Easy Console Framework

.NET Core library for easy building console application with command line parsing and inversion of control (IoC).
By default it's using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection (see configuration for AutoFac, custom).
It was designed for easy building application with multiple commands and low coupling.

How to use

1. Install nuget package ECF
2. Put in your program.cs this fragment:

// Program.cs
using ECF;

await new ECFHostBuilder()
    .UseDefaultCommands() // register all commands with CommandAttribute and default commands (help, exit, ...)
    .AddConfiguration(optional: true) // adds appsettings.json        
    .Configure((ctx, services, _) =>
    {
        ctx.Intro = $"This is example console application based on ECF. Version {typeof(Program).Assembly.GetName().Version}.\nType help to list available commands";
        ctx.HelpIntro = "Welcome to example program that showcases ECF framework. Enter one of command listed below";
        ctx.Prefix = "> ";
    })
    .RunAsync(args);

it will initialize and run your ECF console application

3. You can now add your first command

using ECF;

[Command("hello-world")]
class HelloWorldCommand : CommandBase
{
    private readonly IConfiguration configuration;

    [Required, Parameter("--name", "-n", Description = "Your name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public HelloWorldCommand(IConfiguration configuration)
    {
        // you can use constructor to inject services
        this.configuration = configuration;
    }

    public override void Execute()
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Hello {Name}");
    }
}

4. Run your program you should see welcome info

This is example console application based on ECF. Version 0.0.0.
Type help to list available commands

5. Invoke your command in console by typing

> hello-world -n John

Template

You can use ECF template to create new projects. Firstly you need to install template:

dotnet new install ECFTemplates

Then you can create new projects using

dotnet new ecf -o MyNewProject

Input binding

You can bind input values, while using CommandBase and AsyncCommandBase, by using Flag/Parameter/Argument attributes. Also you can add [Required] attribute to stop command from executing, if this specified input is not provided. Types of properties inside command class can be any primitive type you want (internally it will be casted from string using System.Convert class) with exception of Flags. For Flags properties need to be of type bool.

Flags

Flags can be enabled by adding specified token (ex. -f, --flag). If flag is specified in input, then proeprty will be changed to true, otherwise it will remain false.

Example usage:

> command --silent

[Flag("-s", "--silent", Description = "If specified, command will be run in silent mode.")]
public bool SilentMode { get; set; }

Parameters

Parameters are input values that are passed after specified token (ex. -p, --parameter). It is good for optional input with string or number types, however you can specify it along with [Required] attribute if you want.

Example usage:

> command --name "John Doe"

[Parameter("-n", "--name", Description = "Specify your name.")]
public string? Name { get; set; }

Arguments

Arguments are input values that are passed in order, so every Argument need to have order specified. Arguments are perfect for required input values. You can also specify Name to replace number in automatic syntax (ex. command <0> <1> => command <source_file_path> <destination_file_path>).

Example usage:

> command C:\source C:\destination

[Required, Argument(0, Name = "source_file_path", Description = "file path to file that will be copied")]
public string SourceFilePath { get; set; }

[Argument(1, Name = "destination_file_path", Description = "destination file path that the file will be copied to, if not specified it will be copied to clipboard")]
public string? DestinationFilePath { get; set; }

Hosted services

You can start hosted services in background, by installing additional package:

dotnet add package EasyConsoleFramework.HostedServices

and invoke AddHostedServices on ECFHostBuilder

// Program.cs

await new ECFHostBuilder()
    // (...)
    .AddHostedServices() 

Examples

For some other use cases please look into Example Project.

Advanced scenarios

For more advanced scenarios please refer to this section.