The Druware.CommandLineOptions project is a simple tool for quickly creating, supporting and managing a parsing and processing object for the command line options your program supports.

By default, the engine supports a base two options:

/? or --help
    Show the help, optionally for the {Command}
/v or --verbose
    Print the progress to the screen as the process runs

Your own options are added to the CommandLineOptions.json resource file ( a sample is provided in the samples folder and the full syntax for the json file is in Resource Syntax )

Getting Started

The following section will help you get started with the command line options tools and build your application to support it.

Install the Package

Using the Manage Packages option:

• Search Druware.CommandLineOptions
• Add to the project

Powershell

NuGet\Install-Package Druware.CommandLineOptions -Version 0.5.0

Create you Options Resource

• In your project, create a Resources folder ( if one does not already exist )
• Create a new .json file in the Resources folder
• Add the basic CommandLineOptions to your new .json

{
  "name": "MyNiftyProgram",
  "description": "A program that I wrote that does something",
  "options":[
    {
      "name":"User",
      "description": "Sets the user name",
      "expectsVariable": true,
      "commands": [
        "/U",
        "--user"
      ]
    },    
    {
      "name":"Binary",
      "description": "Boolean item ( not present is equal to false )",
      "expectsVariable": false,
      "commands": [
        "/B",
        "--binary"
      ]
    },
   ]
}

Include your Resource in the Project

Edit your project file, .csproj or other to include the Resource you added:

    <ItemGroup>
        <EmbeddedResource Include="Resources\MyOptions.json" />
    </ItemGroup>

Create your CommandLineOptions subclass

Add a new class to your project, the example is in C#.

public class MyOptions : CommandLineOptions
{
    public Options() { }

    public Options(string[] args) { }

    public string? User => GetOption("User")?.Value ?? "";
    public bool Binary => GetOption("Binary")?.Selected ?? false;

}

Parse your Options

In your programs startup, add the things required to initiate the parse.

        Assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
        Options = CommandLineOptions.GetInstance<Options>("MyProgram.Resources.MyOptions.json");
        Options.Parse(args);

Using your Options

With that done, when you build the application, you should be able to reference the Options.Property to fetch teh value of the property ( or it's default ) if there is no corresponding value.

Future Items to Add

Add a Required Option

Any option with the 'Required' flag set true will trigger a failure if the parse fails to find it

Add a full sample program

Create a simple sample that shows the features and how they work, as well as a couple of handy debug tools.

Change Log / History {collapsible="true"}

Version 0.5.0 - 2024.11.04

Initial release, absent example or documentation. Just enough for us to confirm usability and viability removed from our internal use package.