Consolator

A JavaScript library for printing styled messages to the console.

Caveat

This is a proof of concept -- that a library, with a single API, can create styled console output on both the server (Node.js) and in the browser.

Installation

npm install consolator

OR

bower install consolator

How It (Currently) Works

Consolator wraps messages in POJOs (Plain Old JavaScript Objects) and then stringifies them, adding a surrounding, customizable opening and closing token -- {{{ and }}} by default.

Those strigified objects are then passed to a posting method, like Consolator.prototype.log, which outputs them to the console using the appropriate styling syntax.

Usage

Server Example:

var c = require('consolator').create();

c.log(c.time(), c.green('This demonstrates ' + c.bold('nested')) + ' styles');
c.log(c.ansi(5, 'Blinking text'));

Browser Example (supports styled output with Chrome and Firebug):

<script src="consolator.min.js"></script>

var c = new Consolator();

c.log(c.time(), c.green('This demonstrates ' + c.bold('nested')) + ' styles');
c.image('http://placekitten.com/600/400', {
  width: 300, 
  fallback: c.css({ 
    'font-size': '24px',
    'font-weight': 'bold' 
  }, 'Kitten') 
});

API

This is a placeholder for a more complete explanation.

Consolator Object

• Consolator.create(opts)

OR

• new Consolator(opts)

Options

• opts.open
• opts.close

The opening and closing tokens for stringified Consolator objects. {{{ and }}} by default.

• opts.fallbackSupport

Consolator will print unstyled messages for all browsers other than Chrome if this option is set to true. It is set to false by default. (Note: Consolator.prototype.image has a seperate mechanism for handling fallbacks.)

• opts.punctuation
• opts.boolean
• opts.brace
• opts.bracket
• opts.colon
• opts.comma
• opts.hyphen
• opts.key
• opts.number
• opts.quote
• opts.string
• opts.time
• opts.type

Any of these options can be set with a properties object like the following:

{ punctuation: { color: 'gray', 'font-weight': 'bold' }}

Posting Methods

Extensions of Console Methods

These methods are required to post the output of non-posting Consolator methods.

• Consolator.prototype.error(arguments)
• Consolator.prototype.info(arguments)
• Consolator.prototype.log(arguments)
• Consolator.prototype.warn(arguments)

Other Posting Methods

• Consolator.prototype.object(object, opts)
• Consolator.prototype.image(url, opts)

Console images are only supported by Chrome at this time. opts.fallback is a gracefully-degrading option that has the effect of a posting method, and can contain any of the non-posting methods as a part of its value. For example, { fallback: c.bold('some text') } would be a valid opts argument.

Non-posting Methods

These must be wrapped within a posting method, like Consolator.prototype.log

Colors

• Consolator.prototype.black(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.red(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.green(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.yellow(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.blue(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.magenta(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.cyan(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.gray(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.darkGray(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightRed(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightGreen(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightYellow(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightBlue (string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightMagenta(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightCyan(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.white(string|number|boolean|object)

Background Colors

• Consolator.prototype.blackBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.redBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.greenBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.yellowBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.blueBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.magentaBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.cyanBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.grayBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.darkGrayBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightRedBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightGreenBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightYellowBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightBlue Bg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightMagentaBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lightCyanBg(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.whiteBg(string|number|boolean|object)

Styles

• Consolator.prototype.bold(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.faint(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.italic(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.underline(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.blink(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.blinkFast(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.negative(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.hidden(string|number|boolean|object)
• Consolator.prototype.lineThrough(string|number|boolean|object)

Timestamp

• Consolator.prototype.time(opts)

ANSI Escape Codes (server)

• Consolator.prototype.ansi(code, string|number|boolean|object)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code

CSS (Chrome & Firebug)

• Consolator.prototype.css(properties, string|number|boolean|object)

The properties argument should take the form of an object. For example, the following would be valid:

{ padding: '0 10px', 'font-size': '14px', 'font-weight': 'bold' }

Tests

Coming soon.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2014 Michael J. Bondra < mjbondra@gmail.com >

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.