rex-shell

A lightweight library for Node.js that will help developers display nice, pretty, colored messages in the console.

How to use it

1. Require it

var cli = require('rex-shell');

2. Use that sheezy like this:

At its most simple, you can just send messages directly from that.

cli("This will send a log message to the console");

Remember: Log as many things as you want!

Don't worry about whether the message is a string, object, integer, whatever. It doesn't matter at all. Any arguments you pass to rex-shell will get logged properly, no matter what. It's all about rapid development, baby!

cli("String", 42, false, ["a", 1, {foo : bar}], { baz : { bax : zap } });

Outputs

[ rex-shell: Log ] String 42 false [a, 1, {foo : bar}] { baz : { bax : zap } }

sigh Yeah, I know. Soak it up, baby. rex-shell gon' be gooood to you.

Alright let's get to the good stuff.

Simple logs

cli.log("An event happened that you shouldn't be worried about");
cli.lg("Save yourself a whole letter when calling this! You're welcome.");

Rather Important Note: As far as I can tell, most of the time people just need basic log messages. The above 3 functions will make that happen, and are identical. I just tried to get more options for people to be comfortable.

cli("Your log message here!");
cli.log("Your log message here!");
cli.lg("Your log message here!");

So yeah. Just giving you a heads up. Because I'm a nice guy like that. Anyway, carry on.

Warnings

cli.warn("Something happened that wasn't an error that you should be worried about.";

Errors

cli.error("Yeah, something actually went wrong here :(");

Success / OK

cli.ok("This is a message telling you it is all good in the hood!");
cli.success("This is an identical message, just using the word success to make people feel better");

Note: Similar to the log() functions above, these two success functions have identical output.

cli.ok("Success message");
cli.success("Success message");

That's not enough for you, eh? Ugh. Fine.

Extensible configuration options

The configuration file looks a little like this

var config = {
  nameVisible : true,
  app : {
    name : "rex-shell",
    showName : true
  },
  messages : {
    log : "Log",
    error : " Error",
    success : "Success",
    warning : "Warning",
    ok : "OK"
  }
};

And HERE is how you can make this module work better for you.

Change the application name that shows in log messages

Right now, all messages are prepended with rex-shell when they are displayed. If you want to set that to your own application name, and I highly recommend that you do, you can run this command:

cli.config.appName("Your App Name Here");

Which will change the output of cli.log("Your log here"); to

[ Your App Name Here: Log ] Your log here

If you want to just hide the name entirely, you can!

cli.config.hideName();

Which will change the output of cli.log("Your log here"); to

[ Log ] Your log here

And if you already hid it but want to bring it back, you can do that too!

cli.config.showName();

Which will change the output of cli.log("Your log here"); back to

[ Your App Name Here: Log ] Your log here

Change the message names!

Want to get crazy and change the default words that are used in console messages? Being a generous guy, I am going to let you do that as well.

cli.config.set({
  messages : {
    log : "LOGGY LOG!",
    error : "You fucked up.",
    success : "Shit went right!",
    warning : "WATCH YO ASS FOO!",
    ok : "Shit went right!"
  }
});

Now, running a basic cli.log("Your log message here"); command (assuming you already changed your application name) will output:

[ Your App Name Here: LOGGY LOG! ] Your log message here

Is that seriously still not enough? YOU are a pain in the ass. Fine.

Directly access color functions using $.

Note: The lowercase functions are regular text, the UPPERCASE functions are the bolded versions

IMPORTANT: Unlike the standard calls, the direct $ color functions only accept a single string as an argument. No objects, no arrays, none of it. Just one single thing that you can put in the center of a string. Sorry.

cli.$.red("All this text will be red");
cli.$.MAGENTA("All this text will be bolded magenta");

Here's the full list of colors and their functions:

Color | Light | Bold/Bright -------|-------|-------- Red | cli.$.red() | cli.$.RED() Green | cli.$.green() | cli.$.GREEN() Yello | cli.$.yellow() | cli.$.YELLOW() Blue | cli.$.blue() | cli.$.BLUE() Magenta | cli.$.magenta() | cli.$.MAGENTA() Cyan | cli.$.cyan() | cli.$.CYAN() White | cli.$.white() | cli.$.WHITE()

Full API Reference

All functions below assume that you have already required rex-shell as var cli = require('rex-shell');

Function | Parameters | Output Color | Purpose ------|------|-------|------- cli() | Anything | Cyan | Standard log message cli.log() | Anything | Cyan | Standard log message cli.lg() | Anything | Cyan | Standard log message cli.ok | Anything | Green | Success message cli.success() | Anything | Green | Success message cli.error() | Anything | Red | Error message cli.warn() | Anything | Yellow | Warning message cli.config.appName() | String: New Name | -- | Sets application name used in output cli.config.set() | Object: New Settings | -- | Changes configuration object. See above! cli.config.hideName() | -- | -- | Removes application name from future console output cli.config.showName() | -- | -- | Shows application name in future console output cli.$.red() | String: Message | Light Red | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.RED() | String: Message | Bright/Bold Red | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.green() | String: Message | Light Green | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.GREEN() | String: Message | Bright/Bold Green | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.yellow() | String: Message | Light Yellow | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.YELLOW() | String: Message | Bright/Bold Yellow | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.blue() | String: Message | Light Blue | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.BLUE() | String: Message | Bright/Bold Blue | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.magenta() | String: Message | Light Magenta | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.MAGENTA() | String: Message | Bright/Bold Magenta | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.cyan() | String: Message | Light Cyan | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.CYAN() | String: Message | Bright/Bold Cyan | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.white() | String: Message | Light White | Log message without frills in one color cli.$.WHITE() | String: Message | Bright/Bold White | Log message without frills in one color

Pierce Moore

Email : [email protected]
Twitter : @kiapierce