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CLI Actions

Command-line interface (CLI) with custom actions and interactive prompts (e.g. composer app:action argument).

Objective

The standard composer.json file allows for the declaration of CLI scripts. The scripts can then be called from the terminal. For example,

calls the static method action-name of a PHP script registered in the composer.json.

The procedure to declare the custom Composer scripts is simple but a bit repetitive. CLI Actions simplifies that process and adds functionality to create rich interactive CLI behaviors that are defined in JSON setting files.

Getting started

Add the CLI Actions to your project.

Then, add the scripts that you want to enable from the CLI.

In your project's composer.json, add

All actions can map to the same "auto" method of CLI Actions. That is one way in which CLI Actions simplifies the declaration of custom scripts.

The next step is to define what script to run and with what parameters. The arguments to a script can also be provided via the CLI and/or by prompting the user for them. The prompter checks what arguments were given in the CLI and only prompts the user for the missing ones.

The action definitions are JSON files that define the prompts for each argument and the acceptable values for them. In addition, the arguments can require sub-arguments based on the options selected for them. CLI Actions allows for nested definitions of arguments and sub-arguments.

The actions and their parameters are defined in JSON files. By default, the files in a root-level settings/cli folder are considered. The name of the file must match the name of the action. Each file defines a possible CLI action and their arguments.

Action definition object

• class String - An optional, fully qualified, class name. If not given, the method is assumed to belong to the calling (\$this) object.
• method String - A callback method of the selected class that will be called to execute the action. The method can be static or dynamic. The method recieves an array with all user options and an array with environment options method-name(array $options, array $env). A ReflectionMethod is used to determine how to call the method of the given class. If the method is dynamic, an object of the class is created by invoking its constructor with no arguments.
• askConfirm Boolean - Whether to ask the user for confirmation to execute the action.
• value String - An optional "default" value to assume of the argument is not given. When a default value is defined, the user is not prompted for the value if the argument is not given in the CLI.
• Proceed the action based on the argument which is declared in the commandKey.
• arguments Object - KEY/VALUE pairs with the definition of all the arguments needed to execute the action. The key of each argument item is the name of the argument and the value is an object that collects the information of the argument. The valid options of the argument are as below:
  • prompt String - A message requesting a value for the argument. It is shown to the user iteratively when an argument value is not already present from the CLI options provided by the user. That is, the prompter checks what arguments were given in the CLI and only prompts the user for the missing ones. The message instructs the user to input the value.
  • index Integer - An optional CLI position for the argument. It is the absolute position with respect to all the unnamed arguments given in the CLI (starting from 0). If given, it means that the argument can be specified by name or position. If not given, the argument can only be specified by name.
  • displayType String - Enum of array and list. The way to preset the prompt message.
  • options Array - An array of strings or of option definitions. A user can select the value from the given options.
  • selectByIndex Boolean - Wether to allow the user to input the index of an option instead of its value in order to select an option when prompted for it.
• commandKey String - Optional argument name in arguments. It is an advanced behavior use to defined the class and method of the action based on a user-selected option from the given argument. For example, the action create might have a type arguments with options widget and plugin. The class and method used by create depend on whether the user wants to create a widget or a plugin. In this case, commandKey=type says that the class and method definition are to be read from the sub-action defined by widget or plugin once the user selection is known.

Option definition

The options of an action argument can be can defined in terms of an option definition object with Key/Value pairs representing a map from a sub-action name to a nested sub-action defined inline or in another file:

1. Inline - An object with a nested action definition;
2. External - The boolean true is interpreted as a nested sub-action defined in another file located at config/cli-actions/MAIN-ACTION/SUB-ACTION/.../SUB-ACTION.

Additional Properties

In addition to action definition properties, an option definition allows for the following properties:

• label String - The displayed name of the option used when prompting the user for a selection.

Example action definition

Creating a CLI for your Composer packages

Let's say you have a compose package named Publisher and you want to create a CLI for it. To do that, you have to create a class that extends the CLIActions. Let's call it, PublisherCLI. The only task of that class is to define the folders where the actions definitions are located.

That's it!

The action folder of ancestor classes are added recursively. That is, if the example PublisherCLI class extends another class that also has CLI actions, both paths return will be considered when searching for actions. Child paths are considered before parent paths.

In your project's composer.json use your own CLI class

By using your class, you will be adding your own action definitions and that of the ancestor classes of your class.

Action namespaces

It is recommended to use namespaces when defining actions. In the command line, an action namespace is given in the form A:B, where A is the namespace and B is the action name. The namespaces are evaluated as sub-folders. For example, if the command is

CLI Actions will try to load a settings file named update.json in a parent folder named app. By default, that would be the path settings\cli\app\update.json.

Using action namespaces is recommended in order to avoid collisions with standard composer actions, such as update and install.

The Composer event object

When a CLI Actions method is called as a result of a Composer event, a Composer\Script\Event object is provided as argument to the script callbacks defined in the composer.json file.

In some situations, the event object is needed by the action callbacks, so it is passed to them as an environment property named event. The event object can be used to obtain the Composer app object as well as information about the project.

Pre-stored extra arguments

The schema of a composer.json file allows for a special extra property.

extra: Arbitrary extra data for consumption by scripts.

CLI Actions automatically sets \$env['extra'] to the extra property of composer.json.

The extra property in composer.json can be used to set default values for arguments or to provide additional arguments that are constant for a given project.

Action methods

In addition to action definitions provided via JSON files, it is possible to defined custom methods directly by extending the CLIActions class. The method can be declared by name in composer.json. For example, assuming that PublisherCLI extends CLIActions, a methodName can be given as an action callback by:

The existence of the public method methodName is checked first and, only if it doesn't exist, a JSON action file is evaluated.

Standard Composer Events

Composer dispatches several named events during its execution process. All callbacks for all those events can be defined in by JSON action files named as the event the represent.

For example, to defined an action for the post-create-project-cmd, which occurs after the create-project command has been executed, simple create a JSON file named post-create-project-cmd.json and set the script callback for the event in the composer.json file.

In composer.json

In settings/cli/post-create-project-cmd.json

Example projects

Projects using CLI Actions.

• Uniweb API: default behavior (without custom a CLI class).
• Foreign Packages: definition of actions for standard composer events.
• GLOT Builder: defines a CLI class.
• GLOT Publisher: defines two-levels of custom CLI classes.

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit our Contributor License Agreement.

When you submit a pull request, we will determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Proximify Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.

License

Copyright (c) Proximify Inc. All rights reserved.

Licensed under the MIT license.

CLI Actions is made by Proximify. We invite the community to participate.