promptly

What is promptly?

The 'promptly' npm package is a simple utility for prompting user input in Node.js applications. It provides a straightforward way to ask for user input from the command line, with support for validation, default values, and hidden input for sensitive information.

What are promptly's main functionalities?

Basic Prompt

This feature allows you to prompt the user for input and then use that input in your application. The example code asks the user for their name and then greets them.

const promptly = require('promptly');

(async () => {
  const name = await promptly.prompt('Enter your name: ');
  console.log(`Hello, ${name}!`);
})();

Prompt with Default Value

This feature allows you to provide a default value for the prompt. If the user does not enter anything, the default value will be used. The example code sets 'Anonymous' as the default name.

const promptly = require('promptly');

(async () => {
  const name = await promptly.prompt('Enter your name: ', { default: 'Anonymous' });
  console.log(`Hello, ${name}!`);
})();

Hidden Input

This feature allows you to prompt the user for input without displaying what they type on the screen. This is useful for sensitive information like passwords. The example code asks for a password and hides the input.

const promptly = require('promptly');

(async () => {
  const password = await promptly.prompt('Enter your password: ', { silent: true });
  console.log('Password received.');
})();

Input Validation

This feature allows you to validate the user's input before accepting it. The example code validates that the input is a positive integer representing the user's age.

const promptly = require('promptly');

(async () => {
  const age = await promptly.prompt('Enter your age: ', {
    validator: (value) => {
      const age = parseInt(value, 10);
      if (isNaN(age) || age <= 0) {
        throw new Error('Invalid age');
      }
      return age;
    }
  });
  console.log(`You are ${age} years old.`);
})();

Other packages similar to promptly

inquirer

Inquirer.js is a powerful and flexible library for creating interactive command-line interfaces. It supports a wide range of prompt types, including input, confirm, list, rawlist, expand, checkbox, password, and editor. Compared to promptly, Inquirer.js offers more advanced features and customization options.

readline-sync

Readline-sync is a synchronous library for reading user input from the command line. It provides basic functionality for prompting user input, similar to promptly, but operates synchronously, making it simpler to use in some cases. However, it lacks some of the advanced features and flexibility of promptly.

prompt

The 'prompt' package is another library for prompting user input in Node.js. It supports various input types, validation, and default values. While it offers similar functionality to promptly, it has a more complex API and additional features like schema-based prompts.

README

promptly

Simple command line prompting utility.

Installation

$ npm install promptly

API

.prompt(message, [options])

Prompts for a value, printing the message and waiting for the input.
Returns a promise that resolves with the input.

Available options:

Name	Description	Type	Default
default	The default value to use if the user provided an empty input	string	undefined
trim	Trims the user input	boolean	true
validator	A validator or an array of validators	function/array	undefined
retry	Retry if any of the validators fail	boolean	true
silent	Do not print what the user types	boolean	false
replace	Replace each character with the specified string when silent is true	string	''
input	Input stream to read from	Stream	process.stdin
output	Output stream to write to	Stream	process.stdout
timeout	Timeout in ms	number	0
useDefaultOnTimeout	Return default value if timed out	boolean	false

The same options are available to all functions but with different default values.

Examples

• Ask for a name:

  const promptly = require('promptly');
  
  (async () => {
      const name = await promptly.prompt('Name: ');
      console.log(name);
  })();
  

• Ask for a name with a constraint (non-empty value and length > 2):

  const promptly = require('promptly');
  
  const validator = function (value) {
      if (value.length < 2) {
          throw new Error('Min length of 2');
      }
  
      return value;
  };
  
  (async () => {
      const name = await promptly.prompt('Name: ', { validator });
      // Since retry is true by default, promptly will keep asking for a name until it is valid
      // Between each prompt, the error message from the validator will be printed
      console.log('Name is:', name);
  })();
  
  

• Same as above but do not retry automatically:

  const promptly = require('promptly');
  
  const validator = function (value) {
      if (value.length < 2) {
          throw new Error('Min length of 2');
      }
  
      return value;
  };
  
  (async () => {
      try {
          const name = await promptly.prompt('Name: ', { validator, retry: false });
          console.log('Name is:', name);
      } catch (err) {
          console.error('Invalid name:')
          console.error(`- ${err.message}`);
      }
  })();
  

• Ask for a name with timeout:

  const promptly = require('promptly');
  
  (async () => {
      const name = await promptly.prompt('Name: ', { timeout: 3000 });
      console.log(name);
  })();
  

  It throws an Error("timed out") if timeout is reached and no default value is provided

Validators

The validators have two purposes: to check and transform input. They can be asynchronous or synchronous

const validator = (value) => {
    // Validation example, throwing an error when invalid
    if (value.length !== 2) {
        throw new Error('Length must be 2');
    }

    // Parse the value, modifying it
    return value.replace('aa', 'bb');
}

const asyncValidator = async (value) => {
    await myfunc();
    return value;
}

.confirm(message, [options])

Ask the user for confirmation, printing the message and waiting for the input.
Returns a promise that resolves with the answer.

Truthy values are: y, yes and 1. Falsy values are n, no, and 0.
Comparison is made in a case insensitive way.

The options are the same as prompt, except that trim defaults to false.

Examples

• Ask to confirm something important:

  const promptly = require('promptly');
  
  (async () => {
      const answer = await promptly.confirm('Are you really sure? ');
  
      console.log('Answer:', answer);
  })();
  

.choose(message, choices, [options])

Ask the user to choose between multiple choices (array of choices), printing the message and waiting for the input.
Returns a promise that resolves with the choice.

The options are the same as prompt, except that trim defaults to false.

Examples

• Ask to choose between:

  const promptly = require('promptly');
  
  (async () => {
      const choice = await promptly.choose('Do you want an apple or an orange? ', ['apple', 'orange']);
  
      console.log('Choice:', choice);
  })();
  

.password(message, [options])

Prompts for a password, printing the message and waiting for the input.
Returns a promise that resolves with the password.

The options are the same as prompt, except that trim and silent default to false and default is an empty string (to allow empty passwords).

Examples

• Ask for a password:

  const promptly = require('promptly');
  
  (async () => {
      const password = await promptly.password('Type a password: ');
  
      console.log('Password:', password);
  })();
  

• Ask for a password but mask the input with *:

  const promptly = require('promptly');
  
  (async () => {
      const password = await promptly.password('Type a password: ', { replace: '*' });
  
      console.log('Password:', password);
  })();
  

Tests

$ npm test
$ npm test -- --watch during development

License

Released under the MIT License.

Changelog

3.2.0 (2020-11-06)

Features

• add async validator test (Close #39) (#40) (917930b)

<a name="3.1.0"></a>