mysql from your host machine,
mysql --host=127.0.0.1 --port=32790 --user=db --password=db --database=db

Other Services
--------------
MailHog (https):	https://example.com.ddev.site:8026
MailHog:        	http://example.com.ddev.site:8025

DDEV ROUTER STATUS: healthy
ssh-auth status: healthy

[andy-blum]

My initial complaint is regarding the output of the database credentials. I suggest:

MySQL/MariaDB Credentials
-------------------------

Username (root):  root
Password (root):  root
Username:         db
Password:         db

host:port (internal):  db:3306
host:port (external): 127.0.0.1:XXXXX

[andy-blum]

I think another immediate improvement would be to transfer the first two lines into the same table format

example.com
-------------------------------------------------
Type:               drupal8
Location:           ~/Sites/example.com
URL:                https://example.com.ddev.site
Status:             Running
-------------------------------------------------

[andy-blum]

I think it might also be worth splitting the container/server info to sit along side other relevant information, giving us 5 main sections:

• Basic Info
• Webserver Info
• Database Info
• Services/Settings/Tools/Misc
• Global DDEV status info (I don't ever use this info and wouldn't be sad to see it gone)

example.com
-------------------------------------------------
Type:               drupal8
Location:           ~/Sites/example.com
URL:                https://example.com.ddev.site
Status:             Running
-------------------------------------------------


Webserver
-------------------------------------------------
Type:               nginx-fpm
PHP version:        7.3
Docroot:            /var/html/www/web/

Aliases:            https://sample-alias.ddev.site
                    https://127.0.0.1:32791
                    http://127.0.0.1:32792
-------------------------------------------------


Database
-------------------------------------------------
Type:               mariadb v10.2

Username (root):    root
Password (root):    root
Username:           db
Password:           db

host:port (int):    db:3306
host:port (ext):    127.0.0.1:XXXXX
-------------------------------------------------


Services, Settings & Tools
-------------------------------------------------
MailHog (https):    https://example.com.ddev.site:8026
MailHog:            http://example.com.ddev.site:8025
PHPMyAdmin:         [info here if enabled]
redis:              [info here if enabled]
NFS mount:          enabled
xDebug:             enabled
-------------------------------------------------


DDEV Statuses
-------------------------------------------------
router:    healthy
ssh-auth:  healthy
-------------------------------------------------

[shaal]

I really like the clean design in the comment above (#2195 (comment))
When columns are aligned, and each section has a similar structure with title above it, it makes it very clear and easy to read.

[brianyoungblood]

Maybe this is found in another discussion but I always want to type ddev status on a project. I’m fighting the urge to do a alias for describe.

[rfay]

It would be easy to add an alias, but I'm not sure that would be helpful to everybody. You @brianyoungblood however can easily add a custom global host command that just does ddev describe. You'll like it.

[brianyoungblood]

@rfay yup exactly my urge and I’ve done other custom commands on the host as well. I was also compelled to share in hopes of this feedback. I’d rather not do a custom on this one so quickly and just change my behavior in this case unless I had others with the urge. New format of describe looks good to me as well.

[shaal]

+1 for ddev status as an alias to ddev describe.
I would use ddev status because to me it's more intuitive.

[rpkoller]

haha also a +1 from me for ddev status. yesterday when i read this thread the first time and wanted to compare the suggested with the current state, since i use ddev describe rather rarely, i first typed in ddev status by accident ;)

[rfay]

OK, you status lovers, #2955

[andrewbelcher]

I'm not much of a designer, so not sure I can give much input on that front, but one thing I would suggest considering is splitting out some of the information into a verbose mode / being able to get information about specific services. E.g.

ddev describe: Short, concise summary of all services
ddev describe -v: Full information about all services
ddev describe db: Full information about the database container
ddev describe web: Full information about the web container

I've just run ddev describe on my current project in the terminal of PHPStorm, which is at 60% of the height of my full HD monitor, and I have more than the terminal height of information, resulting in what is arguably the most important bits of information (URL and status) needing scrolling to see.

The MySQL/MariaDB Credentials in particular are quite verbose by default. And whilst I like the readability improvements of the above suggestions, they may actually make the problem worse by making the output even taller.

[andrewbelcher]

A few resources I've seen that might be helpful for others like me who are visual design challenged:

• https://blog.developer.atlassian.com/10-design-principles-for-delightful-clis/#2c19 - perhaps using colours (or as in the example ascii characters) for headers and key info
• https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/cli-style-guide#grep-parseable - perhaps not necessary if we allow the service to be an argument

Another thing that might be helpful is being able to add information in config.yaml that's project specific. Not sure if this is best at the top, bottom or both?

[andy-blum]

I like the recommendation for an expanded set of describe modes, though I'm not sure what I'd consider priority 1 for the 'short' version. Any suggestions there @andrewbelcher ?

[andrewbelcher]

I guess I would say the key bits of information for each service would be:

• name
• state (with colour coding preferably)
• primary or key urls (or equiv where relevant)
• maybe a short descriptive thing if relevant, version p

Fitting with the grep parseable, perhaps something along the lines of

Name:               example
Type:               drupal8
Location:           ~/Sites/example
URL:                https://example.ddev.site
Status:             Running
DDev router:        healthy     
ssh-auth:           healthy


| Service  | Name  | State   | URL/Port                       | Version             |
| -------- | ----- | ------- | ------------------------------ | ------------------- |
| Web      | web   | running | https://example.ddev.site      | Apache 2.4, PHP 7.3 |
| Database | db    | running | db:3306 127.0.0.1:31000        | MariaDB 10.2        |
| Solr     | solr  | error   | https://example.ddev.site:8983 | 7.5                 |
| MailHog  | -     | running | https://example.ddev.site:2026 |                     |
| Redis    | redis | running | redis:6379                     |                     |


Some configurable (but optional) descriptive text that comes from config.yaml to allow teams to set up 
helpful information for on-boarding or other common activities.

[andrewbelcher]

#2965 is a (REALLY) rough start at some of this... Fun first foray into go and contributing to DDev - I expect tests will fail as I've not even looked at that and I have some issues that I'm not familiar enough with Go / DDev's set up to sort myself, but here's the output so far: