Curl command builder

[philwebb]

Since you can now do things like this:

$ curl start.spring.io/starter.tgz -d style=web -d style=security -d name=ui | tar -xzvf -

It might be nice if the UI dynamically build that command as you check options on the screen.

[philwebb]

Possibly also a spring init version as well?

[snicoll]

I am confused as what the user would do with the result. As we discussed, it's advertized in a recent article on our blog but that's honestly the first time I hear about the use case. It does not mean it's bad as that's what the UI and spring init do behind the scenes but I wouldn't be loud about advertizing it.

The main reason is that the dependencies Ids are magic strings and the curl option provides no assistance whatsoever (obviously). Spring init has spring init --list that shows the supported dependencies with an id and a description for each. The web UI obviously assist the user (we could even add the description as an hover element or something).

So we could generate that string and you can copy it. And then you could learn from it. Honestly, I see no reason for not using spring init and I would generate that spring init command instead of a raw curl command.

@dsyer thoughts?

[philwebb]

Reading http://spring.io/blog/2015/01/12/spring-and-angular-js-a-secure-single-page-application there is a section about "using curl". It struck me that unlike the spring init command there isn't any help for what you can do with curl. Adding to the UI would be a place to advertise the feature and help users guess the magic options.

[philwebb]

One benefit of using curl is that most users already have it. For blogs it's quite a nice way to offer a quick way to get started.

[dsyer]

More people have curl than a spring CLI. So I don't want to discourage anyone from using it (or either). A command builder on the web site would be useful IMO (for both).

[cemo]

As a feedback, I have just read blog before here and coincidentally I have created a gist for the part including curl statements.

I found that curl is pretty useful. It does not require you install something else. In a few seconds you are getting ready.

[snicoll]

Thanks for the feedback. Check also #67

[snicoll]

curl start.spring.io provides a textual help with samples and you can create your project right from the IDE.