mingy

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'--'      '--' '---' '--'    '--'   `'-...-'    `-..-'     

Mingy is a cheap and cheerful command parser/server for node.js CLI tools, adventure games, MUDs, and other such endeavors.

For CLI tools, Mingy works well with node-optimist (available as "optimist" via npm). For interactive uses, Mingy includes a shell handler that lets you quickly use your commands interactively. A Mingy shell can work locally via the command line or remotely as a server.

Mingy includes a number of simple demos, in the "examples" directory, that can give you a quick idea how things work. Examples include a CLI calculator, a file navigation shell, a tiny text adventure game, the foundation of a MUD, a key/value server, and a web application using Mingy for routing.

In you use npm, simply npm install mingy to install.

Commands

In order to reap the "magic" of mingy you define a number of commands, each of which has one or more syntax forms.

Syntax forms are strings that define command usage. The syntax form look would mean the parser input look would trigger the command. The syntax look <prop> would mean the parser input look mailbox or look demon would both trigger the command (with the command's "prop" argument being set, respectively, to mailbox and demon).

Application state is stored by the parser in the env property and is relayed to commands when executed.

An example command for a text adventure game:

parser.addCommand('go')
.set('syntax', ['go <direction>'])
.set('logic', function(args, env) {

  var output = ''
  var direction = args.direction

  var location = env.locations[env.location]

  if (location.exits[direction]) {
    output += "You go " + direction + ".\n"
    env.location = location.exits[direction]
  }
  else {
    output += "You can't go that way.\n"
  }

  return output
})

Validators

Arguments can either be unvalidated, validated by type, or validated by handlers. Handlers check an argument, returning success or failure and, in the event of failure, an optional error message.

An example that could be used to validate direction arguments for the text adventure game example above:

parser.addValidator('validDirection', function(lexeme) {

  var validDirections = ['north', 'south', 'east', 'west']

  return {
    'success': (validDirections.indexOf(lexeme) != -1),
    'message': "That's not a direction I understand.\n"
  }
})

To have a validator apply to a command argument the command's syntax form(s) must prefix the name of an argument with the name of a handler and a colon. For example, to enable the above validator on the above command one would make the following change to the command:

parser.addCommand('go')
.set('syntax', ['go <validDirection:direction>'])

Validation by type is simpler. One just needs to prefix the name of an argument with the name of the type and a colon. For example:

parser.addCommand('go')
.set('syntax', ['go <string:direction>'])

Parsing

To parse command input, either the Parser.parse or Parser.parseLexemes methods are used. A response string is returned by the method (or, if the parse was unsuccessful, undefined).

Here's an example of parsing a string of text input using Parser.parse:

parser.parse('go north')

Here's an example of using Parser.parseLexemes to parse an array of unhyphenated options returned from node-optimist:

parser.parseLexemes(argv['_'])

If your commands contain asynchronous logic and you'd like command output to be handled by a callback, you can supply one in the second argument to either Parser.parse or Parser.parseLexemes. Below is an example:

parser.parse('go north', function(output) {
  console.log(output)
})

To set an environmental variable use the Parser.setEnv method:

parser.setEnv('skyIs', 'blue')

Concatenation

Normally an argument takes a single lexeme. If one wants to have an argument contain a concatenation of all subsequent lexemes adding a * after the argument name will enable this.

Note that these arguments only work when they are the last argument in a syntax form.

Below is an example:

parser.addCommand('say')
.set('syntax', ['say <string:message*>'])
.set('logic', function(args, env, stream) {

  return "You say '" + args['message*'] + "'.\n"
})

Interaction via Shell

Setting up an interactive shell is easy. Below is an example of setting up a shell with a couple of useless commands.

var welcome = "Welcome to The Shell of Futility. You can brood and shout.\n"

var parser = new Parser()

parser.addCommand('brood')
.set('syntax', ['brood'])
.set('logic', function(args) {
  return "You stare, angrily, at the floor.\n"
})

parser.addCommand('shout')
.set('syntax', ['shout'])
.set('logic', function(args) {
  return "You shout in definance and rage.\n"
})

var shell = new Shell(parser)
.set('welcome', welcome)
.set('prompt', '$ ')
.start()

Interaction via Shell Server

A shell server may be used to provide remote interactivity. The above example can function as a server simply by changing the last line to the following:

.startServer()

The shell is now accessible via telnet:

telnet localhost 8000

Dealing with Multiple Users

For multi-user shells, you may wish to use the third optional parameter that is sent to command logic. This parameter provides access to context-specific data and functions. When using the shell server a property of this parameter is the node.js stream object representing the connection of the user to your server. The shell server adds a userID property to the stream. This property can be used to differentiate between users. Please see examples/mud.js for an example of this.

Connect Middleware

Using the included Connect middleware module, Mingy can act as a request router. Please see examples/web.js for an example of this.

Initialization

To get easy access to Mingy's parser, command, and shell classes, include the folowing code:

var mingy = require('/path/to/mingy')
  , Parser = mingy.Parser
  , Command = mingy.Command
  , Shell = mingy.Shell

If you'd like to quickly specify and initialize a number of commands, you can create a hash of them and provide this hash to the parser when initializing. For example:

var commands = {
  "look": {
    "syntax": ["look"],
    "logic": function(args) {
      return "You look around."
    }
  }
}

var parser = new Parser(commands)

See the node-deja module for a more substantial example of this.

Testing

Testing requires the expresso and should.js modules (available via rpm as "expresso" and "should" respectively).

Run the tests by entering:

expresso